John Hoben says he doesn’t want to get Lost in personality conflicts on the political island of the St. Thomas University students’ union.
Hoben eked out a close, 24-vote victory over Emily Sheen to become the next STUSU president.
The third-year international relations major, who described himself as a “nice guy who is easy to get along with,” has already gone about laying the groundwork for his presidency.
The four people who, on May 1, will become the new executive of the STUSU, met Saturday to start building their relationships and planning for next year.
Joining Hoben at the council table next year will be Findlay MacKay-Boyce as vice-president administration, Alex Driscoll as vice-president education, and Nicole Pozer as vice-president student life.
Hoben, who said he really enjoys watching television, ranked his top three TV shows as Lost, Arrested Development and Community.
During the meeting over the weekend, he introduced Driscoll to Community.
Hoben said since the newly-elected executive members are getting along well, he expects to get more things done than the current union.
“Because of the personality conflicts, nobody wanted to try anything big because they thought it would be just a big fight. The four of us, because we get along and [are] going to cooperate with each other, I think we’ll actually be able to get things done.”
Hoben said the only thing done this year was chartering a bus for students at Christmastime after Acadian Lines’ workers were locked out.
One of his first priorities is working on the budget for next year. STUSU budgets are drafted by the outgoing executive with input from those incoming. He wants to have funding in place for a new web position, which will create his digital bookstore. He hopes to have it online by the time school starts in the fall.
Hoben’s says it’s not up to the STUSU to simply maintain current services.
“We should be expanding and changing services. I imagine SafeRide wasn’t there from day one. That was a big initiative that someone took on and created a service that hundreds of students use.
“We should be looking at big ideas like that that are going to be around for the long term.”
He said students who didn’t vote should care about STUSU since they pay for it.
“Everyone pays, they should care who the people are that are running the organization and spending their money.”
