SRC Report: Challenges Faced in Election, Next Year’s Budget and More…

The current sitting 2018-2019 SRC (CBUSU)

Suvir Singh’s Election Report:

At the SRC Meeting Friday, the man in charge of running the Students’ Union Election gave his election report. As the Chief Reporting Officer (CRO), Suvir Singh’s job was to ensure the elections were run in a fair manner in accordance to the CBUSU Elections Act.

This proved to be a difficult task with 45 candidates and the largest voter turnout in CBU history— 1600+ students voted for president and VP.

… and vote they did, more than 1600 of them (CBUSU)

The act states that counting had to be finished in one sitting, but this proved impossible for the 4-person team with 1600 people voting across 12 categories, most people being eligible to vote for 3 or 4 seats. “On the first night, we were here till almost 3 o’ clock in the morning and we only got through half the ballot boxes; I mean, it is ridiculous.”, Singh said. Announcement of results were delayed till 830pm the next day at The Pit.

Singh’s report included recommendations for what could be improved in future elections. “Moving forward, if we are going to conduct an election that is fair to everyone, we’re going to need to revamp the elections act.”

His recommendations include hiring a team for the responsibilities of CRO, having better review/control over social media campaigns, investing in an electronic voting system to eliminate the need of vote counts, and limiting the amount of paper campaign material.

Singh received warning from security that the excessive amount of posters were a fire hazard. (Photo Credit: Rahul “DJ Glyde” Sanan)

Other news from the SRC:

President Brar and VP Nagy will be part of CBU delegation consulting in-person with Nova Scotia Minister of Labour and Advanced Education with list of demands. This comes ahead of MOU agreement to be signed between universities and the province. The agreement determines among other things, provincial subsidy for universities and tuition rates.

Hiring for new manager of The Pit: Lack of competition from qualified candidates. Hiring committee agreed to keep two bar staff with 1-2yrs experience in the position of student-managers till April 31st.

Next Years’ Budget:  A lot more cash flow for next year because of increased student enrollment. “We’re opening the convenience store longer, we’re opening The Pit longer.”- President Brar.

CBUSU app has 1000+ downloads.

The newly elected SRC members will sit for first time in May.

The Student Representative Council (SRC) meets once a month to discuss student affairs and vote on how the union should be run. Their next meeting is March 22nd at 4pm. Interested observers are welcome to attend, but seating may be limited.