The Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) held its fall elections from Monday, October 25 to Wednesday, October 27.
A total of 746 students participated in voting: 330 on the first day, 207 the second, and 209 the third day. Richard Doucet was elected as finance executive and Cameron D’Amours as pride director; Angela Chou and Matias Alarcon were elected as Lansdowne directors, and Mansi Makkar as Interurban director.
CCSS outreach coordinator Quinn Park says that although the turnout was typical of fall elections, after being shut down for so long, students wanting to get involved by voting was encouraging to see.
“We have a lot of resources on campus to help make students’ lives better,” says Park. “The way to direct the way that these resources interact and are controlled on campus is to vote in the student society.”
Park believes that the way for students to get a lot out of college life is to get involved as soon as they can at Camosun.
“Being involved in the CCSS board gives a student as much as they put in,” he says. “There are a few positions that don’t have as much responsibility as others, so it’s nice to get in on the ground level, such as Lansdowne [director] or Interurban [director] or off-campus director; it gives a student a chance to do a lot of good work on and off campus.”
Park says these positions might be attractive to students coming to college as a first year.
“The directors positions offer a chance to be a director at large and offer your knowledge and expertise at a variety of committees without being directly responsible for things that campus executives or constituency directors are for,” he says. “It’s a nice way for a student to get their feet wet without having a lot of responsibilities, because we get that students are very busy, so it’s a nice way to get involved without spending too much time and energy.”
Park says that since the CCSS started doing its voting online, in April 2017, things have gotten much easier during election time.
“I think it’s a lot more secure, as well,” says Park. “I don’t miss the days of sticking around in a classroom with some already cold pizza, while we are all tired out, it’s way past our bedtimes, and we have to stick around re-counting ballots for a third time. ‘Is that a checkmark, or a cross for this person?’ ‘Did I read that right?’ It was very tedious… I am so glad we made that switch.”
Park says the college is going in new directions, with the retirement of president Sherri Bell in December being an example of that, and says that it’s important that students are involved during times of change.
“There a few other folks around the college who are leaving,” says Park. “Life around the college might be different. Students need to show up to be a part of these stages.”
During this election, three student representatives—Karen Young, Lyndsay van Gerven, and Kyle Jones—for Camosun College’s Education Council were also elected.