Four new representatives were elected in the St. Thomas University Students’ Union byelection on Friday that will bring a voice to minority groups at St. Thomas University.
The four representatives are Rebecca Kingston as the social inclusion representative, Kris Foreman as gender and sexual diversity representative, Bruna Porto as international student representative and Keyaira Gruben as Indigenous student representative.
The representatives are tasked with voicing the opinions and concerns of their respective communities.
“I’ve always wanted to get involved in the Students’ Union. I think it’s really important to have an inclusive environment so students can have a positive university experience,” Kingston said.
Porto said she believes having a representative for international students will help rectify some of the issues these students may encounter while attending STU.
“We need to adapt because we have problems with VISA, problems with citizenship, and the more we voice our problems then more can be done to help these students.”
Foreman, who will be representing the LGBTQ community said, “You can’t really make policies that are trans or queer-friendly unless you have trans or queer people on the panel telling you what is or is not acceptable.”
The four representatives hope that giving a voice to all the different groups and communities on the Students’ Union will benefit everyone.
“The first step we need to take is finding other groups on campus that feel they need or want representation and then contact them,” said Kingston.
Porto said she believes this position will help her meet new people.
“I’m a first-year journalism student,” she said. “It’s really important for me to meet new people as a journalist, as well as an international student. Being on STUSU and helping other international students will really help me while I’m studying at STU.”
Kingston said she was on crutches at the beginning of the year, which made her realize that something needs to be done for accessibility at STU.
“Part of my position deals with accessibility on campus. Fortunately, my ankle is fine now, but I realize that there are students that struggle with accessibility; be it academic or physical accessibility and that needs to be addressed.”
“I just want to make sure that the Students’ Union is inclusive of everyone,” Foreman said.
The representatives all agree that their new positions will help create more solid and beneficial policies on campus now that opinions from various groups will be voiced.
The last time new positions were added to STUSU was in 2014, when the first-year reps were added.
The Aquinian’s board of directors was also elected with Sarah Morin as second-year, Ben Crouse as fourth-year and Mitchell Caplin as member at-large.
Danielle Brewer was elected as this year’s grad class president.
The four new representatives will be involved in the voting and decision making process on the Students’ Union.
