SLC votes on four new faculty representatives
By Eula Mengullo, April 13 2023—
Last week’s Students’ Legislative Council (SLC) meeting took place on April 4. The council voted on four new faculty representatives to fill in vacant positions for arts, nursing and engineering. The new representatives were appointed on the recommendation of the Nominations Committee and required a two-thirds majority vote from the council to be formally inducted into SLC.
All of the appointed candidates received the majority “yes” votes from the council.
For the Faculty of Arts, Ruvimbo Mutyanda and Radoslav Visotski will serve as new representatives.
For the Faculty of Nursing, Kristi-Anne Wingert will serve as the new faculty representative, as well as Janela Alberto for the Schulich School of Engineering.
The new representatives will commence their contract in May until the next by-election in October.
In addition to voting on new representatives, executives also took questions and statements from gallery members during the question period.
Dawson Rowe congratulated SLC members for the accomplishments they have made during their term.
“I just wanted to get through to all members to congratulate all of you on all the hard work and dedication and achievements that you all have made over the course of your terms,” said Rowe.
“I believe that it’s very important that everyone is acknowledged for all of those achievements.”
Specifically, Rowe also called for increased acknowledgement of the former vice-president student life’s contributions as he noticed a significant lack of commendation for it. Adrian Alcantara stepped down from his role as vice-president student life in March.
In response, SU President Nicole Schmidt discussed some of the achievements that the vice-president student life portfolio was able to champion during their term. These include increased SU visibility on campus, and engagement with tri-media groups, particularly CJSW and student clubs.
“So we’ve had really strong engagement with CJSW, and also a lot of the SU clubs, because we’ve been able to have them on to the regular show. We’ve been rotating through different clubs,” said Schmidt.
“We’ve also had a lot more visibility on campus because of the VPSL this year, I know that we’ve had students feel and say not only to myself, but the other executives, that they feel the SU executives are more visible on campus and SLC is more visible on campus because of the engagement that has been occurring not only from clubs, but through campus activities and events,” Schmidt continued.
Rowe also posed a question to Vice-President External Mateusz Salmassi regarding the lack of media and student turnout at the rally held on Alberta Student Day of Action. Specifically, he was wondering what will be done for next year to ensure ideal participation.
In his response, Salmassi discussed some future plans to ensure future student demonstrations will meet expected turnouts.
“If we’re going to organize a rally post-election season and in the middle of exams, ensuring prior to that period that there is a core volunteer base,” said Salmassi.
Further, he highlighted the importance and efficacy of face-to-face student outreach.
“There’s no replacement for classroom announcements and face-to-face conversations,” he said.
For agendas, minutes and upcoming meetings, visit the SU website.