This past Monday February 3, marked the beginning of the Mount Allison Student Union’s (MASU) first ever Advocacy Week. The aim of this week was to highlight some of the projects the MASU has undertaken this academic year, as well as to provide transparency and further communications with the student body. From February 3 to the 7, the MASU’s Instagram account highlighted or unveiled one goal per day that they had accomplished this academic year, with the intention of informing students about upcoming changes and promoting positive growth. VP of Marketing and Communications Jacob McKiel, offered some clarity regarding these posts. “A lot of the stuff we do is behind the scenes, so we kinda realized that if we don’t promote it, students may not know what we’ve been working on.”
Monday’s post revealed that the Academic Orientation, which typically takes place during Orientation week, would now be moved from Thursday to Saturday, preventing an overlap with student-move in day. During Orientation Week in 2024, Academic Orientation fell on student move-in day, inhibiting students from experiencing the best of what both of these activities have to offer. “We compiled a bunch of different students’ opinions on Academic Orientation, from first year students as well as volunteers,” said McKiel, “and the impression that we got from students is that having move-in day on the same day as academic orientation made things a little more stressful and difficult. Some students missed academic orientation because they couldn’t get moved in on time.” This initiative was worked on by the entire executive team and followed through by VP Academic Ben Broadent and President & CEO Reid Delaney in University Senate to ensure the change was passed.
Tuesday’s post brought news of even bigger change, revealing that Mt. A’s 2025 Reading Week, which would typically fall in mid-November, will instead be taking place from October 13–-17, attached to the Thanksgiving long-weekend. McKiel elaborated on this choice, sharing that “this decision was made to benefit the students, because we didn’t want students to be experiencing burnout [… ] It also aligns better with other universities’ reading weeks.” This means that students may be able to see more of their friends when they go home for reading week. Other reasons for this decision included the break falling closer to the middle of the semester, promoting mental wellness, and potentially allowing more students to now make it home for the Thanksgiving holiday. The change was spearheaded by VP Academic Broadent, President & CEO Delaney, and the Student Senators from the Students’ Administrative Council (SAC). Wednesday’s post highlighted upgrades to the Fitness Centre equipment, including the installation of new workout machines to the facility in October. The MASU, alongside the Gym Buddies Society, advocated to replace many of these machines after hearing student complaints surrounding worn-down equipment in need of replacement. “Over the last couple of years, the MASU executive team, in particular VP of Student Life Cailean Clements, have been working with Athletics to get that equipment updated,” said Mckiel. This motion was put forward and implemented to ensure that fitness remains safe and accessible for all students.
Thursday and Friday’s posts put a spotlight on increased student voting engagement, both with regards to the MASU winter elections and the New Brunswick provincial elections. Historically, student participation in the MASU elections sits at around 20 percent of the population voting. However, this most recent winter-term election had a reported 44.4 percent of the student population voting. According to McKiel, this increase was largely thanks to the visibility of the election on campus, with several on campus voting booths, “I voted!” stickers and candy incentives. An initiative spearheaded by VP Finance and Governance Rebecca Schelew and her team. “With the MASU being a student union, we really wanted to make sure that all students’ voices were being heard in that election,” said McKiel. A similar initiative was overseen by VP External Affairs Lucy Rae, who helped to create an on-campus polling station with Elections NB for the New Brunswick Election in Tweedie Hall, which made the polls more accessible for students who may not have otherwise had transportation to off-campus voting stations.
The advocacy does not stop with the end of this week, however. Students can have their voices, concerns and opinions heard by the MASU by stopping by their office (located on the first floor of the Wallace-McCain Student Centre), contacting the executives via email, or reaching out on social media.
