Lack of female interest in BOD unfortunate

Laurier is again in the midst of student election season and a disturbing trend is continuing to emerge: a lack of female involvement in students’ union governance.

Last year, only two women submitted their nomination forms to run for the board of directors: Chloe Arbutina and Jennifer Solda. Of the two, only the latter is running for re-election and no other women have decided to toss their hat into the ring. With a campus that is 61 per cent female, this is a distressing trend.

The problem isn’t that women aren’t getting involved as leaders on our campus. Women take some of the top positions in administration and at the School of Business and Economics Student Society (SBESS). For example, Dragana Savic has been acclaimed as president, while women in SBESS currently hold five of eight vice presidential positions. Even in WLUSU, women occupy three of five administrative positions on the executive.

This success, however, has not translated into representation at the board level. This is not a function of a lack of electability. Women have not had an issue getting elected to the board. They simply are not filing their papers for nomination. This is very unfortunate, as fresh perspective is desperately needed on a board which is dominated by male directors.

WLUSU needs to make a better effort to encourage women to seek office before election time in order to secure better representation for the large majority of the student body.