Meet the CSU’s Step Up slate

A new slate is running for the upcoming CSU elections this month

NewsSean Richard — Published March 11, 2026 8 minutes

Some of these promises include implementing free food programs, expanding legal access for international students and providing subsidized housing for Concordia University students. 

The Link sat down with the slate to discuss their plans for the new year.

Ryan Assaker (he/him), general coordinator 

Ryan Assaker is the current financial coordinator of the CSU and was previously the financial coordinator of the Arts and Science Federation of Associations (ASFA).  

He believes that his experience in student politics will help him enact the goals of the slate. 

“I have a lot of on-the-ground experience in terms of understanding the systems at Concordia, understanding how everything [is placed] in the community and also at the administrative level,” Assaker said. 

The general coordinator has a seat on Concordia’s board of directors, a position Assaker said he is prepared to use to speak directly to students’ needs with the administration. 

“The main responsibility for [the] general coordinator is actually meeting up with Graham Carr [and] with the people in the administration,” he said. “We’re ready for those conversations and those confrontations.” 

Assaker wants to make the executives known to students. He said that the positions warrant student feedback due to how their policies shape student experience on campus. 

“It's a loop that we want to enforce, so hopefully we can expand that communication,” Assaker said.

Lina Elbakaye (she/her), internal affairs coordinator 

Lina Elbakaye is the president of the Political Science Student Association, a councillor on the CSU, is in Concordia's Senate and has worked in student government with many clubs on campus. 

Elbakaye said that the coordinator has a lot to manage with the responsibility of student clubs. She would like to create a club department and hire staff to have a team dedicated to addressing clubs’ needs. 

“I know that the clubs are something that is really vital for a lot of students around campus, and it's something that is really important for them for the university experience,” she said. 

Elbakaye also wants to add a recap to the CSU’s Instagram page that highlights all of the decisions councillors and executives have made. 

“Honestly, not a lot of people go on the website to read all the meeting minutes, and also, with the meeting minutes, it's kind of not really structured on the website,” she said. “A lot of them are not up to date.” 

“A lot of the issues that we’re facing are issues that are not just unique to Concordia [...] so, it’d be nice to create that kind of solidarity between student unions beyond campus.” — Saraluz Barton-Gomez, Step Up

Saraluz Barton-Gomez (she/they), external affairs and mobilization coordinator 

Saraluz Barton-Gomez is on the School of Community and Public Affairs Student Association, is a councillor on the CSU and serves in the Senate. 

She believes that her experience in the Senate will help her make student government bodies more transparent. 

“I'm excited to bridge the gap between students on the ground and these decision-making structures to have more of that transparency between both,” Barton-Gomez said. “One of my big goals is engaging students in decision making, whether that's in a more informational sense or in a participation sense.” 

Barton-Gomez also wants to help create solidarity with other universities beyond campus by creating a strong coalition of student unions outside of Concordia. 

“A lot of the issues that we're facing are issues that are not just unique to Concordia, stuff like budget cuts or reduced services,” she said. “So, it'd be nice to create that kind of solidarity between student unions beyond campus.” 

Emma Doyle (she/her), student life coordinator 

Emma Doyle has been the outreach coordinator at ASFA for two years and has worked on many events, including two Frosh weeks. 

She is excited to be working with a team of people to coordinate and plan activities on campus and believes that there is a lot more to student life than just parties and orientation events. 

“One of my personal positions that I would really look forward to bringing to the CSU is investing in more practical skill-building workshops for students,” Doyle said. “Things that are accessible, low-cost, if not free. Stuff like headshots, resume writing, partnering with the accounting association through JMSB (John Molson School of Business) to do tax workshops.” 

Doyle believes that being a part of the CSU executive means lessening the burden placed on students and that a student life coordinator can help provide a sense of community to students. 

“I got into doing outreach and events because I believed in community and organizing,” she said. 

Ateş Balsoy (he/him), sustainability coordinator

Ateş Balsoy was previously the internal coordinator at ASFA, the Geography Undergraduate Student Society’s academic coordinator and works at the CSU’s Housing and Job Resource Centre (HOJO). 

