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<\/a>New external executive Quinn Cunningham is \u201csuper happy\u201d to assume the position, and he\u2019s looking forward to tackling tough issues for students, which is a large part of the role.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was thrilled; I love advocating,\u201d he says about finding out he was voted in. \u201cThis year I went to Ottawa to advocate for legislation and policy-oriented changes that will benefit students, and being able to take that head-on and be able to represent the college in that regard is something I\u2019m really excited about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cunningham says he\u2019s feeling pretty comfortable in the new role, having had a good working relationship with the previous external executive, Fillette Umulisa. He says he\u2019s interested in working with other post-secondary institutions to try to bring students together.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to try to collaborate with other colleges to find out what really works for creating community,\u201d he says. \u201cFrom what I\u2019ve observed, student interaction isn\u2019t particularly high at Camosun, and I\u2019d really like to foster that growth and increase student awareness on what the CCSS does.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cunningham says he also wants to see students connect with each other beyond the lecture hall.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really want to see Camosun students being friends with each other, more relationships being established outside of the classroom, as well as interaction with the student society,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
CCSS clubs and events assistant Quinn Park is pleased with the voter response to the election, and is glad that students are interested in the electoral process.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was ample turnout, ample input from students, even though the student society was not on campus,\u201d he says. \u201cClearly students are interested in democracy at the student-society level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Park says the college moving classes online due to COVID-19 introduced unprecedented challenges for the election.<\/p>\n
\u201cUsually the campaign period is run by student candidates going out and chatting with students, and that\u2019s a really important way for the student society to gather information about what students think, and just with the timing of the pandemic and the campaign period, that wasn\u2019t able to happen,\u201d he says, adding that all of the candidates seemed to handle the stresses well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have nothing but good things to say about the candidates and how they were able to switch gears into online campaigning mode,\u201d he says. \u201cAfter witnessing this, I\u2019m confident that each one of them will make a good CCSS board member; they\u2019re able to roll with the punches.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cunningham says that with the new funding secured through the referendum, the CCSS can continue to help increase safety on campus, particularly with the WalkSafer program, and says that these services have another positive effect: they provide jobs for students.<\/p>\n
\u201cCamosun\u2019s got limited options in comparison [to UVic], so keeping that service employed and well-funded is really important to us, especially when it comes to keeping our wages competitive, and we don\u2019t want to underpay students,\u201d says Cunningham.<\/p>\n
Park says that the additional funding allows the CCSS to maintain and improve services that students want, the loss of which would compromise the student society\u2019s ability to operate as intended.<\/p>\n
\u201cServices such as advocacy, the ombudsperson, and the WalkSafer program are all key parts of why the student society is there for students, so having a bit of an increase in funding towards those programs can definitely make them better,\u201d he says. \u201cSustainability of these programs are key\u2014having a student society that isn\u2019t able to advocate for students going to classes at the college, that\u2019s not a thing that I want to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Park is looking forward to seeing what the new members have to offer, and says that he enjoys watching newly elected candidates mature in their roles.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love being there when board members are learning about how they can support students, and how they can achieve goals that they want to see,\u201d he says. \u201cStudents do the best job of figuring out what they need, so that\u2019s why we need students as board members; it wouldn\u2019t work any other way, and I\u2019m happy to be a part of that process.\u201d<\/p>\n
Park encourages students to be involved in the democratic process of student elections, and says that the CCSS places importance in allowing student candidates to express their views and create change.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important that voices are heard; that\u2019s what makes democracy democracy,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019ve never recommended candidates, that\u2019s something the CCSS does not do. We give opportunities for folks to declare their platform statements, and we just encourage people to pick the candidates that are right for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cunningham urges students to connect with each other in any way they can.<\/p>\n
\u201cGet involved, whether it be with a club or meeting up with friends and doing stuff,\u201d he says. \u201cIf [you] want to volunteer with the student society we\u2019ve got lots of campaigns going on, and we want to hear from you; we want to hear what we can do better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The results are in for the Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) elections, which were held from April 7 to April 9. Quinn Cunningham is the new CCSS external executive, winning with 506 votes (89 percent). Amanda Garner is now the CCSS women\u2019s director, with 529 votes (90 percent), and Savannah Barratt is the new sustainability […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-webexclusive","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19474"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19477,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19474\/revisions\/19477"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}