The Peak

Average student involvement plunges with Senate and BoG elections

By Kendra Wong

SFU’s annual senate and board of governors student elections began last week when the nomination period came to a close on Wednesday with mainly returning faces dominating the race to represent students on some of the most important decision making-bodies at SFU. The lack of new students raises questions concerning student involvement and accountability when it comes to the university’s issues.

On the board of governors, responsible for business within the university including property, revenue, and most importantly, policies, there are currently five people vying for the two student positions on the board.

Arry Dhillon is the only student running for re-election to the BoG, while Ravi Patel, who currently sits on the senate and the SFU Community Trust Advisory Committee is campaigning for a spot. Jonathan Brockman, the Simon Fraser Student Society’s at-large representative, Christy Garneau-Scott, a graduate student, and relatively unknown David Taylor-Eddy are also in the running for the positions.

Kevin Harding, who is currently finishing his second and final year as a student representative on the BoG, will not be running for re-election because he is graduating in June.

While the average student seems less and less interested in playing a role in changing their university, numerous current and previous SFSS directors and affiliates dominate a majority of the candidate list in the senate elections.

The senate, which is responsible for academic governance at the university, has 12 positions and 16 people campaigning to be a part of the body.

Candidates for this year’s senate elections include Kyle Acierno, Anton Bezglasnyy, Yannik Cudennec, Arry Dhillon, Andrew Fergusson, Ali Godson, Jordon Kohn, Fiona Li, Alysia MacGrotty, John Morrison III, Deigo Reyeros, and David Taylor-Eddy.

Only a select minority of students are willing to dedicate their time and effort to major decision making-bodies, most of whom began their political careers with the SFSS.

Bezglasnyy, Fergusson, and MacGrotty all currently sit on the SFSS board of directors, Godson was a former board member, while in previous years Kohn, Cudennec, and Morrison ran for positions in the SFSS.

According to MacGrotty, a major reason why SFSS board members are so involved in school politics is because there is a lot of overlap between the two groups. “We’re all students who want to increase the quality of our education, and we voice the opinions of students.”

She added that “regular” students’ lives are already hectic enough without added pressures of political involvement. “They have to work to pay for tuition, and succeed in their classes.”

Due to lack of nominations in certain faculties, Mona Law, Ravi Patel, Benjamin Lee, and Christi Garneau-Scott were acclaimed for senate for the faculty of communication, arts, and technology, faculty of education, faculty of health science, and the Graduate Studies Committee.

While the positions on the senate for the faculty of applied sciences, the faculty of environment, and the faculty of science will remain vacant, as no one came forth during the nomination period, an election will be held in the fall to attempt to fill the vacant seats.

Furthermore, the Graduate Studies Committee calls for four positions in total, two regular and two alternates. As Garneau-Scott was the only graduate to come forward, three positions will remain vacant.

Garneau-Scott claimed the reason for lack of graduate student involvement can be attribute to their demanding academic schedule. “With pressure to complete our degrees on time, there is little time for involvement outside our departments,” she stated. “By focusing on our academics, unfortunately we often lose sight of other important aspects of graduate student life including getting involved on campus.”

All candidates will have four days of official campaigning to complete (with the exception of the weekend) before online voting begins on February 10 to 12.

The board of governors will also welcome Anne Giardini, a lawyer and Weyerhaeuser Company Limited president, replacing Daniel Pekarsky, and Nancy MacKay, a former SFU business faculty member and president of MacKay & Associates, replacing Nancy McKinstry. Michael Francis, was re-elected as board chair while Bob Elton, deputy board chair, and Lynda Brown-Ganzert have both been reappointed to the board for two-year terms.