The St. Thomas University Student’s Union (STUSU) fall general election elected six new council representatives on Oct. 27, leaving five positions vacant.
Voting closed Oct. 27 and STUSU announced the election results on social media on Oct. 30.
This year’s election saw an increase in voter turnout, with 13.2 per cent of eligible students casting their votes, compared to 9.1 per cent in the previous semester’s election. The pandemic has had a negative impact on the union’s voter engagement and nominations, leading to a decline in participation. Like the last election, all six new positions were filled without any opposition.
Related: STUSU election sees candidates run unopposed, low voter turnout
This general election left almost half of available positions vacant. These positions are:
- First-year board of governors representative
- At-large representative; a student senator
- Aquinian board of directors (First-year)
- Aquinian board of directors (at-large representative)
The vacant positions will be available again during the spring general election with the exception of first-year positions, which are only available during fall elections.
Lindsay Graham, elected grad class president, was surprised to see the position had gone vacant during the spring election.
“I looked at the [STUSU] email and saw that we had no grad class president, which kind of shocked me because I thought that was a role that a lot of people would want,” said Graham.
Before being elected as grad class president Graham was STUSU’s off-campus representative in her second year. Graham ran against three other candidates during that election and expected to do the same this fall, but instead, she was the only nominee for her position
Aidan Steeves, elected first-year representative, knew that nomination numbers had been low in the past, but still thought he might have to campaign against another candidate.
“I talked to the STUSU helpdesk before I started to run … They told me that they have had lower numbers in the past, but you should always kind of be aware … that maybe someone would run against you, and I had that in the back of my mind,” said Steeves.
Both Graham and Steeves are pleased to be elected without opposition and look forward to the rest of the school year. Graham hopes to make effective communications with her graduating class.
“If I was going to be the president, my first thing would be I’d want everyone, or as many people as possible, to know about what’s coming up and what is going on,” she said.
Steeves plans to keep an open mind throughout the rest of his first year and wants to keep a keen ear to what changes his fellow first year students want to see.
“[I’m] trying to keep an open mind as much as I can … to keep my ears out on any concerns and any ideas from the first-year population,” he said.
Graham and Steeves both said for any students contemplating joining student government to “go for it.”
