Tag: ASFA elections

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Results of the ASFA general elections

ASFA elections receive the highest voter turnout rates in the last decade

This past ASFA election saw the highest student engagement in the last decade, with a voter turnout rate of 14.8 per cent. Angelica Antonakopoulos, the academic coordinator for ASFA’s upcoming executive team, believes that the increased student engagement was fueled by transitioning into in-person instructions and the initiatives of those running.

“ASFA came out of the gate screaming right on social media,” said Antonakopoulos. “They also had a couple of really informative graphics, explaining what you were voting for. […] So I feel like that may have enticed students, because sometimes if you get ballots for something that you don’t understand, you kind of have a tendency to cast that aside.”

The results show that the executive team will be dominated by the new student slate Supportive Foundations. Supportive Foundations will be replacing the Radical Care student slate. Antonakopoulos said students can expect simplicity, transparency, and accountability from the new slate.

“If anyone has had a little bit of interaction with ASFA, as a structure, it’s complicated,”  said Antonakopoulos. “We’re really going to sit down now and try to find ways that we can educate freshmen and other students from the get go at the beginning of the academic year and try to explain to them, this is your member association, these executives are your direct representation.”

Supportive Foundations also hopes to reinstate the scientific academic journal, and to reopen the Loyola office to make the executive team more accessible to the student body. 

Antonakopoulos says students can expect a calmer year relative to the last ASFA slate Radical Care.

“We don’t feel the need to do a school-wide strike,” said Antonakopoulos.

“Radical Care really seemed to have a big focus on mental health. They kind of came in at a bit of a tumultuous time because they had to focus on the full heat transition into in-person school.”

Students also voted in favour of a fee levy increase for the Hive Free Lunch program. The fee levy will be used to implement a new breakfast program starting next semester.
Click here for a complete breakdown of the election results.

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Hamza Muhammad elected ASFA general coordinator

Muhammad beat Meghan Grigg of the About Time slate by 96 votes.

Navleen Kaur was running unopposed and was elected as an independent councillor, with 617 votes.

The rest of the About Time Slate were successfully elected as follows:

Academic coordinator: Phoebe Lamb (won by 46 votes against Bryan Lee)

Finance coordinator: Ashley Torres (649 votes, unopposed)

Internal coordinator: Emma Mason (682 votes, unopposed)

Mobilization coordinator: Payton Mitchell (664 votes, unopposed)

Communications coordinator: Carmen Milne (679 votes, unopposed)

The About Time slate ran on a platform of fostering community, accountability and climate justice.

The newly elected team did not comment in time for publication.

 

Graphic by @sundaeghost

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JSA councillor named CEO for ASFA

Photo by Eithne Lynch.

ASFA decides after an executive stepped in for by-elections

The Arts and Science Federation of Associations (ASFA) elected a CEO to oversee the upcoming by-elections during a general council meeting Thursday Nov. 9.

Fiona Harrison-Roberts, finance executive with the Journalism Student Association (JSA) was elected to be the interim CEO for the by-election.

“We’ve had issues finding an ASFA CEO. No one applied,” said Elliott Boulanger, internal affairs and administration coordinator. The job posting was made public on ASFA’s Facebook page in September.

The position had to be filled immediately because of the upcoming by election so Boulanger took over the responsibilities of the CEO.

The role of the CEO during the by-election consists of ensuring that anyone participating in the election is complying with the rules and regulations, issuing directives on how these regulations are carried out, looking into the legitimacy of the election expenses and proposing regulation reforms to the council.

The CEO is also tasked with providing “information regarding the specifications and the carrying out of these regulations” to any person who requests it, and providing public access to “all information, reports, returns or documents relating to these regulations,” according to the job posting on ASFA’s Facebook page.

The council had to resolve three issues, the first being that no one applied for the position of CEO. The other two issues stemmed from the fact that Boulanger, an executive, had stepped into the position.

The issue with Boulanger taking on the position was that as an executive, they were in charge of hiring the CEO. Rory Blaisdell, council chairperson, recognized that this was an emergency situation where the position needed to be filled but also said “Elliot cannot hire themselves for the position.”

Boulanger made it clear that they were still actively looking for someone to fill the CEO position. “It’s not that I want to do it—I don’t. I have two jobs, classes, my internal position, I have a lot and this position is not the ideal situation on any level but the election has to happen,” they said.

