Jillian French – News Editor

As Bishop’s wraps up its summer term and prepares to launch full speed into the fall semester, the SRC executive council has spent the summer working on plans and initiatives for the new school year. The Campus met with the council – SRC president, Drew Henkel, vice president of academic affairs, Roser Rise, vice president of student life, Lacey Baillairgé, director of events, Reagan Russel, and director of finance, Taylor Morgan – to hear all about their summer work. 

Drew Henkel, SRC president, underwent training in Ottawa as part of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations – an organization to represent students nationally. Bishop’s is a member of this association through the Quebec Student Union (QSU). These meetings with the QSU focused on “setting a provincial focus on education”, according to Henkel. Beyond that, he described his summer work as “getting ready for the year, looking forward, and getting our strategic plan together as a team”.

Lacey Baillairgé, VP of student life, has been hard at work organizing events to connect with spring and summer term students, taking advantage of sunny weather for a barbeque in the quad and another indoor pizza day. William Forget, a physics student who attended these events, noted that “it was a great ambiance to hang out with friends and wind down”.  Baillairgé has also been expanding third spaces for the fall semester, such as extending Purple Pod hours. She also hopes to open the Gait during the day as a place to study, talk or grab a pool stick and challenge a friend. Baillairgé has also been working to expand initiatives like the Menstrual Equity Project and the Community Cupboard through extra funding and donations to increase free supplies for students.

Reagan Russell, director of events, has spent most of the summer planning Orientation Week, including training and events. She’s excited to introduce new dry-team training, geared towards non-drinking students. She also traveled to British Columbia with Morgan to attend the Student Union Development Summit, where she participated in workshops that dealt with media training and interaction with the government. She credited this summit as a “great experience, and great networking opportunity”.

As director of finance, Taylor Morgan has taken the lead on Safe Drive – an initiative the SRC has been working on for two years – to provide safe transportation for Bishop’s students to their desired location on campus or within 4 km. Morgan affirmed that the program “should be up and running in time for O-Week”. He’s also been working on the SRC’s annual budget, which is presented and approved by the board during the start of the school year.

Roser Rise, VP of academic affairs, noted her work with organizing summer activities, committee meetings, and coordination of academic tours. She’s excited to be working closely with two education students, Martina Berkers and Sofia Driscoll, who have been updating, and will be running, the education department’s academic tours. These tours take place during O-Week along with the Student Success Fair, which she has been organizing alongside Baillairgé.

In addition to their workload, the execs have been undergoing training throughout the summer term to become better equipped for their responsibilities during the year. Morgan mentioned how the group collaborated in March with the outgoing executive team, who offered advice and guidance, and helped set up the new annual plan goals. Additionally, a brand new course-based training plan has been implemented for the execs by Dr. Mike Teed, which runs for three hours twice a week. Baillairgé also mentioned that departments had stepped up to offer some more specialized training, providing diversity and balance in the guidance the leaders received heading into the year.In broad strokes, Henkel says that he has been excited to implement student values into the new year. The team has worked on “conceptualizing those and turning them into clear, broad hitting points” that will benefit everybody on campus and “increase their well-being and belonging”.