{"id":28177,"date":"2026-05-06T09:00:46","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T16:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/?p=28177"},"modified":"2026-05-06T09:35:52","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T16:35:52","slug":"camosun-college-student-society-gets-new-board-members-with-spring-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2026\/05\/06\/camosun-college-student-society-gets-new-board-members-with-spring-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"Camosun College Student Society gets new board members with spring elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) held its spring elections from Tuesday, March 24 to Thursday, March 26.<\/p>\n

Athena Pimentel was elected as Interurban executive, and Riley Lam as Lansdowne executive.<\/p>\n

Terence Baluyut was elected as finance executive, Mia Purnell as wellness and access director, Aarisca Sharma as sustainability director, and Madison Huynh as women\u2019s director.<\/p>\n

Juan Samaniego was elected as pride director, Jeremy Frederickson as Indigenous director, Aleah Ann Peterson as a Lansdowne director at large, Nyleah Sigouin as an Interurban director at large, and Angela Chou as off-campus director.<\/p>\n

All of these positions have been ratified.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This year, 751 Camosun students voted in the spring elections, compared to 670 students last year. Despite the increase in the number of voters, this turnout is below what the CCSS anticipated. Baluyut\u2014who is the outgoing external executive\u2014says that this is a problem for many student unions, not just the CCSS.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always try to aim for more than 10 percent [of Camosun students voting]… Many student unions actually experience the same thing as well,\u201d says Baluyut. \u201cIf you go to other student unions, it could go up to 14 percent, but it\u2019s very hard to engage with students sometimes, especially in our setting at Camosun College, where people aren\u2019t that involved in campus life.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the weeks leading up to the spring elections, the CCSS put up posters around Camosun\u2019s campuses and set up tables during Campus Life Days to inform students on the upcoming election in hopes to increase engagement and voter turnout. Additionally, there were posts on the CCSS Instagram page and website about the spring elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it\u2019s been difficult to get turnout for this kind of thing,\u201d says Baluyut. \u201cWe\u2019ve done social-media promotions and some in-person marketing. During our Campus Days, we\u2019ve been announcing the upcoming elections as well as putting up posters around campus. I think moving forward, one thing we could improve on is organizing a better AGM. For the last few years, ever since I joined the student society, I\u2019ve noticed that the AGMs we organize are mostly online virtual meetings, which helps us reach quorum and be able to call a meeting. At the same time, if we want to ensure better engagement and participation in elections, we should create an event where people can actively participate and be more informed about what\u2019s happening at the AGM, including what we\u2019re voting on beyond just the candidates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baluyut says that there are a few reasons why students aren\u2019t engaged in campus life, and says that the CCSS is trying to address that to connect with as many students as possible.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think that reflects the reality for students right now,\u201d he says. \u201cStudents are very busy. Apart from being students, many are also working, supporting their families, and managing other responsibilities and commitments. It can be hard to engage in extracurricular commitments because of that. That\u2019s where we, as a student society, need to step up more. We have to meet students where they are and find interactive and creative ways to increase engagement from our members.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baluyut says that voting in post-secondary student society elections is important because these organizations make decisions that directly affect how student fees are spent, what services and events are offered, and how student issues are represented.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSomething I\u2019ve realized: the closer the government is, the lower the voter turnout tends to be,\u201d says Baluyut. \u201cFor instance, federal elections usually get the highest turnout, then it goes down at the provincial level, then municipal, and then even smaller for things like student societies. But I think what people should acknowledge is that the closer the governance is, the more it directly affects your daily life. People should recognize that and understand the importance of their vote, because it can make a real difference in their everyday lives. Now that we\u2019ve wrapped up the student society elections, I hope it\u2019s something people take note of moving forward. For example, we\u2019ll be having municipal elections soon, and people should be reminded of the power of their vote. People fought for that right in our history, and it\u2019s something we should take advantage of today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the elections, the CCSS put out a call for nominations for remaining open board positions. The nomination period closed on Wednesday, May 6; on Monday, May 11, the board will vote to appoint new members. See camosunstudent.org for more information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) held its spring elections from Tuesday, March 24 to Thursday, March 26. Athena Pimentel was elected as Interurban executive, and Riley Lam as Lansdowne executive. Terence Baluyut was elected as finance executive, Mia Purnell as wellness and access director, Aarisca Sharma as sustainability director, and Madison Huynh as women\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27990,"comment_status":"closed","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":[353],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-may-6-2026"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28177","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=28177"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28178,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28177\/revisions\/28178"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}