By Jillian French – News Editor

As the Students’ Representative Council (SRC) ramps up to the end of the year, nominations have opened for positions on the Board of Students’ Representatives (BSR) for the 2025-2026 academic year. 

This marks the first SRC election since the board ratified the new BSR structure, which will dissolve the current roles in the executive team, instead featuring nine board directors. Senator positions have also opened across the academic divisions. Campaigns will kick off on Monday, Feb. 17, and come to a close after the voting period on Feb. 26 and 27.

As students look ahead to a structural and personnel change on the board, one major change has already been made: Chelsea Sheridan has been ratified as the new SRC Vice-President of Academic Affairs, filling the role for the remainder of the semester after Roser Rise, former VP, stepped down from the role in January. In the email notifying students, Rise cited “personal reasons” for her choice to resign. 

Sheridan, a fourth-year Sociology major, was ratified on Monday, Jan. 27, and started her term a few days later. She described her “hectic start!”, a week of reading through documents and scheduling meetings to get her bearings, but added that Roser and the BSR team were “super helpful and understanding, I couldn’t have asked for better”. 

On the agenda, Sheridan’s priorities are sorting out committee duties and continuing ongoing projects from Rise’s time in office. She’s chairing the SRC teaching awards selection committee, which will culminate at the awards night held near the end of the semester. During her mandate, Rise worked with Dr. Matthew Peros, Dean of Social Sciences, on finding study spaces for social science students – Sheridan adds that while most divisions have some designated niche spaces (Johnson for science students, Molson for fine arts, Morris for humanities), there aren’t any spots where social science students congregate. Sheridan said she’s hoping to find some space in the library to cultivate space for students in the division.

Sheridan will be in office for around three months until the end of the 2024-25 academic year. She described the challenge of stepping into an established team so late in the school year: “I was coming in uncertain of what people are expecting of me, what people know about me”.

 Sheridan served as social science senator on the BSR and Senate last year and says that her previous experience has been instrumental to her success in adapting to the new role so quickly. “Sitting on the BSR, sitting on the senate, understanding what they do in general… I think I used these experiences to maneuver and get through a new kind of role”. “The strangest thing”, she adds, “would be that I was a senator and now I’m helping manage the senators… and trying to help them achieve their goals”. 

Sheridan is also co-running the 2025 Bishop’s Charity Fashion Show: “Managing 100 models and 20 committee members has prepared me for a leadership role… Obviously”, she adds, “I’m still learning as I go!”