The race is on for students who wish to be a part of Concordia’s governing bodies. The nomination period officially began this past Monday for students who wish to be elected to the Concordia Student Union (CSU) council, CSU executive, the university senate and the Board of Governors (BoG). Students have until March 11 at midnight to present their official nominations.
“I really urge people to present themselves as candidates,” said Stephan Herman, the chief electoral officer. “I am open to helping them in whatever capacity I can.” As of Monday night he hadn’t received any nominations.
Students interested in running for the CSU executive must put together a team of at least four candidates – one president and three VPs. This team runs together as a slate, each person running for a different position on the executive.
The current CSU vice-president communications had some advice for students who are considering running for the executive.
“They have to want to be in the CSU, they shouldn’t do it because they want the CSU to change and be more left-wing or more right-wing politically,” said Yves Engler. “People have to be ready to do a lot of work and it is not just [putting in] time but also a lot of emotional energy.”
The election will be held from March 25 to 27 with four polling stations on each campus. The slate elected will gain control of the CSU at midnight May 31. Although there is no official procedure for the transfer of power from one executive to another, there are some procedures designed to make the transfer as easy and problem free as possible.
A motion was put forth by councillor Patrice Blais at the last council meeting about organizing a CSU retreat. “At this retreat, members of the out-going executive are invited to share information with the incoming executive on the CSU dossiers and make the transfer of power as smooth as possible,” he explained.
Retreats have been done in past years but their success depends largely on how well the out-going and in-coming executives get along.
Engler said that he found last year’s retreat to be a valuable experience, one that helped him to better understand the CSU and the university’s other governing bodies, the senate and the BoG.
He believes that a smooth transition and collaboration between the two executives helps to protect the CSU.
“It is important that they bring information along [to each other] because that is how the administration wins often, they have all the memory they have been around for 15 years, whereas there are basically new people on the CSU every year.”
He added that in an ideal situation a member of this year’s executive would also be on next year’s executive bringing experience and information to the new slate. He could not confirm if any of the current executive members are preparing to run in the upcoming election.
Students interested in running in this year’s election should contact Stephan Herman at 912-7127 before the Mar. 11 deadline.
