SU By-Election 2022: Faculty of Kinesiology
By Sophia Lopez, October 7 2022—
In this year’s Students’ Union (SU) by-election, one Faculty of Kinesiology representative position is up for grabs. There are two kinesiology students running this time around, and one of them needs to secure the most amount of votes from students in order to get the position.
JESSIE DINH
Jessie Dinh is a candidate for the Faculty of Kinesiology representative position. Based on her platform and her interview with the Gauntlet, this is what students can expect from her.
Dinh is a second-year kinesiology student looking to make a change through three main platform points: action towards inclusivity, action towards academic support, and action towards mental health.
Having served as the SU Faculty of Kinesiology representative during the spring and summer, Dinh has already been working towards her first point of creating a more inclusive gym environment. While she must wait to see the results of this election in order to continue working on this project, there is already a designated space in the kinesiology complex for women, LGBTQIA2S+ members, or anyone who may feel uncomfortable using the main Fitness Centre to exercise.
“I’ve been working with Active Living on this project,” she said. “We looked towards a completely different space with the exact same equipment, if not just a little bit less, an it’s also going to be run by volunteers.”
In addition to this, she has also been working towards her second point regarding academic support by adding sessions and resources to aid students through KNES 363 — a class with a lot of complaints over the level of difficulty. She also mentioned how the associate dean of the faculty has started a review on the curriculum by listening to student voices to see if the course could be less of a requirement for kinesiology students.
After a statistical review, Dinh also came to the conclusion that continued mental health advocacy is necessary platform point to target.
“A lot of students in the Kinesiology seem to just be completely unaware of the programs and services that are offered by the university and the Students’ Union,” she said. “I feel like mental health is often overlooked in kinesiology. We’re very known as the more physical health kind of space.”
Based on her work done over the spring and summer to meet the needs of kinesiology students, and having success and progress made in her work, Dinh is a very qualified candidate who has the best interest of kinesiology students in mind.
BRANDON CHIEW
Brandon Chiew is another candidate for the Faculty of Kinesiology representative position, but he did not interview with the Gauntlet, so this is what students can expect from him solely based on his platform.
Chiew is a fourth-year kinesiology students with two goals: to help lay the groundwork for increased scholarship funding and job programs.
In order to increase the amount of scholarship opportunities for kinesiology students, Chiew plans on looking into private donations through companies and alumni.
Chiew also believes that not enough job opportunities are offered to kinesiology students, so he wants to work towards creating relationships with companies and the university in order to achieve this.
In addition to his two goals, Chiew wants to make sure that the Faculty of Kinesiology remains a prestigious but also affordable faculty.
While we can’t provide more information besides what is presented on his platform, Chiew is really passionate about keeping the Faculty of Kinesiology the top sport science school in North America and wants to support its students.
Voting in this by-election can be done via online and in-person ballot on Oct. 12, 13 and 14. Online voting can be done through the myUofC Centre. Voting opens at 9 a.m. on Oct. 12 and closes at 4 p.m. on Oct. 14. All U of C undergraduate students are eligible to vote if they are enrolled in the Fall 2022 semester. To learn more about Dinh and Chiew, visit their and the other candidates’ platforms on the SU website.