Undergrad students elect new executive

Caught over the weekend while still buried under three weeks of accumulated laundry, recently elected University of Alberta Students' Union president, Mike Chalk, believes his election proves substance is important in a campaign.

"It was a real victory for issues-based campaigning," says Chalk, a business student who is currently serving as SU vice-president operations and finance. "My ideas seemed to have clicked, and I am glad to see that there is popular support for what I plan to do."

Elected by a landslide on March 3-4, the two largest upcoming issues for the SU under Chalk's leadership are renovations to the Students' Union Building, and an extensive public awareness campaign on what Chalk calls "the educational crisis."

"The health-care crisis has captured the attention of the public, but we have not. I want to let them know what it is like to be a student," he says. He intends to continue lobbying for additional student representation on the university's Board of Governors, and address areas where he feels university funds "are not being spent wisely."

"The university faces a tradeoff between increasing tuition and staff cutbacks," says Chalk. "It is very easy to settle into that argument and pit one group against the other. I don't think it is that simple. There is a third way for trimming and efficiency that doesn't have as traumatic an impact on either group."

Chalk also intends on changing the current non-instructional fee protocol to include additional student consultation and involvement, and to increase communication with SU members, particularly those which have traditionally been more isolated. "Even if you are south of 87th Avenue you are still a student," says Chalk, referring to students in Corbett Hall or at the Facult‚ Saint-Jean.

The 6,000 undergraduate students who went to the polls voted in four vice-presidents and approved the sole candidate for the Board of Governors representative position. Voters also ratified a new SU fee structure, which will take effect next fall.

The big change to the SU elections this year was a by-law change made by Chief Returning Officer Matthew Hough that excludes joke candidates from taking office in the event of their election. Following the election, Hough stated this change will be re-evaluated based on suggestions made "so anyone can run as long as their student name appears on the ballot."

Hough also indicated there are a number of additional areas to change for next year, including the actual voting process used by the SU. "There was a bit of a problem with duplicate ballots," reported Hough. When students vote, their student ID number is recorded on what is referred to as a 'bubble sheet,' which are scanned to check for duplicates. This year, ten duplicate student ID numbers were found.

Hough is not concerned about the duplication, however, saying those ballots were treated as spoiled and not included in the final count.

Use of the OneCard in the voting process is also an ongoing issue, according to Hough. Currently, there is no distinction on the identification cards between undergraduate and graduate students. There have also been discussions about voters swiping their OneCard and having duplicates eliminated electronically and instantly, but Hough is hesitant to commit to this change at this point.

"The Students' Union is not going to pay to wire the campus [for the card readers] when we use it once a year, and the university would then have the ability to use it all the time." Unless a deal can be struck between the SU and the university, Hough believes it is unlikely this change will be implemented.