Students’ Union VP external position to remain vacant until October byelection

By Matty Hume, June 12 2018 —

The Students’ Union executive position of vice-president external will remain vacant until October, with the position’s responsibilities distributed between the four remaining executives.

The VP external is the SU’s representative to political bodies outside of the university, including the municipal, provincial and federal governments. It became vacant after Puncham Judge resigned for “personal reasons” in late April. Judge won the position against Emma Hopper with 52 per cent of the vote in the SU’s March general election.

The SU’s Nominations Committee attempted to fill the vacancy internally with a faculty representative from Students’ Legislative Council, but declared a “failed search.”

“After following SU procedure required to fill the vacancy left after the Vice President External resigned, Nominations Committee has declared a failed search,” read a report from vice-president operations and finance Kevin Dang ahead of the June 12 SLC meeting. “The committee would like to thank all applicants and reassure SLC that the roles and responsibilities of the VP External will be split between the four executives.”

At the June 12 SLC meeting, Dang spoke on the matter as part of his report for the Nominations Committee and said hiring an interim VP external would not be in the best interest of students.

“[We] felt after going through the process laid out and proper procedures that it would not be in the students’ best interest to hire a faculty representative,” Dang said. “We felt, as a committee, a little uncomfortable that this was rushed. Having an exec for eight weeks would be a waste of SU resources and wouldn’t allow them to participate in a meaningful way before the byelection in October.”

Dang said that there were four applicants for the position and that during the vacancy the VP external’s salary will remain in reserve as part of the VP external budget for the year.

A byelection for the VP external position will be held from Oct. 10–12, approximately 17 weeks from now. Candidate nominations will be open from Sept. 24–26.