Little confidence in current engineering students' society
There are now two engineering student societies at the University of Saskatchewan. The newest, the Engineering Students’ Association, hosted its first forum Jan. 31 and has become increasingly popular since. The older group, the Saskatoon Engineering Students’ Society, saw resignations from top executive positions Feb. 1 and Feb. 2.
Former president Roman Nahachewsky and former vice president Gordo Loucks have moved on to work with the ESA. Zoe Gulka, the former vice president social, resigned “due to the recent restructuring of the SESS” limiting her ability to perform her duties.
“I felt that I could better serve the student body by assisting the discipline presidents in creating the ESA than as president of the SESS,” said Nahachewsky.
Each engineering discipline has its own discipline society. The collective of all discipline societies and one first year representative forms the Board of Discipline Presidents.
The ESA offered a question and answer period Feb. 2, informing students of the new society. This was followed by a third-party plebiscite Feb. 3 to 4 on the engineering students’ confidence in the SESS to lead.
The vote, open to engineering students through PAWS, cited “a strong movement for change and reform within the college put forth by a group calling themselves the Engineering Students Association,” as reason for the poll.
The poll specified that students were voting on their confidence in the SESS to run the student body, not on the individuals in the executive.
Resoundingly, 87 per cent of respondents said that they did not.
“The ESA will NOT be asking for the dissolution of the Saskatoon Engineering Student Society. We all agree that that would be a rushed decision and entirely inappropriate,” read an email to the College of Engineering students from the BDP.
“The SESS is well aware that change is needed in order to better represent the College of Engineering student body,” said new SESS co-presidents Wayne Balion and Jason Newton.
“In order for our students to be capable of making informed decisions, they will require time, information, and many more opportunities to review, question, and give their input to each group,” they added.
The ESA has produced a draft constitution, and is working on a rough business plan. The BDP email states that the ESA “has the potential to be a much more representative governing student association.”
