New ULSU executive council has big plans

trevor.kenney — Thu, 16 May 2013 20:50:17 +0000

The time of year has come when the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Students' Union (ULSU) has to say goodbye to the executive council members they've worked with all year and welcome a new group of council members.

This year marks a significant change for the ULSU because of a new executive council structure that has been developed that includes a vice-president external position. This new position will play an active role in advocating to all levels of government, one that until now was spread out among all the executives.

Despite the challenges the ULSU will face adjusting to this new structure and lobbying the government regarding the recent post-secondary education budget cuts, the ULSU is lucky to have such qualified and compassionate executive council members for this term.

The new ULSU executive council (L to R) Shuna Talbot, Sean Glydon, Adam Long, Michael Kawchuk and Katie Kalmar.

The new president of the Students' Union, Shuna Talbot, was previously the VP of internal affairs and is very familiar with the importance of her new role. Talbot's platform for presidency revolves around the three pillars of the ULSU, advocacy, representation and service. More specifically, her plans as president include establishing a multi-faith prayer space on campus and strengthening the ULSU's relationship with the Lethbridge College Students' Association.

Taking over Talbot's role as VP internal affairs is Adam Long, whose position has become the VP of student affairs. Over the last four years, Long has been actively involved in planning and organizing a number of events on campus, including Fresh Fest, and has also been president of the Board and Ski Club for the last two years. His goals for his term in office are to organize a club fair to take place during the middle of the first semester and to create more of a community between clubs so that they can collaborate on future endeavours.

The new VP external position is held by Sean Glydon, who has most recently been the founder and president of the Environmental Science Club, as well as an arts and science representative. Glydon's main responsibilities in this new role will be representing the ULSU at both the lobby organizations CASA (Canadian Alliance of Student Associations) and CAUS (Council of Alberta ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Students). During his term, Glydon expects to complete the ULSU external policies, achieve regulation of non-mandatory instructional fees and realize the removal of residence property taxes.

Former arts and science representative, Katie Kalmar, has become the new VP academic, a position she has been training for under the previous VP academic, Julia Adolf, acting as the student commissioner for the last year. The VP academic sits on a number of different ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ committees and is responsible for representing students in all aspects of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ community. Kalmar plans to increase the number of academic events available to students by partnering with ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ departments such as counselling services, the library and the writing centre to develop more diverse academic workshops.

Last but not least is the new VP operations and finance, Michael Kawchuk. Last year, Kawchuk sat on the ULSU's general assembly as the management representative. As a finance major, he wants to address some of the cost issues that are not deemed 'value added' costs for students and reduce these. He also wants to make the ULSU's finances more clear for the other executives and to work on finding areas where the ULSU can save money.

The ULSU is looking forward to working with all the new executive council members and is excited for the events they will organize for students, as well as the advocacy issues they will address during their terms.

This story first appeared in the May 2013 edition of the Legend. For a look at the full issue in a flipbook format, follow this link.

UNews - VP internal affairs

New ULSU executive council has big plans

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