SMU election set to reflect constitution changes

The Saint Mary’s Student Association is preparing to elect a new board of directors for the first time since a referendum on the SMUSA constitution.

Matt Risser will be the last VP external elected by the SMU student body

Nominations for positions in the Saint Mary's University Student Association opened last week but the election this year is going to be different. A referendum held last fall brought in some significant changes to the constitution aiming to increase efficiency and accountability.

The referendum had an 11 per cent turn-out with 67 per cent in favour of the changes. Thirteen constituency positions for specific departments have been scrapped in favour of a smaller board of directors consisting of nine members-at-large. Also, vice-presidents will be hired by the president, not elected. The president will still be elected. Matt Risser, vice president of external affairs at Saint Mary's, said hiring the executive rather than electing it will keep power struggles in check.

"What's problematic with student associations is that we all get elected the same way, but there's this notion that the president is somehow supposed to have more authority or is supposed to manage things day to day in the office."

He said these changes will also keep student council more accountable by having fewer committees. It will remove the guess work when finding a person to blame.

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Robert Finn, general manager of SMUSA, says the changes to the constitution will be easier to work with.

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SMU referendum voter turnout

"It will take some getting used to"

Robert Finn, the general manager of the association says he supports the changes to the constitution although he thinks they are vast and will take some getting used to.

"I've worked here for almost 20 years and governance model that we have is very traditional, and I might add, is often difficult to work with. I say that because the students in the leadership capacity have the largest amount of power and the least amount of experience."

To combat the high turnover in student government, students on the board of directors will be elected for two-year terms rather than just one. Both Finn and Risser feel this will create a more competent and accountable board.

"Smaller and smaller groups making decisions"

Not all students are embracing the new model. Georgia Schurman, a co-ordinator at the Saint Mary's women's centre, isn't quite sure what to think yet. She feels that frequent turn-over is necessary and that two -year terms are too long.

"When I first heard about all the changes, it made me a little uneasy," she said. "It sounds a little like decisions are going to be made by smaller and smaller groups and they need representation from all different groups. The onus is on us to make sure that people apply."

Risser acknowledged there has been some concern among students that they were not being properly represented in the association.

"The ‘at large' thing isn't designed to reduce diversity. If you look at the executive, there's no provision that one of us has to be, this or that or the other thing," he said. "Our executive has an international student, it has a woman. I think that in these nine people that there will be diversity. Maybe one year there will one demographic that isn't represented. That doesn't mean that just because you don't have a seat on this council that you are not represented in the school. You have a problem, you go to the president's office or my office and I find that students just go to who they know best anyway."

The changes to SMU's constitution are fairly novel among other university student councils in the city. Both Dalhousie University and the University of Kings College continue to have representatives from the different faculties and elect additional representatives from other societies such as the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered and Queer Students' Community at Dal. They also both have the student body vote for their executives.

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