KEVIN MENZ
Associate News Editor

Unlike the rest of the USSU executive, vice president student affairs Leon Thompson spent a lot of his summer away from the job — some of his time was spent in Cuba for a summer class and some was spent practicing his dance moves.

“A lot of my summer was devoted to dancing in my unitard,” said Thompson. “Now Scott Hitchings is trying to pass a motion to prevent me from wearing one. I will never stop dancing!”

Hitchings recently proposed a motion to stop Thompson from wearing tights. While this has severely depressed Thompson, it has not prevented his preparation for the school year.

“This year’s awareness theme is awareness,” he joked, quoting Clone High but not really understanding the perfect truth to his humour — his objective this year is awareness!

His priority this year is the promotion of sustainable practices for students.

“You can put as many posters as you want up in the Tunnel but at the end of the day, are students looking at them? You need to be charismatic and in their face; you need to attract their attention and that’s what I’m aiming to do,” he said.

“I’m looking into bringing in a documentary about removing chemicals from your house and, instead, using old fashion cleaning techniques like baking soda and vinegar,” said Thompson. “Green Yourself Week will be the medium for that.”

Green Yourself Week is a week-long event from Oct. 18 to 22 that involves an eco fair — located in the Arts Tunnel — with presentations from clubs, organizations and stores that promote green living. The U of S debate club will also be involved, with five different topics being debated.

“Then on Thursday we will be mugging. Anyone we see using a paper Tim Horton’s mug we are going to give a corn-based plastic mug,” said Thompson.

In a previous interview, Hitchings pointed out that corn plastic may not the best representative for environmentalism because of the intense debates surrounding it. However, he stated that the USSU is looking into eventually selling potato-based plastic mugs.

Nevertheless, right now Thompson says corn-plastic mugs are an improvement from petroleum plastic ones.

“The general and slow introduction of organics into the plastic mix will make it a little bit better,” said Thompson. “They can biodegrade and that’s the nice thing. They won’t just sit there for aeons in a landfill.”

Being the first ever Aboriginal member on the USSU, Thompson has been working closely with president Stoicheff to promote Aboriginal inclusion.

He has been meeting with the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations and Aboriginal chiefs throughout the country discussing the relationships between the U of S and Aboriginal students.

“I had a coffee with Shawn Atleo, the Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, and he is very happy that there are students getting involved with Aboriginal student affairs,” said Thompson. “It’s people like us that need to be the voice to make sure that Aboriginal students aren’t forgotten.”

The USSU is hosting We Are All Treaty People week from Oct. 4 to 8. This event will educate on the signing of the treaties, on the treaties’ effects and on the issues regarding treaty responsibilities.

Finally, due to student concerns, Thompson is looking into replacing the mostly failing Safewalk phones. The company that built them a few years ago has gone out of business, so any phone that is broken — which is most of them — cannot be fixed. He stated that the USSU needs to look into an entire new system for Safewalk and that student council will look at all their options during the next student council meeting on Sept. 30.

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image: Danielle Siemens