Blaisdell told council that an executive could be hired, but in those cases, it has to be done by the council and not another executive. “If you are hiring an executive then you must be notwithstanding your Annex A,”—the clause that states executives cannot fill this role.

Boulanger was asked to step out of the room while council explored its options. During that time, a straw poll was conducted to see if any councillors were willing to take on the position of an interim CEO.

“I decided to volunteer for the position because I felt like it was the right thing to do,” said Harrison-Roberts. Two other councillors also volunteered for the position and when the votes were counted, Harrison-Roberts was declared the interim CEO.

The council then had to vote on a motion to notwithstand sections B, C and D from Annex A. Those sections state that current or former councillors, the executive body of any ASFA member association or any ASFA member who holds an elected or appointed position within ASFA, or one of its member associations are not eligible to hold an electoral office.

Council approved Harrison-Roberts as the official interim CEO.

The council also voted to compensate Boulanger for the work they had done thus far to the amount of $100, which came from the $400 honorarium.

The ASFA by-elections will be held from Nov. 27 to 29 and voting will be conducted online.

Photo by Eithne Lynch.

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ASFA invalidates elections

CEO blames lack of training on by-law violation

The Arts and Science Federations of Association voted on Thursday to invalidate their March election results after the election’s bylaws were broken. At the special council meeting, councilors discussed how the election’s by-laws were broken by the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Samuel Miriello, which led council to invalidate the elections. Due to this decision, the organization voted to hold a new election in November and, until then, appoint the winners of the election to interim positions corresponding to the positions they won.

Miriello told The Concordian that he organized the election to the best of his abilities. “I would’ve loved to receive feedback from the ASFA executive, but instead, many of them spoke behind my back and never brought up their concerns,” he said.

He also believes that the ASFA executive should be sharing the blame for the elections being invalid, stating the fact that they underpaid him—he claims to have made $400 for over 100 hours of work—rushed him to start the elections only two weeks after being appointed and not training him properly.

Julia Sutera Sardo, current VP internal and soon-to-be interim president believes that “if an election fails, everyone needs to take responsibility for it.” When asked about the payment, she answered that the ASFA executive council did not decide anything about the salary.

If an election fails, everyone needs to take responsibility for it – Julia Sutera Sardo.

Miriello also brought up the fact that Chris Stephens, the elections coordinator whose task is to ensure that the elections proceed correctly, should’ve spoken to Miriello before contesting. “His job is literally to make sure elections happen correctly, and yet he never once tried to speak to me,” he said.

Sutera Sardo told The Concordian that Chris Stephens is there to help the CEO with Althea Thompson who are Members Association’s CEO. “I told Samuel that if he had any questions, he can direct them to Althea and Chris because I didn’t want any conflict of interests. I only did logistics and minor details of the elections,” she said. She mentioned that she gave Miriello all the information he needed such as the CEO report from last year, the by-laws to follow and a list of phone numbers.

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ASFA elections end predictably

The annual general elections for the Arts and Science Federation of Associations wrapped up last week following three days of voting in which all candidates ran unopposed for the 2013-14 academic year.

Following a tally of the votes, all candidates were declared winners for their positions and will take them on the following academic year.

Despite initial competition during campaigning, some candidates dropped out for various reasons leaving only a single candidate in each position. Crystal Harrison, a candidate for VP academic Loyola, dropped out of the race to run as as a candidate for VP Loyola for the Concordia Student Union.

Justin Occhionero, the newly elected VP external and sustainability, told The Concordian that he was not surprised when he found himself running uncontested. He cited student apathy as an issue, but said that he hopes to use his position to reach out to students and increase participation.

“Concordia has so much more to offer than just going to class,” he said. “There is a whole other world at our university that the majority of our students should but don’t know about.”

Occhionero also said that in his time as VP external and sustainability he hopes to improve ASFA’s bylaws and also improve communication between ASFA and groups such as the CSU and the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec.

“It is important that the rights and needs of arts and science students are properly represented at all levels of student governance,” he said. “This can be achieved by consistently communicating with other student unions and hopefully collaborating with them on new campaigns and events.”

Upcoming ASFA executives:
Paul Jerajian – President
Justin Occhionero – VP external and sustainability
Sean Nolan – VP social candidate
TingLi Lucia Lorigiano – VP academic and Loyola
Francis Boyer – VP internal
Anne-Sophie Grenier – VP finance
Stéphanie Gagnon-Laberge – VP communications

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