Board elections draw large turnout

By Maureen Rice

Student voter turnout for Ryerson’s board of governors election was triple last year’s numbers.

There were 436 full-time and part-time students who voted in the election on Wednesday — last year 138 students marked their ballots.

Jovan Voseovski, Erin George and Mai Hoang Cao beat six other competitions for three student seats on the board, which is responsible for making financial and administrative decisions.

Veosovski, an urban planning student, received 128 votes.  George, RyeSAC’s v.p. education, placed second with 120, and Cao, a mechanical engineering student, got 107.

The voter turnout wasn’t as good as for RyeSAC’s elections, said George, but “it’s always nice to come and see people come and vote.  I think there was increased awareness this year.”

Ron Stagg, a history professor, won the faculty seat that was up for grabs, and Ken Scullion, of registration and records, will be the board’s staff representative.

In conjunction with the board elections, continuing education students were asked to vote on a referendum question asking to transfer money to a student campus centre fund.

Night school students were asked whether they were in favour of transferring $2.50 of the $3 levy they pay per course to the Recreation and Athletics Centre (RAC) mortgage to a proposed student campus centre.  The RAC’s mortgage will be paid off next year.

Of the 147 students who voted —34 per cent of total voter turnout — eight were against transferring the levy.  Starting next year, $2.50 a course will go toward the centre, and the other 50 cents will be used for the RAC’s upkeep.

Board of governors winners will begin their appointment Nov. 15.  But it will be a shorter term than usual because elections for next year’s board will take place in April so the terms can begin Sept. 1.