DSU holds election, referendum

Students can elect new DSU representatives, vote for policy change

By Jake Wray, News Editor

Douglas College students can participate in two important DSU votes this week.

The DSU is holding an annual election for its board of directors along with a referendum on student fees.

The students’ union is asking Douglas College students to approve several changes to the fees each student pays to the DSU.

First, the DSU proposes reducing the health and dental fee by approximately $0.83 per month. This reduction will be possible without any reduction in health and dental service, according to the DSU website.

“The DSU has done a really good job managing the health and dental plan in the past two years and have been able to increase benefits and find costs savings,” the website says.

The referendum also proposes raising the clubs fee by $0.18 per month and increasing the British Columbia Federation of Students fee to $1.17 per month.

If the referendum passes, the total fee increases would amount to an extra $0.10 per month for students on the health and dental plan and an extra $1.35 per month for students not on the health and dental plan.

All the board positions have only one candidate apiece, according to the DSU website, so the positions will be filled by default. Many of the candidates are incumbents or serve on the board in a different position than the one they currently seek.

Telka Pesklevits, currently the women’s representative, is seeking the director of college relations position. McKenzie Hutchison, currently a director-at-large, is seeking the director of finance position.

Francis Ataiza, Coquitlam campus director; Paul Wittayaworapat, director of campus life; Tanysha Klassen, director of external relations; Sahara Tom, Indigenous students’ representative; and Klyde Ouano, director-at-large, are all seeking an additional term in their positions.

There are also some newcomers. Alicia Wotherspoon is seeking the currently vacant students with disabilities representative position, Melissa Chirino is seeking the pride representative positon, and Aahelee Bandyopadhyay is seeking the women’s representative position.

Joel Codoy, Mitchell Gamayo, and Abigail Mitro are seeking director-at-large positions. DSU members voted to create a fourth director-at-large position during the DSU’s annual general meeting January 25.