One of Balsoy’s main policy goals is to make Mackay St. fully pedestrianized to create a larger sense of community on campus. 

“The downtown campus and how it's designed is a really big barrier to building community in my opinion, because everyone just goes to their classes and then leaves,” he said. “We don't have any places to meet our friends to hang out.” 

As an international student himself, Balsoy would like to promote access to the CSU and student unions for international students. 

“I would like to involve international students to a capacity that they feel comfortable [with] and make them a part of the CSU's decision making,” he said. 

He also wants to coordinate with other CSU executives and expand on existing policies and projects, such as the Spinach Collective and The People’s Potato. 

Adey Singer (she/her), finance coordinator 

Adey Singer was the finance coordinator for the Fine Arts Student Alliance, the administrative coordinator for the Pan-African Student Union and the CSU council minute-keeper for 2025-26. 

She believes that her experience will help the rest of the executives accomplish their goals. 

“What I learned is how essential finance is to the functioning of the union and also how important administrative work is to help everything else flourish,” she said. 

Singer also wants to improve the efficiency of student club reimbursements, expand funding for CSU clubs and collaborate with different existing clubs and faculty members to increase students’ awareness of opportunities available to them.

“Something I just care a lot about is not only just doing the administrative work, but also tackling the systems and working to make those more efficient,” she said. 

Kinsey El Tanani (she/her), Loyola coordinator 

Kinsey El Tanani is currently a CSU councillor sitting on both the Loyola committee and the external committee, and an ASFA council member representing political science students. 

As a former student athlete and rugby player, Kinsey believes that her experience will help her represent student athletes, who she feels often don’t have the time to participate in student governance. 

“I found it was kind of impossible for me to be part of the school and an athlete, so I chose the school governance part, but I'm still with the community,” she said. “That's why I think I am able to do this job, because I have lived both lives.” 

El Tanani aims to increase Loyola funding, establish working groups with student athletes to secure their funds, restore early-morning and evening shuttle bus hours and provide OPUS subsidies for students. 

“Loyola is on the back burner often, but it is a community,” she said. 

Isabelle Ranger (she/her), academic and advocacy coordinator 

Isabelle Ranger is currently the lead student advocate at the CSU Advocacy Centre and sits  on the Senate. 

She said that she will use her experience at the Advocacy Centre to help her in determining what students need.

“I really got a front-line view of what the systemic failures of the administration are, where people are falling through the cracks, what do students care about, and what could be [the] next steps for making change that actually has an impact on day-to-day student life,” Ranger said. 

Ranger wants to advocate for better academic services due to inefficiencies she sees in Concordia’s university system, which she claims include a lack of accountability with departmental advisors.

“The faculty advisors are relatively well trained, but the departmental advisors—the ones that you initially emailed to go to talk to—a lot of the time are giving really conflicting information,” she said. 

Ranger would also like to work on a common framework for artificial intelligence for the university that allows students from different levels of representation to have a say in it. 

She believes that this would initiate conversation and help clear a backlog of dismissed academic misconduct charges that professors file over AI use. 

What does it mean to Step Up? 

Doyle wants to remind students who may not know what the CSU does that their decisions directly affect a student’s general experience. 

“As representatives, we affect your experience at the school, from orientation to what your curriculum looks like to justice within your department,” Doyle said. 

Elbakaye added that it is important to build a larger university community by speaking to different student associations. 

“I really got a front-line view of what the systemic failures of the administration are, where people are falling through the cracks, what do students care about, and what could be [the] next steps for making change that actually has an impact on day-to-day student life.” — Isabelle Ranger, Step Up

“I feel like that's kind of going to be helping us [as] a community, bringing everyone together and actually representing the students,” Elbakaye said. 

Assaker said that the CSU holds a lot of power in being able to enact meaningful changes for students. 

“When we mean Step Up, it means stepping up in every facet that the CSU can offer,” Assaker said. 

Students will be able to vote for the next CSU executives in the upcoming elections from March 17 to March 19.