Hello Huron! It feels strange to be writing this, but the academic year will soon be coming to an end. Over the month of March, myself and the rest of the HUCSC continued with a busy schedule of advocacy, events, and other initiatives to improve your student experience.
HUCSC Spring Elections
In early March, the HUCSC concluded our spring elections. Those positions which are elected internally were voted on by the General Assembly at our March 6th meeting. Here, Michael Goodman was elected as the next VP of Finance and Administration, Julia Conrad was elected as the next VP of Communications, and John Pastor was elected as the next Speaker.
Following this, on Friday, March 11th, we announced the results of the HUCSC’s internal elections following the previous two days of voting. From these elections, Emily Poirier was elected as the next VP Student Affairs, and Gayatri Sharma was elected as the next Vice President Student Events. In addition, Annie Boss was elected as Huron’s 2022 Grad Speaker.
Further, the following students were elected to be General Assembly Representatives for the next year:
USC Representative - Siddharth Maheshwari
BMOS Representatives - Josh Underwood and Shivansh Mohan
CGS Representative - Hailey Budgell
Economics Representative - Jess Steves
French & East Asian Studies Representative - Julia Duquette
Political Science Representative - Mshari Sabah
Psychology Representative - Kate Hull
International Representatives - Mannan Rajani and Ekta Ubale
The HUCSC is only as strong as the talented students who devote their time and effort to it each year. I would like to extend my fullest congratulations to all of the successful candidates as well as to all those who were brave enough to put their name forward in these elections. I look forward to what all of you will accomplish next year!
Blue Community Initiative
I am also delighted to announce that Huron has become a Blue Community — a community that's free of the sale, purchase, distribution, and use of plastic water bottles on campus. This move, which was announced on March 22nd - World Water Day - comes in response to student advocacy efforts led by the HUCSC. I would like to extend a special thanks to sustainability commissioner Cogie Cogan for leading this project.
On March 6, The HUCSC General Assembly (GA) unanimously voted to support Huron in this effort by removing all plastic water bottles from HUCSC-run events and spaces. This change furthers the HUCSC’s previous declaration of a Climate Emergency at our October 2021 General Assembly meeting. The Beaver Dam and other HUCSC spaces will no longer sell, purchase, or distribute plastic water bottles in line with Huron's move to become a Blue
Community. We are excited to see a positive response to student advocacy and engagement. This is a small, but important first step for our campus and community.
OUSA Spring 2022 GA
From March 10-13th, myself and Emily Poirier attended the Spring 2022 General Assembly of the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA). OUSA is a coalition of student unions from across Ontario, dedicated to advocating to the Provincial government on issues of importance to students. As delegates representing Western’s USC, we had the opportunity to debate and discuss policy papers that dictate the positions OUSA takes to the Province. The policy papers that were up for review at this semester’s meeting were those covering student financial aid, tech-enabled learning and mature students.
Fashion Show, Grad Banquet, and More!
Finally, the HUCSC has continued our busy schedule of events as we approach the end of another academic year. Social events, many of which were held in the Beaver Dam, included performances by local bands, a student leader social and St. Patrick’s Day Karaoke. Academic events included the Professors Debate for ITR and movie screening hosted by the Huron Political Science Students’ Association.
The HUCSC further partnered with our counterparts at King’s and Brescia to bring mental health speaker and comedian Joshua Rivedal to Huron in March. Students from all three campuses attended to be entertained, and learn more about how to protect their mental health in university.
The HUCSC further hosted a two-day Life After University event, which featured panels from recent alumni covering such topics as applying to grad school, writing cover letters, and Ivey dual degree programs. This event was held in response to feedback from students for programming pertaining to life after Huron.
We hope to keep up our events momentum for the remainder of the semester, and I look forward to updating you all on April’s events!
If you have any questions, comments, concerns, or feedback please don’t hesitate to reach out to me at president@myhuron.ca!
MATTHEW CHASMAR, PRESIDENT
