Delamont pays her dues
In the next few weeks, the Reflector will feature profiles of new Executive Committee members at the Students’ Association, starting with VP academic hopeful Erin Delamont.
For the past two years Erin Delamont has been a member of the General Faculties Council, formerly Academic Council, and the Learning Outcomes Standing Committee. She was involved in approving upcoming degrees and pushing the withdrawal date back as a member of the GFC and she is developing new learning outcomes with the LOTC. Now she is vying for an Executive Council position as the VP academic.
“I love Mount Royal, it is an amazing school and I want to help it continue to keep focused on the things that it does great on and maybe help out the students a little bit more so it’s just extending the stuff that I am doing already and the stuff that I am doing already.” Delamont said. The move from the GFC to the position as VP academic seems like a natural progression for Delamont, as it will give her more a more direct relationship between the students and the college.
“I am extremely passionate about Mount Royal and the students and I am experienced,” Delamont said about her qualifications to become VP academic. She says she has already put the wheels in motion to create a reading day in the fall semester and says being VP academic would help make it a reality sooner.
“A lot of universities around here have a fall reading day, it is just an extra day to help relive student stress,” Delamont said. The fall reading day would most likely be added to the Remembrance Day long-weekend to offer students an extra day for studying. Delamont has been working with current VP academic Marie Barnes to make the fall reading a day a reality. She said that going snowboarding or on a trip to Mexico would help students relieve stress, because not everyone uses reading days to study. Although many of her fellow students were in the Liberty Lounge from open to close on St. Patrick’s Day, Delamont spent the day writing an essay.
Delamont is more than excited about the colleges transition to a university and was involved in planning a student forum for the AUCC visit.
“That was an amazing experience,” Delamont said about helping to organize the AUCC student forum. “It was so incredible.”
She is hopeful the college will be granted university status in the upcoming fall so she and her fellow students can have the opportunity to pursue masters’ programs at other institutions.
Delamont said that as the college makes the transition to the university she wants to make sure that teachers stay focused on students. She doesn’t want them locked away in their offices or research labs working on research. She plans to keep the teachers engaged with the students by joining committees that hire teachers that are more focused on teaching then research.
Delamont said that as VP academic she would be in charge of student appeals and would like to make students aware of their rights outlined in the Student Code of Conduct, something she plans to finish reading if she wins.
Delamont feels the biggest challenge she would face is the overwhelming workload that executive council members face, including an increase in student appeals as the college grows into a university, a challenge that she is more than willing to make.
