I am excited to provide an update on the first third of my term, and so much has happened that it is impossible to sum it all up in a few hundred words. I have made huge strides in my personal projects and goals, as well as a number of other initiatives that were unknown to me just a few short months ago. My focus of the summer, and the first third of my term, has been on engaging with student representatives across campus, actively contributing to students’ council, and organizing GovWeek. Here is a brief update on those area:

Supporting student representatives

As mentioned, one big focus for me has been engaging with various student representatives from the campus community. One of my campaign promises was supporting student representatives, and since beginning my term I’ve been getting a grasp on the enormous number of student representatives. I have spent a lot of time meeting faculty and department associations, as well as other representative groups like the International Student Association and the Chinese Student and Scholar Association. I have also spent time planning and implementing content for faculty associations through the Council of Faculty Association, including advocacy, accounting and leadership skill building workshops. 

Students' Council

Another big use of my time has been ensuring I am fulfilling my role on Student Council and its various committees. As chair of nominating committee, we met early in my term to discuss the processes by which we decide to process nominations and we have nominated a few students to various committees and boards. In my role on the Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation Ad-Hoc committee I have invested many hours (just like many other members) to help champion the creation of a new committee of council, and I have also spent many more hours building relationships with those on the committee and thinking critically about the role of the committee and how to safeguard aboriginal representation on the committee. As a member of policy committee, I worked along with Robyn Patches to update our deferred maintenance policy, a political policy dedicated to recognizing and advocating for a remedy to the effects of needed but neglected repairs,

GovWeek

One of the greater time commitments over the first trimester of my term has been the organizing of GovWeek. GovWeek took place from September 18th-22nd and featured 27 events and sessions, reaching all levels of governance, from department associations to those running in the municipal election. The aim of GovWeek is to showcase some of the many forms of governance on campus and to show students how they can get involved. We are still crunching some of the numbers from this years GovWeek, but keep an eye out for my GovWeek report in the near future to see the impact of GovWeek. Another part of GovWeek that is not as known is the GovWeek Advisory Group, which I chair. This group met biweekly over the summer to discuss marketing strategies, the vision of GovWeek, and to adjudicate grants for event and session hosts. These folks put in hours upon hours of work over the summer and deserve some recognition. 

The first trimester of my term as Vice President Academic has been a truly life changing experience and I am so proud to represent the students of the University of Alberta. There is still a lot of work to be done on projects, in advocacy and in the organization, but the last 4 months have been an incredibly fast and amazing experience.