04 / Leadership
Leadership
Two years on the executive of the association representing graduate students at the University of Alberta, one as Vice President Student Services and one as President.
Contents
President
University of Alberta · Graduate Students’ Association
One year leading the association representing graduate students at the University of Alberta, on a work plan built around four themes: grow, engage, advocate and reimagine.
- $8.55M
- in graduate student financial support secured over the term
- $3.4M
- returned to students through the renewed U-Pass agreement
- $400K
- saved over three years by a re-engineered health & dental plan
- $200K
- channelled into a new Community Engagement Award for course-based master’s students, with $400K committed after
Every figure is drawn from the 2024–2025 Strategic Work Plan Final Report. Wider coverage sits in the association’s news and releases.
Funding and affordability5
- Created the Course-Based Graduate Community Engagement Award, allocating $200,000 of GSA funds and distributing it with GPS in December 2024; secured commitments to sustain it through 2027.
- Held tuition down: no increase for international thesis-based students, against an administration proposal of more than 10%.
- Signed three-year MoUs with GPS and the Dean of Students securing recurring operating funding for the association.
- Submitted a tuition-fee-offset proposal covering new scholarships, Campus Food Bank support, affordable meal plans, and bursary eligibility for first-year international students.
- Drafted recommendations with Palestinian faculty and the Registrar’s Office for equitable support of displaced scholars, including admission-fee waivers.
Health, wellness and services5
- Published Under Pressure, the first comprehensive mental health report for University of Alberta graduate students, released on World Mental Health Day 2024.
- Ran the accompanying Mental Health Photo Contest, which drew over 70 submissions.
- Helped launch the pilot Graduate Peer Support Program, adopted under the Graduate Ambassador Program.
- Secured a graduate-parent discount at Bredin Early Bird child-minding, and co-signed the letter opposing withdrawal of ~$300,000/yr in university support for six affiliated daycares.
- Proposed a campus-wide food strategy.
Provincial and federal advocacy7
- Secured key exemptions under Bill 18 through sustained advocacy from May 2024, and pushed the Minister of Advanced Education toward comprehensive MNIF guidelines.
- Retained the $4,200 Canada Student Grant maximum and held federal loan levels, which came to $870M in non-repayable grants nationally.
- Issued the President’s statement on Alberta Budget 2025, on flat operating grants and a $210M cut to student financial aid.
- Co-founded CAGSAF, a new provincial advocacy alliance, with the University of Calgary GSA after AB-GPAC dissolved.
- Signed on to the Coalition of University of Alberta Associations (CUAA) with NASA, PDFA and UASU.
- Lead author on CASA’s AI policy paper, Digital Transformation: Integrating Artificial Intelligence in Canadian Post-Secondary Education.
- Recommended embedding an Indigenous lens in university-wide AI policy at the Teaching and Learning AI Subcommittee.
Governance4
- Ran a comprehensive revision of the GSA bylaws and policy for transparency and accountability, including expanding the definition of “GSA officer”.
- Proposed a two-year EDI action plan for the association’s EDI committee, and raised the November GFC motion calling on the university to uphold its EDI commitments.
- Drafted an internal finance policy and a contingency plan for a late budget approval; proposed bi-yearly performance reviews for directly elected officers.
- Pressed for a third-party investigation after police were called to campus protests; the lead investigator, the Hon. Justice Adele Kent, endorsed most of the proposed solutions in her final report.
Vice President Student Services
University of Alberta · Graduate Students’ Association
The year before the presidency, on the student services portfolio. Mental health, food security, student-parents, and the data that made the case for all three.
Data and advocacy3
- Applied machine learning to the association’s raw survey data to find trends and outliers, across a response volume that had grown from under 200 to over 830 in twelve months.
- The university took the method up. The Deputy Provost tasked a project on defining course-based programs to use the same analysis approach to work out what those students need.
- Sat with the President, VP Academic and VP External as a graduate student voice on selection committees for the Vice Provost, Dean of Students, and AVP Student Experience.
Mental health and wellbeing3
- Built the framework for the Graduate Peer Support Program across meetings with the Dean of Students and other units, and chased the funding to run it. The program launched in 2025.
- Argued for a support-worker cohort diverse enough to serve graduate students from all backgrounds and orientations.
- Worked with the President and Executive Director to negotiate down an anticipated Health & Dental premium increase, saving students hundreds of dollars in 2024–2025.
Food security3
- Supported the Campus Food Bank and the referendum to sustain its operations, while serving on its board.
- Pushed for halal and ethnic food options, and raised the visibility of food insecurity among international students.
- Advocated for the Rutherford Pantry lease agreement, and for external garden space for fresh produce with the Dean of Students.
Student-parents and campus access5
- On the Students Who Parent Working Group, argued for an academic policy that led to a graduate research internship position surveying student-parent policy across Canada.
- Advocated for family-friendly space, which produced the Rutherford Family Room on the third floor of Rutherford Library.
- Asked for more multi-faith prayer space, and for bidet installation under the university’s gender-neutral washroom initiative.
- Requested one-card pedway access for research students who work late, and pressed the city for higher bus-route frequency to campus.
- Raised the absence of graduate co-op opportunities across several university meetings.
Appointments
Appointments
Governor, Board of Governors
2024–2025University of Alberta
The GSA’s seat on the university’s highest governing body, which is where the budget decisions actually get made. The result I am proudest of from that year is no tuition increase for international graduate research students, with the university’s financial support kept in place rather than traded off against it.
Primary Delegate
2024–2025Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, Ottawa
Represented the University of Alberta GSA at CASA. That year CASA carried a dedicated graduate student ask for the first time, covering two things. Indexing Tri-Council grants to inflation, and revising the Section D comprehensive points for international students studying in Canada.
Member, Federal Policy Committee
2024–2025Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, Ottawa
Lead author on the AI policy paper CASA published that year, setting out how generative AI should be used in Canadian post-secondary education.
Digital Transformation: Integrating AI in Canadian Post-Secondary Education →Member, Graduate Advocacy Committee
2024–2025Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, Ottawa
Helped start the first graduate-student-led Graduate Forum, so graduate delegates had somewhere to present their own research rather than only lobby about it.
Board Member
2023–2024Campus Food Bank, Edmonton
Finalised the Executive Director’s new contract, rebuilt the financial accounting so the organisation met both Edmonton Food Bank requirements and provincial legislation, and helped the Food Bank run and win its first referendum with the Graduate Students’ Association.
Before Edmonton
Earlier
Secretary, Pakistan Corner
2020–2021KFUPM, Dhahran
Student Member, Pakistan Engineering Council
since 2014Lahore