Elections for Members of Student Council will now be regulated by the students’ union, administered through PAWS and held in conjunction with the springtime executive election, following a majority vote at the Nov. 17 University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union annual general meeting.

This amendment to section 29 of the USSU bylaws ensures online, standardized elections.

University Students’ Council is composed of representatives from the student societies on campus, most of which represent the colleges. Societies with more than 1,000 members, for example education and the Indigenous Students Council, are allowed two seats.

“We wanted to make sure that every single member of university student council was elected in a proper way, and was actually elected,” said USSU President Scott Hitchings.

In past years, the responsibility of hosting MSC elections has fallen to each individual student society. However voter turnout has often been extremely low and in some cases, elections were not held and representatives were simply appointed instead.

“We’ve run into that problem every year since I have been involved with the USSU,” Hitchings said. “We wanted to make sure that it never happens again, so we took over the elections.”

Now, according to Hitchings, the USSU will ensure candidates are registered students in the corresponding college or society, and require nomination papers to be submitted, including a list of recommendation signatures.

He also feels that by using the current avenues that the USSU already has to advertise and sanction elections, more students will be informed and inclined to vote for their MSCs.

“The call for nominations will go out at the beginning of February, all within the same time period as the executive elections.”

—
Image: Supplied

Correction: capitalized “Student Council” in the headline.