Students’ Union vice-president external Mike Selnes has run a good year and will soon be sitting on the Board of Governors to continue his involvement on campus.
His accomplishments this past year have included work with the Council of Alberta University Students and the Canadian Alliance of Students’ Association. With these organizations, he got the Alberta Advanced Education minister Doug Horner to promise to lower interest rates on student loans and change the Roles and Mandates Policy Framework by the government to include a focus on instruction instead of research. Selnes also helped form the Calgary Student Caucus to increase communication between the University of Calgary, Mount Royal College, SAIT and ACAD.
At the beginning of his term, Selnes worked to raise awareness of the lack of affordable student housing. The university then promised to build a new residence and $100,000 was raised for an inter-institutional residence study to be conducted. Despite his hard work, Selnes was unable to convince Affordable Housing and Urban Development associate minister Yvonne Fritz and Ward One Alderman Dale Hodges to change secondary housing zoning laws.
Selnes’ commissioners were very pleased with his work. Although they would have liked to see him delegate tasks to complete more on campus while he was travelling, they feel the CAUS, CASA and textbook conferences were necessary. They also noted they would have liked to see more on-campus presence during the Political Awareness Week.
Overall, Selnes has completed many of his major goals he set out to do, laying out essential groundwork for future SU cabinets.