CSA elections complete

Gesell and Katz take commerce elections

Andrew Sain staff

The commerce students have spoken, and a new Commerce Students’ Association (CSA) executive has been voted in. Taren Gesell was voted in as president and Patricia Katz as vice-president (operations). Rounding out the executive are Ryan Stoneham as vice-president (finance), and Matthieu Lazarow and Mike Einarson as UMSU representatives.

The election, held February 8-9, had a voter turnout of 210 — low for the faculty. Candidates ran individually, as slates were not permitted.

“It’s pretty low, actually, just three years ago it was around 500,” said Gesell.

There are six elected positions on the executive: president, vice-president (operations), as well as the four UMSU and senate representative positions. Katz won by 20 votes in the vice-president (operations) position, and the presidential position ran unopposed. There were two people running for the UMSU representative positions, which were each decided by a yes/no vote, and there were no candidates for senate positions, which must be decided in a by-election. Ryan Stoneham was appointed to the vice-president (finance) position by the president and vice-president (operations).

The new executive begins its term on March 29.

Applications for the non-elected positions on the council are underway, with interviews scheduled to take place between March 13 and 20.

The CSA is different from other student associations in that it not only provides an intermediary between students and faculty, but it also plays a role in connecting students with the business community. The council organizes activities for students, provides an intermediary between the school’s administration and the students, and connects students to the business community through recruiting opportunities.

Both Katz and Gesell are committed to working with the new UMSU executive.

“I do want to work with UMSU . . . people view us as working against UMSU, which I don’t think is right; we work differently than a lot of the student groups . . . and people don’t view it as well as they should,” said Gesell.

“[The] CSA is run as a business, and I think it creates a bit of animosity between us and other faculties, but we’re all working for the same thing and I want to work with UMSU more than anything, so we can be happy with what they provide us and they can be happy with what we provide them,” he said.

“Because we’re both coming in as brand-new councils, I think it will be easier to start bridging those issues that have come up . . . we are viewed as somewhat of an independent entity from UMSU in a lot of ways and I think that . . . it’s almost like we can have a fresh start in some ways,” said Katz.

The current CSA executive consists of Danielle Arnold as president, Mike Tornopolski as vice-president (operations) and Candace Hodgins as vice-president (finance). The current executive has experience in the current council — both Katz and Gesell held the positions of manager of corporate relations last year, and Ryan Stoneham held the position of controller of finance.

Working on the CSA is valuable experience for these business students; both Katz and Gesell are finance and entrepreneurship students within the faculty.

“We get the education in class to go out and potentially be business people, but then on the other hand these opportunities get us in the door . . . we have the real-world experience now [from] being on council instead of just the school learning,” said Gesell.