The undergraduate Student Association (SA) Senate split SA’s vice-presidential position into three separate roles – each representing advocacy, events and clubs – in a near unanimous vote of 17 ayes and one abstention Wednesday afternoon. The new roles will be on the ballot in the upcoming SA officer elections for the ’25-26 term.
SA President Samin Bhuya said that the expansion of SA’s executive leadership would enhance student representation, create new opportunities within the organization for more leadership and provide more democratic opportunities.
“We think this change will allow more people to have their voices heard. More students will have the chance to run for office and hold an elected position and more students will be able to vote on more positions. Ultimately, both of which, will put more undergraduates at the table,” Bhuya said.
Several senators were hesitant to accept the resolution, with eight initially abstaining from the vote. The resulting debate lasted approximately an hour and fifteen minutes.
SA Senator Kayla Yan pointed out potential confusion with the roles, saying that clubs already have a problem with who to reach out for.
In response, Bhuya said that SA would send clubs newsletters, release announcements over social media and update the club officer training protocol.
Jack Koscinski, another SA senator, said that he didn’t see the need for new roles, saying that there were no issues with the current structure.
“It sounded a lot more like you were trying to add more roles for election,” Koscinski said.
SA Vice President Killian Hannigan said the split would improve the delegation of tasks and internal communication, where SA staff could report directly to a position focused on a specific part of the organization.
“Breaking it up a little bit more would allow people to have a much clearer chain of command,” Hannigan said.
The bill ultimately garnered support from many senators, including Benjamin Lau, being convinced that the update could bring more efficiency.
“If you want to do one specific job, say ‘I don’t want to run for VP because I don’t want to have to deal with events or advocacy, I can just focus on clubs,’” SA Senator Benjamin Lau said. “Now we might have people that never would’ve ran in the first place. Now they have a job specifically just for them.”
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Photo: Wikimedia Commons
