Once again the time of year where a few students moseyed on down to the polls and cast their vote for who should represent their interests in the Students’ Union has come and gone.
That’s right, the SU by-election results have come in, heralding a new operations and finance commissioner and engineering representative.
Hardave Birk is the new operations and finance commissioner, claiming 64 per cent of the votes.
Birk said he’s excited he won and looks forward to working with the SU.
With the hope of carrying on any previous initiatives, Birk said that his first plan is to sit down with his predecessor vice-president operations and finance Joey Brocke and to discuss what is already in place.
“I would like to check in with the person who filled my position over the summer and see what initiatives they had started and hopefully carry those initiatives on, as it would be horrible for those to fall flat,” Birk said
He has some of his own plans for campus — provided the dollars and cents work out.
“I want to start looking into the heating for bus loops initiative and see how feasible that is as that was one of the things I really wanted to look into for students at the U of C.”
Mason Hender was elected as the engineering faculty representative, with 54 per cent of the votes cast by his faculty’s students.
Hender credits his involvement around campus, particularly as an orientation leader, with his win.
“I called upon many of the people I had met along the way,” said Hender.
“With their help I was able to get my name out to larger groups of people than if I had worked largely alone.”
Voter turnout has historically been quite low and this year was no different. A total of 1,281 students voted for operations and finance commissioner and 248 engineering students helped choose their rep.
There were no major issues with the electronic polls and overall the election ran smoothly, said Chief Returning Officer Alastair MacKinnon.
Four faculty representative positions were also acclaimed. Lindsay Vellacott was named the new kinesiology rep. SU veteran Wilma Shim is the law rep.
Rianne Wolf will represent students in Social Work and Carli Chalmers is the new veterinary medicine rep.