The 15 Wilfrid Laurier University Students’ Union board of directors were elected last night, with the four running for re-election all regaining their seat on the board. Out of the 18 that ran, Elias Eerikainen, Jujhar Singh and John Pehar were not elected.
“You know, I feel actually great right now. I was so sure coming into this that I wouldn’t feel nervous, but I still did,” explained Jordan Epstein, one of the four returning directors on the board.
When asked about the turnout, Epstein replied by saying, “It shows the people are really engaged and care about the process. The board looks great.”
Epstein also declared his interest in running for the chair of the board during his campaign. That decision will be made either later this week or early next.
Laura Basset, a student from the Brantford campus, won the lead for director-elects with the most votes. Her fellow colleague from the Brantford campus, Courtney Yole, also got elected to the board — matching the same number of Brantford students on the board as last year.
“This is a really great step forward for the future of multi-campus governance. That was a really big part of my platform; I will get a stronger voice from Brantford to the board,” said Basset at the election night party in Brantford.
Kate Stevenson, Scott Flemming and Matt Casselman were the other three returning directors and both were ecstatic to have a place on the board for the second consecutive year.
“It’s so great, it was great election period, I’m just very excited for a second term on the board,” Stevenson shared.
While he didn’t make it to the board, first-year student Eerikainen, who was also acclaimed to the senate, said that he “doesn’t regret running.”
“I thought they were good [results], but not much to comment on,” he said, adding that he’s not completely sure if he’ll run again.
“I’ll be pretty busy but I’ll look at that time [if I’ll do it again] when it comes around,” Eerikainen added.
With so many new directors elected to the board, many of them will have to go through a learning curve to get up to speed with the processes, but most of them noted that they will use the remaining time left in the semester, along with the training sessions once they begin their term on May 1, to prepare.
“I’m going to be talking current directors and previous directors, like I did planning my platform, and just getting as informed as I can to make the training on me easier,” explained Colin Aitchison, one of the few first-years who were elected.
“I am happy that I can give back to the community. As a first-year, there wasn’t much I could do,” he said.
John Drimmie, another director-elect, added, “Everything’s online, all the training materials so I’m going to refresh myself on that. And then once the meetings start [in May] I’ll get right into it.”
**Editor’s note: this story has been updated from its original version.