The results of the 2020 Board of Governors (BoG) student governor elections were released on Feb. 5.
There were four undergraduates running for two available positions, and two graduate students running for two positions.
As the “corporate body of the university,” according to the BoG website, the organization is responsible for university finances, approving infrastructural changes on campus, and upholding the overall conduct of the school.
The elected undergraduate representatives are third-year business law student and current vice-president (internal) of the Carleton Academic Student Government (CASG), Tyler Boswell, as well as first-year global and international affairs student, Nathaniel Black, who has been elected into local and national roles within the Conservative political party since the age of 15.
Next year’s graduate representatives, who ran uncontested in the 2020 election, are masters of social work student Samantha Davin and masters of economics student Frohan Foroutan.
Both undergraduate and graduate representatives will complete a one-year volunteer term, with the goal of representing student voices at the university’s administrative level.
The number of candidates in this year’s election saw a decline from last year’s 10, with only six students competing for the four vacant positions.
Despite having lower candidacy than last year, Amanda Goth, the university secretary, said at least there was an equal number of female and male candidates.
This year’s undergraduate candidates were all male, with only one elected candidate, Black, advocating strongly for female representation.
However, both candidates for the graduate positions were female.
The number of voters participating in the election was also low, with only 12 per cent of undergraduate students casting ballots.
Of about 3,000 undergraduate student voters, roughly a third—1,000 ballots—voted to abstain.
Featured image from file.
