Executive of students’ union clarify missions for 2015-16 year
At the second Annual General Meeting last Wednesday executive members reported on their plans for the year and what they had accomplished this summer.
MASU President Dylan Wooley-Berry focused on informing students about the changes he intends to make to active policies. “There will be two strategic planning exercises that will be open to all students […] which will then integrate [their] ideas and suggestions and concerns into our strategic plan,” said Wooley-Berry.
Wooley-Berry was asked during the Q&A period how he expected to have a large enough turnout for the strategic planning committees when there were approximately 30 students in attendance.
Wooley-Berry said the MASU planned the committees on different days and different times to ensure the largest turnout for students. Mary Emma MacNeil, MASU’s vice-president, academic affairs, said her main concern for the year was to better target academic mentors in residence with recent restructuring handbooks and training.
MacNeil also said, “Pass/Fail distribution credits are on my radar for the upcoming year; these distribution credits allow students to take […] credits that do not impact their GPA.”
VP External Affairs Annie Sherry said she wants to incorporate external work with the New Brunswick Student Alliance (NBSA) and the Canadian Alliance of Students Association (CASA) into the MASU. For example, “CASA staff has put together an incredibly extensive white paper on mental health which provides our government with several recommendations to increase mental-health services to students in need,” said Sherry.
VP Campus Life Ryan LeBreton puts similar focus on students’ mental health. He has reached out to Aspiria, which offers a student-assistance program for mental-health assistance on campus.
VP Finance and Operations Alex Lepianka said he wants to ensure the way the MASU does things is “efficient, transparent and accessible to all of our members.” Lepianka wants the MASU to be adaptable. “We need to recognize why things go wrong, what needs to change and how to avoid any problems with professionalism in the future,” he said.
Tina Oh, MASU’s VP communications, said she wants to reject the idea of selling a product to the members (the students of Mt. A).
