The Students’ Law Society has added eleven students to its ranks since the election wrapped up on Tuesday, September 18. The election was held as early as possible in the term in order to allow for the group to begin working on time-sensitive projects, such as issues surrounding the faculty’s new building.
The four 1L students elected to the Student Affairs and Governance committee (stag) are Elaine Sun, Natalie Lum-Tai, Kyle Gerow and Aaron Hunt. Hunt considers the new building and the new grading system as the two biggest issues for stag to deal with. He sees his role as being “able to effectively communicate the coming changes to our 1L class, and act as a strong representative for the ongoing concerns of students.” Sun echoed Aaron’s thoughts on the new building, stating that “the law school building plays such a large part in the feeling of community; I want to work hard to make sure that is not lost.”
STAG VP, Sierra Yates Robart, spoke highly of the newly elected 1L reps. “During our first few meetings, all of our 1L representatives have spoken passionately in our open debates and taken initiative on projects. I have been so impressed so far by their dedication and courage at such an early stage, and when they are still finding their feet at the law school,” said Yates.
Three 1Ls were acclaimed to the Social Affairs committee at the close of the nomination period. They are Hayley Ossip, Mayleah Quenneville and Claire Huang. Quenneville, who considers running events a personal hobby, told uv that her goal is “to learn as much as I can about what already goes on here and the core social events brought to the student body by SLS. I’m hoping that by being a part of these events, and paying attention to what my 1L colleagues think about them, I can put together a strategy to help to get 1Ls better integrated into things.”
There was also a by-election for the 3L positions that remained unclaimed after last year’s spring election. The three new 3Ls elected to the stag committee are Sameer Nurmohamed, Ginger Ellison and Michael Portner Gartke. Ellison was eager to explain what motivated her to run for a position on stag. “When I found out that the Student Affairs and Governance Chamber addresses many of the issues that I’m passionate about improving—feedback, recruiting, and alumni relations, to name a few—it was an easy decision to run for this position,” she said. “I saw this position as an opportunity to give back to a community that has been very good to me over the past three years.”
Khrystina McMillan was elected as the third and final 3L member of Social Affairs. Social Affairs VP, Danielle Glatt, outlined the committee’s two main goals: (1) to improve the transparency of the club funding process, and continue to develop funding policies in an equitable and fair manner; and (2) to develop and establish community based events before the building process begins. “In beginning to transition to external locations this coming year,” Glatt stated, “I hope to ensure a smooth transition for students that will be displaced during construction.”
SLS President, Albert Lin, was keen to begin working with all of the new members on his number one priority: to improve student service provision. “Our students are our clients and we endeavour to give them the best service,” Lin said. “This means both building upon existing student services and looking for opportunities to come up with innovative, value-added student services. Our hope is that students will reap the rewards of our effort with initiatives such as the inaugural SLS/CDO OCI Mock Interviews session, the planned overhaul of our website and it
infrastructure, and the tentative resolution of the perennial dilemma with budget surplus.”
