BY MIKE STROMME
A new voice has been added to the Conestoga Students Inc. board of directors as a vacant position on the board was filled last week.
Due to CSI’s confidentiality agreement, president Jeff Scherer was unable to comment as to why there was a vacancy on the board. He said that the board could have carried on without filling the opening, however, members decided that because it was still early in the school year they could find a new member.
Due to the time constraint of the byelection, students were unable to vote for candidates. Instead, the new member of the board of directors was chosen by a selection committee. The committee consisted of the current board members, three full-time student volunteers and three CSI executives: the vice-president, general manager and assistant general manager. A decision was to have been made by the committee on Nov. 19, after Spoke’s press deadline.
Each candidate had to be a full-time, fee-paying Conestoga student who had accumulated 100 student signatures and obtained the approval of both a faculty member and a program co-ordinator. Scherer said a candidate did not have to come from the Doon campus; students from the Guelph and Cambridge campuses have been members of the board in the past.
“We have had directors from satellite campuses in the past. Two years ago, Sarah Bryant was from our Guelph campus and last year, Colin Gaudet was from Cambridge campus and was re-elected for this year as well,” said Scherer. “We encourage students from satellite campuses to run for director positions, as it adds a dynamic to our decision making and gives us insight to students outside of Doon campus.”
Once the necessary requirements were met, candidates had to make their case in front of the selection committee from Nov. 17-19.
Board of directors members are representatives of the student body, establish policies and procedures and make decisions on major CSI issues. The board has a say on everything from the shuttle service and student health plan, to pub nights and free food Fridays.
“Each and every program that Conestoga Students Inc. runs, whether through entertainment, leadership, our shuttle, or any of our other five services, has been brought forward by our board of directors and is continuously reviewed by that same body,” said Scherer.
Kenneth Ram is a first-year public relations student at the Doon campus. He is a board of directors candidate who met CSI’s requirements to run in the byelection. He is a member of CSI’s student rep program and jumped at the opportunity to have a chance to sit on the board of directors. “The vacancy was brought up in a student rep meeting,” said Ram. “I found it to be an amazing opportunity to help students.”
The selection of the new board member took place on Nov. 19 in The Sanctuary. The winning candidate’s name will be published in the Nov. 30 issue of Spoke.
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