DSU President

Click to see a compilation of additional projects that we completed during my term as President

Never had I particularly aspired to get involved in student politics, but as a result of my experiences with Brains for Change I began to see the potential of Student Unions to help birth new modes of democratic dialogue and decision making. This was a vision exciting enough to compel me to run (and be elected) as President of the Union.

I often tell people I may never have another role that was as challenging as this one. Our student union was made of up twenty full-time staff (including four other student executives), an additional hundred part-time staff, dozens of committees, and hundreds of informal volunteers and external partners - and most importantly, the 18,000 members who pay annual dues to work on their behalf. At the core, my role was to enable a shared vision among these moving pieces and steward communication and coordination among them. 

I had entered the role with a particular focus on trying to better engage the broad based membership in helping inform decision making rather than rely exclusively on traditional Executive and Governing council-based structures. 

Additionally, this work on internal leadership also had to be mirrored in external representation to media, University committees (eg. Board of Governors and Senate), as well as Provincial and Federal governments, as well as to the associated student associations.  

I am proud to say we were able to achieve the majority of the items we set out in the strategic plan shown below (with the most significant projects described in greater detail below). What I was most proud of however was being able to build a sense of trust and buy-in among our leadership team that allowed us to get these projects done without the petty conflicts that can often define student politics. 

 

FEATURED PROJECTS: