Incoming MUNSU Board of Directors established

Transparency, accountability major goals for 2010-11

By Ryan Belbin

Bar taps dispensing green beer and speakers playing Irish music paused on St. Patrick’s Day at the Breezeway, as the results for the 2010 MUNSU General Election were announced.

At the end of a year that saw the Memorial University of Newfoundland Students’ Union (MUNSU) come under critical fire after financial scandals, there was excitement in the Breezeway as students crowded to the stage to see the new representatives for the union revealed.

With less than 2,500 students participating, voter apathy remains an issue. Nonetheless, all five spots on the executive are now held by students fresh to their positions.

With three students vying for the executive position of executive director of external affairs, communication and research, Jessica McCormick emerged over her opponents Chris Bruce and Timothy Margolis. McCormick will be replacing Cameron Campbell who has held the position for the last two years. The former director-at-large hopes to address students’ concerns related to the behaviour of the executive by making the union more transparent.

“I think that this year we made a lot of great strides and identified where our problems are,” she said. “We need to go, [and] we need to talk to the people that we represent.”

The four-way contest for executive director of student life between Ryan Murphy, Nicole Khoury, Peter Petipas, and Rob Veinott was decided by a single vote in Murphy’s favour.

“It really illustrates how essential every vote is – sure, one vote of 2,000 total is only .05 per cent of the vote, but it just made a difference,” said Murphy. “I really hope that people who didn’t vote see now that it does matter.”

Murphy, also a director-at-large this past year, maintains his plan to follow through with his election platform. “[I intend to] really focus on making sure that we get the Breezeway events and the activities that the student groups do,” he said.

Michael Walsh was the clear winner in the race against candidates Michael Snow and Alexander Troake for the position of executive director of advocacy currently held by Ryan Marshall.

“I feel so thankful for this opportunity,” Walsh said. “One of the things I think is very important for the union is to increase the transparency and accountability. With the position of director of advocacy, [I would like to] make it a more visible position on campus, and ensure that people on campus know where to turn when they’re facing safety, academics, or whatever kinds of issues.”

Two of the executive director positions were acclaimed due to only one candidate running. Meghan McCarthy will be replacing Becky Winsor as executive director of campaigns, while Eddy St. Coeur will take over Travis Collins’s position as executive director of finance and services.

Prepared for her new responsibilities, McCarthy hopes to approach her position with honesty and patience. “I think this is a really new era for MUNSU, and I’m so excited to be a part of it,” she said.

Also optimistic, St. Coeur recognizes the challenges that the coming semesters will present. “This year at Memorial has brought to light almost if not all of the skeletons that have been hiding in our union’s financials,” he said.

He hopes to improve the existing policies of keeping track of MUNSU’s expenditures, avoiding the controversies faced by the 2009-10 executive.

There are five new directors-at-large to sit on the Board of Directors: Meghan Barnhill, Colin Corcoran, George Furey, Chris Langdon, and Andrew McGrath. Mariel Bent maintains her position as the nursing students’ representative, while Jillian Mullowney beat out the incumbent to become the social work students’ representative.

Meanwhile, many additional positions on the MUNSU Board of Directors were acclaimed prior to the general election. Russell Cochrane, Dan Campbell, Mike Hammond, and Chris Wass are the incoming arts representatives; Michael Davis, Ashika Iqbal, Alison Howley, and Christopher Earle are the science representatives; Alex Gibson and Michael Barnes will be representing the business faculty; and Ashley Reid and Mark Harvey make up the engineering representatives.

Human Kinetics and Recreation (HKR) and Education will have their voices heard on MUNSU by, respectively, Jennie Weisner and Adrian van Fraassen, while Chris Mong is the new medicine students’ representative. Nancy Burton will be the pharmacy students’ representative while Amber Haighway maintains her position as the music students’ representative and Jonathan Dwyer picks up the role of Centre for Nursing Studies representative.

Outside of academic faculty representatives, Carrie-Ann Bugden returns as students with disabilities representative, and Sahiba Khusama will be filling the vacant position for the international students’ representative.

Jeremy Dyer is the acclaimed lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgendered students’ representative, while Sujin Gu will be the women’s representative. John Jeddore is the acclaimed aboriginal students’ representative, and Ryan Marshall will be filling the position of part-time students’ representative. Braeden Pilgrim is stepping up to the role of male residence representative, while Melinda Lodge returns as Burton’s Pond representative. The female residence representative was determined by a by-election in Paton College past the press deadline.

Detailed results for the 2010 MUNSU General Election are available online at http://election.munsu.ca/.

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