2024 SU general election: Cumming School of Medicine representatives
In this year’s Students’ Union (SU) general election, three names will appear on the ballot for the Cumming School of Medicine Faculty representative where only two candidates will be successful. Along with the responsibilities outlined for all Students’ Legislative Council (SLC) members, faculty representatives are accountable for responsibilities particular to their role including: Reporting to students of their faculty the policies, positions and programs of the Students’ Union (SU), reporting to their faculty itself (like Dean’s Council) the policies, positions and programs of the SU, representing student constituents of their faculty at SLC, representing student constituents of their faculty on university committees and reporting to the VP Academic on matters of academic importance within their faculty.
MIRZA BEG
Mirza Beg is a third-year Biomedical Sciences student running for the Cumming School of Medicine (CSM) Representative. Beg did not interview with the Gauntlet so here is what you can expect solely based on his platform.
Beg’s main platform point is to encourage career exploration among students in the CSM. He aims to accomplish this by creating opportunities to network with people from many industries. However, it is unclear based on his platform what those opportunities would look like.
Additionally, he wants to create programs for career advice and guidance but does not specify how his proposed programs will be different from the career advising programs offered by the U of C through the Centre for Career and Personal Development (CCPD) nor the research nights and speaker events hosted by the CSM.
His second goal is to host more events to build a stronger student community among CSM students.
Overall, Beg’s platform lacks clarity and his plans are not distinguishable from commonly available services provided by the CSM and the U of C in general.
CHATEN JESSEL
Chaten Jessel is a third year medical student running for the Cumming School of Medicine (CSM) Representative position. Jessel did not interview with the Gauntlet so here is what you can expect solely based on his platform.
Jessel has served as an SU faculty representative for three terms and his current platform builds on his previous work. He aims to continue his work of advocating for open educational resources (OER’s). Jessel states that his past work has impacted 20, 000 students and collectively saved them close to one million dollars. However, he does not provide an explanation of how he was able to accomplish this.
Jessel also hopes to increase accountability to students by posting on social media about events and initiatives so that students are aware of the work that the SU is doing for them.
Lastly, Jessel hopes to work towards the inclusion of Indigenous peoples within CSM by hosting a Decolonization Health Care Congress for CSM students. The event will help students learn from indigenous leaders about reconciliation. The goal, according to Jessel, would be to increase institutional capacity.
Jessel’s platform is actionable and his past work illustrates his commitment to the students he represents.
HANNAH KIM
Hannah Kim is another representative candidate for the Cumming School of Medicine. Based on her interview with the Gauntlet, this is what students can expect from her.
Kim’s platform is comprised of increasing visibility of student wellness and mental health services at the Foothills campus, academic action and personal and professional development. She remarked that her prioritization of these points has been informed by discussion with her peers.
“Based on the conversations that I had with students in the faculty and my friends, these were some of the biggest concerns that they raised to me,” said Kim.
Aside from the Wellness Services on campus, Kim plans to increase the visibility of the Student Wellness and Advocacy Hub where they offer students counselling and mental health support. Although she did not specify how she expressed her intention of expanding the counselling services by hiring more counsellors to reduce waiting times. Moreover, she wants to create a holistic communications platform that will include a section on mental health resources.
Secondly, Kim plans to ensure that student feedback and surveys are actually implemented. She aims to do this by acting as a liaison between the faculty and students.
“This is something that I will work with on a faculty level and communicate with the Dean, as well as the academic team, to make sure that they communicate to students how exactly this feedback is being implemented and how their feedback is being taken into account.”
When it comes to experiential learning opportunities, Kim notes a disconnect in communication, hence she plans to create a central communications channel to condense the volume of information pertaining to the faculty. She did not specify how but highlighted that these will be communicated to students according to the timeliness of the events.
“What I would try to do is create a communication channel conveying all of these events, like networking opportunities, research opportunities that exist within the faculty, as well as extracurricular opportunities such as volunteering,” she said. “This communication channel will take the form of whatever the students feel they most engage in.”
Overall, although Kim’s platform points are convincing and achievable, they lack concrete ways of implementation.
All undergraduate students in the Cumming School of Medicine can vote YES or NO on their ballot for up to two candidates for FACULTY REPRESENTATIVE or ABSTAIN from voting.