Three vacant SLC positions after senate representative disqualified
By Saima Asad, October 4 2016 —
(With files from Scott Strasser)
Three empty seats now occupy Students’ Legislative Council after senate representative Kyle Schole was disqualified from his position.
Schole was disqualified for no longer being enrolled as a University of Calgary student.
“This goes for all our elected official positions. If you are not a student, then you essentially get disqualified from the position. That’s what happened with Mr. Schole,” Students’ Union president Stephan Guscott said.
Schole was one of two representatives for the SU on the U of C senate, alongside Julie Le. Their role is to represent and promote student interests on the senate.
Schole said it wasn’t an easy decision to leave SLC and expressed he wished he could have fulfilled the commitment.
“I left for a number of reasons, but primarily it was clear that someone else would be better suited to step up and fulfil the commitments that that role was going to take that I knew I wouldn’t be able to fill as fully as I wanted to,” he said.
Schole said he’s confident that whoever replaces him will get up to speed quickly.
“The process is in place to make sure that happens,” he said.
Recent resignations from social work representative Deanne Arada and veterinary medicine representative Erik Burow make up the other two vacancies in SLC.
According to Guscott, the SU has struggled recently to fill the position of social work representative. He said the faculty has experienced a large number of vacancies over the past few years.
“We are aware of that and we’re trying to address it. There are a lot of challenges for students in social work in particular, [especially] with off-campus commitments,” Guscott said.
A by-election was scheduled for the social work position last month, but no students applied to run.
As for the veterinary medicine representative position, Guscott said he received a letter from Burow citing concerns that his “academic responsibilities would conflict significantly with his ability to be an elected official.”
Burow couldn’t be reached for comment.
The three vacant seats will be filled through appointment by the SU’s nominations committee rather than a by-election.
Guscott said Burow’s resignation came just one day after the notice of nomination was posted, which means the appointment of a new faculty representative cannot go through a by-election.
“That [resignation] came one day after the notice of nomination was posted, so that one will also be filled by nominations committee through appointment,” Guscott said. “Nominations committee usually interviews the applicants. Once they pick the candidates they recommend them to SLC to make the final decision.”
Being appointed to SLC through nominations committee instead of an election means the new representatives’ roles will differ from the students they replace.
Students appointed to SLC through nominations committee aren’t elected by the student body, so they can’t vote on substantive motions or resolutions. Unlike elected officials, appointed members do not have a mandate in their position.
“They must abstain on resolutions,” Guscott said.
Any undergraduate students enrolled in the two vacant faculties can apply for the respective positions and any undergraduate student can apply for the senate representative position.