The Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) is gearing up for its fall 2020 student elections, and it is urging students to take part by running in them.
The available positions are two wellness and access directors (one for each campus), one off-campus director, one First Nations Student Association director, one Lansdowne director, and one Interurban director. All available positions are for six-month terms, except for the Lansdowne and Interurban directors, which are both one-year terms.
Students who want to run can submit a high-resolution photo of themselves along with a 200-word statement explaining why they are a good fit for the position to elections@camosunstudent.org by 12 pm on October 7.
The elections will take place through the online platform Election Runner between October 26 and October 28.
CCSS external executive Quinn Cunningham says that while it’s critically important that students participate in the upcoming provincial election, it’s also of the utmost importance that students participate in on-campus politics. Cunningham says that this allows for more diverse views in the student society, and allows the CCSS to represent as many students as possible.
“Participating on the [CCSS] board [of directors] is critical,” says Cunningham. “Having students engaging with on-campus decisions that are directly influencing how student life is affected is super important, and having those positions filled is super important.”
Of note, COVID-19 has changed the electoral process, says Cunningham. Students who are interested in running don’t need to collect signatures this year due to the COVID-19 crisis; this was a decision made by the CCSS elections officer. Aside from emailing a photo and a statement to the CCSS, interested students only need to fill out a short nomination form, available at camosunstudent.org/elections.
“Thankfully, we’ve already been using [Election Runner], which makes it more accessible to every student; what has changed is our nomination forms. You used to have to collect, I believe, 10 nominations for a director position,” says Cunningham. “We’ve changed that because it’s obviously not safe to collect signatures for your nomination on campus.”
Cunningham says platform statements are the best way for students to demonstrate that they are qualified and deserving of student votes.
“You want to put as much effort as you can into making your 200-word platform statements clear [and] concise as to why you want to be involved [and] what your intentions are on the board, because that’s what’s going to be showing up on the ballot,” says Cunningham. “Everyone’s name has their statement next to it. That is going to be the key way for students to decide who they should be voting for.”
Cunningham says that it’s really important for all Camosun students to frequently check their email’s promotions or junk folder on voting day—sometimes the link to vote gets filtered out, as it did for Cunningham last year.
“That’s the nature of sending out mass emails,” he says. “Any spam or promotions folders, we really encourage students to check on those voting dates, the 26th to the 28th.”