Incoming council thanks predecessors, pledges more work
Taking office hot on the heels of a successful government, this year’s Students’ Representative Council is looking to continue the march of progress and implement some changes of their own.
The SRC’s Big Five – President Brad Leung, Director of Finance and Operations Vicky Schaefer, VP Social Jess Dollinger, VP Student Affairs Kyle Ellsworth and VP Academic Sam Ho – recently sat down with the Campus to discuss the year ahead.
Leung said he and Schaefer would primarily be focused on building on the financial progress made by last year’s council and their respective predecessors, Mark Lawson and Brad Henderson.
“We’ve just invested in a point of sale system called Maitre’D for the Gait, [whereas] last year they had no way of tracking inventory,” Leung said while still noting that Lawson and Henderson “paid off a lot of debts, and left us where our books are at zero, not in the negative.” Schaefer echoed this, saying that last year’s President and DFO “totally turned it around.”
The pair acknowledged the role of Annis Karpenko, the Council’s General Manager, in providing some financial stability to the SRC. They also admitted that their transition has been facilitated by Lawson’s continued presence at Bishop’s (he currently works as a Recruitment & Admissions Officer for the University).
A common theme with all members of the Executive was the notion of expanded SRC visibility. Steps were taken in the 2008-2009 year to boost the SRC’s profile, from the printing of “www.busrc.com” on some frosh week material to the “State of Your Union,” held late in the year. Leung said he wants the council to be more actively engaged, by “not just sending out emails; [we also want to] get out and talk to students.”
The entire council was optimistic and ambitious about the coming eight months. Leung floated the possibility of banning bottled water at all on-campus vendors, and mentioned that he was investigating the feasibility of online voting in future SRC elections. Dollinger pledged to keep popular events, such as Frosh in a Can, going again this year, while also saying she wants to eliminate the practice of “people getting credit where they don’t deserve it, signing up for clubs and never showing up.” She also said she would endeavor to organize more events on-campus, because, among other reasons, “it’s too expensive to have bus trips” too frequently.
VP Academic Sam Ho said he would continue last year’s used book exchange, but that it would be more of an arm’s-length effort for the SRC this year, with much of the work done by the students themselves. “We’ll direct them if they have any questions,” Ho said. He also said he wants to see students “take ownership of their school, their academics.”
The president and his VP Student Affairs both said they would be consulting more with students on issues that matter to them. Ellsworth, who wrote in his post-election platform late last year that he would attempt to do something about the quality of the food offered at on-campus venues, said that he would be starting up student focus groups “within weeks.”
Meanwhile, Leung told the Campus that he would bring representatives from CASA to Bishop’s, so that his council can make an informed decision later this year on whether or not to leave the national lobby group.
The president also touched on one story that has set lips fluttering lately: his plan to bring a live alligator to Bishop’s for Homecoming. Leung outlined the plan, which is tentatively to allow Homecoming-goers to get their picture taken with the gator, dubbed Lady Chomps-a-Lot, which weighs 150lbs and apparently is so domesticated and well-trained that it “thinks it’s a dog.”
Leung was also quite emphatic about noting that he is paying for it: “It’s coming out of my pocket, and everything above breaking even will go toward a fundraiser.”
If bringing a live alligator to Homecoming seems like a brazen move, it would be in keeping with the Exec’s statements during the discussion. Ellsworth is forging ahead with a campaign bluntly entitled “I Don’t Break Shit When I’m Drunk,” which would see unbroken empties get refunded and the proceeds given to Shinerama; Schaefer said the Council would “definitely push the envelope this year;” and Leung decried what he perceives as this university being “very stuck in tradition.
“Being an almost entirely new council, people often say, ‘That’s not what they did last year.’ Well, that’s the way we’re going to do it this year.”
