More time to apply for MRU student council

by Catherine Szabo

Students hoping for a spot on Mount Royal University’s student council or executive council now have a longer period to put together their nomination packages — two months longer, to be exact. Nomination period used to only be one week long, but now runs from Nov. 15 to Jan. 17. The campaign period will be from Jan. 30 to Feb. 10.“I think there’s different reasons why people run or don’t run,” said Meghan Melynk, VP external for the Students’ Association of Mount Royal University. “This year we have an opportunity; the civic election was so big and people were so excited, we can build off of that.”

 
All positions on students’ council and executive council are open positions, Melynk said, meaning even if someone currently holds a position, he or she will have to run again to keep it. Last year, all candidates ran unopposed, so instead of voting for one candidate over another, students voted yes or no to each. Anyone hoping to be on executive council must fill out a nomination package, have 20 people agree to nominate them and be a full-time student. Positions
on students’ council are open to anyone with at least a 2.0 GPA and who have 10 people willing to nominate them. Last year, 8.27 per cent of eligible voters took part in the SAMRU election process.

 
“That’s pretty consistent across the board at all postsecondary schools,” Melnyk said. “As far as people who run, (the University of Calgary) has more people running, but they have a larger population. SAIT was in a similar situation to us, so it just depends on what school you’re at.”