We have reached the summit of this election; July 26th through 28th are the voting days when every undergraduate can have input on who they want to represent them for the fall 2022 and winter 2023 terms.

The Candidates:

President (1 position, 0 candidates):

• There are no candidates running for the role of President, so the voting platform will not have a ballot for this election at this time.

Vice President (1 position, 1 candidate):

• Stephanie Ye-Mowe

Director (11 positions, 15 candidates):

• Jay Lan
• Naman Sood
• Chen Chai
• Evan Girardin
• Marie Jolicoeur-Becotte
• Karl Zhu
• Karen Nguyen
• Kunal Sanjiv Karkhanis
• Sue Liu
• Catherine Dong
• Daud Khan
• Jeff Zhu
• Angela Souza
• Rania Datoo
• Matthew Nicholas Schwarze

The Election:

This election will determine who will sit on the WUSA Board of Directors for the coming two terms. Here are the links to last week’s campaign events where candidates shared some of their plans and the areas, they hope to focus some of their efforts on:

Reddit: WUSA Elections – Board of Directors Candidate AMA

YouTube: WUSA Elections – Candidate Showcase Drop-in Sessions

YouTube: WUSA Elections – Imprint Officer Debate

You can also view their profiles on: https://vote.wusa.ca/

The Board:

The Board of Directors (BOD) is WUSA’s strategic governing body. In addition to adopting advocacy stances and acting as the collective student voice, it is responsible for guiding WUSA’s financial, human resources, legal and contractual affairs. The 13 members of the BOD are comprised of the President, Vice President, and 11 directors elected according to the faculty guarantee, which ensures a representative from each faculty which fields a candidate. While transitioning to the new governing model, the membership approved at a general meeting in February 2022, postponing the Winter 2022 election to the Spring term, hence the current election in July. This year the term will only be eight months, starting September 1^st.

The BOD represents all UWaterloo undergraduate students, representing WUSA to government, university committees, and student advocacy alliances. In this new model, the Board will set the direction for the organization, and full-time staff will oversee the day-to-day operations.

The benefit of the new structure means that we can simplify our policies and procedures, thus promoting transparency, accountability, and accessibility. The BOD has control over the direction of the organization; thus, they are more responsive to the needs of the members. This new model helps empower student leads to decide the best interests of UWaterloo undergraduate students while advocating on their behalf.

During their first month in office, the Board will set out an annual plan of advocacy initiatives for the 2022-23 school year, guided by WUSA’s 5-Year Long Range Plan, and current issues facing Waterloo students. The rest of their time in office, they will work towards these initiatives by discussing them with university and government stakeholders and providing strategic direction on efforts to WUSA’s full-time staff members.