Contest underway for SAMRU Representation Executive Council
Online voting starts Feb. 22
The Students’ Association of Mount Royal University represents and serves Mount Royal University students.
Starting Feb. 22, it’s time to vote to elect the 2021/2022 Representation Executive Council (REC) of the Students’ Association of Mount Royal University (SAMRU).
The list of this year’s candidates has been released. Find out who they are, their platforms and what they see as their main mandate if chosen by their peers.
Candidates will be focusing on running online campaigns, primarily through their own social media accounts. The campaign period begins on Feb. 21 at noon. Voting will open online on Feb. 22 at 10 a.m. and closes on Feb. 26 at 5 p.m. Students will receive an email in their Mount Royal accounts with a link to access the third-party elections software, which will also be available at samru.ca/elections.
Representing all students at MRU, each REC member is an elected, full-time paid employee of SAMRU. All four positions ― president, vice-president academic, vice-president external and vice-president student life ― work directly with government officials at all three levels (municipal, provincial and federal), collaborate with University administration and sit on numerous committees, always working to improve the student experience.
“SAMRU’s representatives take student voices to the places where decisions are made,” says SAMRU governance and representation manager, Megan Borg.
“On a day-to-day basis, members of the REC are responsible for amplifying the student voice by representing students’ interests to the University. The REC deals with issues like tuition and loan policies, governance, lobbying, academic issues and external relations,” Borg says.
Fourth-year Bachelor of Communications — Journalism student Zachary Worden believes that voting for the REC provides students with the opportunity to become “stakeholders” in their university experience. He adds that it can be a good start to learn about the campus community, as the REC takes on a broad range of issues and operational matters that affect all students.
“Finding student representatives who can convey the voice of the student body to the University is very important,” Worden says. Voting is a way to “take control of one's university experience, something that may be lost on many students.
“As students going through our degrees, we may not take advantage of all that SAMRU provides us,” he says, and that he feels SAMRU has done a good job when it comes to diversity and inclusion and that needs to continue with the new executive. He would also like to see continued promotion of all the services and resources offered to students.
Normally at this time, students are reminded of the election by numerous visual cues.
“It's going to be a very unique election this year, as Wyckham House won't be plastered with the usual candidate posters and candidates will not be creating the campaigning buzz on Main Street,” Borg says. They would like to see a high voter turnout, and so are working to raise awareness ahead of the vote.
“SAMRU has amped up its own digital promotion of the elections and will develop interview videos with each of the candidates, hosting social media ‘ask me anything’ sessions with the candidates, and spreading the word directly to students through mass emails,” Borg says.
“It's going to be really interesting to see how candidates will get creative with online campaigning.”
Make your voice heard. Learn more at samru.ca/elections.
Find SAMRU on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
Feb. 12, 2021 — Rob Petrollini
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