Spring election
Vice-president education Sam Titus said this spring election is one of the most hotly contested so far. Every executive position has a number of people running and there are five candidates for St. Thomas University Students’ Union president.
The only uncontested positions at this point are the international student representative, at-large representative and grad class president.
Debates for presidential and executive candidates are being organized for Tuesday and Wednesday night this week. They are tentatively scheduled for 7 p.m. in the Off-Campus Lounge in Sir James Dunn Hall. The debate will be structured but it will also give students opportunities to ask questions to candidates.
Nomination form confusion
Chatham Hall representative Mitchell Peardon said some students were concerned regarding spring election nomination forms. Many students were unaware that certain positions required signatures from a designated demographic.
Titus said he was aware of the problem and the forms did indicate this stipulation. However, they have extended the nomination period for a few potential candidates by one day to get signatures from the right demographic.
Social inclusion representative Rebecca Kingston suggested, after consultations with the LGBTQ community, moving forward nomination forms should switch the use of “he or she” to “they.”
Changes to STUSU constitution and bylaws
Titus said he’s working on drafting some changes to the STUSU bylaws and constitution. The changes would make it so that executives could not also be residence advisors.
“This has been a problem several times … it’s really to protect students. We don’t want people to overburden themselves with work,” said Titus.
The other amendment would require future vice-presidents education to work at the university for at least 20 hours over the summer.
Community Food Smart
The first month using their own packing site, Community Food Smart had a record number of 48 orders, said vice-president student life Brianna Matchett.
The next chance for students to order will be in March, however it will be over March break and students would be required to pick up their bags the Thursday during the break.
Matchett is also looking for a new packing site as the Marshall D’Avary Hall site on University of New Brunswick’s campus was not large enough for the operation.
Matchett said rice and beans missing from last month’s Community Food Smart was an oversight and will be corrected next month.
Student and club financing
Vice-president administration Philippe Ferland said over the past two weeks budget meetings had taken place. In the meetings, $400.71 given to Ori Cordido for an Enactus trip to Halifax. Club Japan also received $120 for a food party.
They had also received some academic assistance forms, Ferland said. From those forms, Hannah Baker received $400 for a trip to Cuba. Monica Furness was also given $250 to attend an English conference in Prince Edward Island.
