USU Board candidates 2021: Telita Goile

Slogan: Trust in Telita

Colour: Black

Quiz score: 84%

Faction: Switch (Grassroots)

Telita Goile is the dark horse of this race. Though she is the lesser-known Switch candidate, Goile is a strong contender, boasting the highest quiz score. Framing herself as a left-wing candidate, she wants to combat what she views as a “misconception” that the USU is politically neutral. Instead of boycotting USU elections, as writers have argued in Honi recently, she would instead aim to harness its financial power (the USU receives twice as much funding as the SRC) and prod it in a more left-leaning direction.

She believes that the left has a “moral duty” to oppose conservatism on campus, and tells Honi that she is “always developing [her] politics to be more left every day.” In first year Goile campaigned for Liberal Brendan Ma, but spoke eloquently about the pipeline to conservatism that is rife among the larger societies on campus.

Goile is aiming to “revive student life and make our campus inclusive,” as mentioned on social media — including a re-introduced Language Exchange program and a new peer support program for international students. She would not have cut staff hours during COVID-19, saying that staff should “at the least” have been told in advance, and that reducing staff capacity during a crisis is “counter-intuitive”. She would break fiduciary duties for “dire” issues, publish the recent Transparency Policy, reform austerity measures and invest surpluses back into student programs. It might be wishful thinking, however, to achieve all this in the year after COVID-19 shoved the USU’s finances into the red.

Goile’s opposition to the new C&S funding model comes from her experience as President of POC Revue. She would also introduce consultation hours with USU staff members for C&S executives.

Well trained in the Switch stable, Goile scored 84% on our quiz. Combining her knowledge with strong factional backing, Telita stands a good chance.