President: Emily Wyatt

Emily Wyatt knows what’s going on. With a year of external commissioner experience and as current president of the Resident Students’ Association, Wyatt is aware of how the university works and how to best get things done.

Wyatt admits she isn’t a political schmoozer; she isn’t concerned with padding her resume or making political connections. Rather, she truly cares about students and wants to provide the strong leadership skills to build upon two years of successful SU leadership.

Wyatt is adamant the SU should be run as the union it is and not as a business, and her platform reflects this belief. She wants the SU to benefit students and her first promise is to fight for increased government funding at the provincial and federal levels, a goal which will be aided by her experience in the external commission.

In addition to political battles, Wyatt emphasizes accountability to students, with plans to provide better break downs of how the SU is using student money.

Wyatt also wants to find new ways to gather input from students-at-large. One plan for doing this is to bring on-line forums back to the SU web page. Three years ago, forums were removed after they became a site for personal attacks and SU bickering and it would be interesting to see if Wyatt could develop a way to turn the forums into something useful.

This year Wyatt was involved in much conflict within the external commission, which hindered their effectiveness. This experience with SU infighting is not an entirely bad thing. Wyatt said she’s learned from these experiences, and has developed new strategies to be more accountable and address conflicts in SLC immediately, before they affect SU business. If she is able to stay true to her word, Wyatt would make a fine SU leader.



Where do you see the role of the president in relation to other vice-president positions?

“The president needs to keep the big picture in mind. They need to support the VPs in their initiatives and ensure they’re supportive on all levels. They need to have a vision of where the SU is going and what can be done to get there. “



What are your plans to use the quality money and how will you take student opinion into account?

“We’re doing the plebiscite question again. I’ll listen to the results of the plebiscite and make sure that money is being spent with the best interests of students in mind because that’s what it’s for–to increase the quality of education.”



What are your plans for your relationship with administration over your term?

“When the tuition freeze was put on, never were we more successful than when we were working with administration. That said, as soon as we differ on views and when I don’t feel administration is acting with best interests of the students in mind, that’s when we have to stand up and ensure students’ voices are being heard.”