By: Yelin Gemma Lee, News Writer
Editor’s Note: Previously, this article mentioned constituency groups as clubs. Constituency groups represent marginalized student communities and are different from clubs. This article is updated to reflect this clarification. Clarification for non-executive councilors and their nomination, along with definitions of referendum and survey are added.
The SFSS has confirmed the upcoming dates for the Spring 2022 general elections and referenda. Council will be giving notice of the election and referendum period from January 10–16 and collecting candidate nominations and referendum responses from January 17–30. For the following two weeks, candidates running for positions in the executive committee will be campaigning starting January 31.
These dates concern the executive Council general election, the referendum, and the non-executive Council general elections for the 2022–23 year.
The executive committee is formed of seven executive officers elected by the student body: the SFSS president and six vice-presidents who each oversee different departments of Council affairs. According to the SFSS website, they have the “powers and duties to implement motions approved at Council meetings.” Motions are requests voted on during Council meetings. The non-executive committee is formed with representatives from “every faculty and departmental student group across all three campuses,” along with representatives from constituency groups of marginalized communities, and affiliated student groups such as Residence and Athletics. The representatives are elected by their respective faculties, student unions, constituency groups, and affiliated student groups.
The voting periods are as follows:
- February 15–17: voting period for executive committee general election and referenda
- February 21–March 20: non-executive Council general elections called
The referendum will occur during the executive committee general elections and be prompted by an email. Referendums are student votes binding on the SFSS. The questions will be regarding changes to the health and dental plan fee and implementing dedicated fees for constituency groups. Additionally, there will be a survey question asking for students’ opinions on whether SFSS should take on another big project. Survey questions are non-binding on the SFSS. Students can vote for the SFSS to plan for a Surrey Student Union Building, focus on affordable housing, or neither.
The Peak spoke to Corbett Gildersleve, vice-president internal and organizational development, for more information.
Gildersleve said students will be sent the means to vote electronically to their SFU emails. He explained the SFSS were initially willing to try in-person voting stations this year.
“I wanted to try and set up physical polling stations with a tablet or laptop to log into vote, but with COVID-19 and such [it’s] probably best to try that next year,” said Gildersleve.
On January 12, SFSS sent out a notification email calling for candidates to begin their application for the general elections. Interested parties have until January 31 to complete and submit their nomination package.
For more information, students can follow SFSS on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
