Thursday, January 29, marks the beginning of the two- week nomination period for candidacy in the annual Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) executive elections. The available positions include President, Vice President Clubs and Services, Vice President Internal, Vice President External, and Vice President University Affairs. As a governing body that liaises between McGill undergraduate students and the administration, the SSMU operates through a collective democratic structure to represent and protect student rights and interests. Students can nominate themselves at the Board or Executive level to campaign on the issues that matter to them and their communities. The SSMU encourages all members to participate in the annual elections, either by running or supporting a campaign that aligns with their needs.
In preparation for the nomination period, the Quebec Public Interest Group at McGill (QPIRG-McGill), a SSMU-affiliated, student-run social and environmental justice organization, held information session Wednesday January 21 in Leacock 110, on how and why to run for the SSMU. QPIRG staff, SSMU employees, and former SSMU executives gathered to express the importance of active participation in student democracy and to demonstrate what “[it] could look like.” While outlining the requirements for candidacy and explaining how to organize a campaign, the presentation stressed that the main objective of a student union like the SSMU is to make McGill better suited for the needs of its students.
As a non-profit that has supported student and community activism for over forty years in association with the SSMU, QPIRG organized the information session with the hopes of encouraging students to make their voices heard in their union. Full-time QPIRG staffer and McGill alum Nelly Wat expressed to the Daily that although student politics can seem confusing, there are many valuable things that the SSMU can offer to its students. “A student union is what students make of it,” she shared. “Students have a lot more power than they think [they do]. It’s so important for students to be informed.”
Wat continued, “To a lot of students, [getting involved with the SSMU’s affairs] can seem really intimidating; it can seem like ‘there’s so many things to be done, I have so little power, and there’s so many things that can be different. But it’s so possible to make these changes happen, and there are a lot of other students who would be there to support you.”
The SSMU legislative and executive governing bodies have the power to propose motions on allocating resources to student clubs and organizations, determining referendum ballots, adopting new policies, supporting student strikes, and collaborating with local initiatives – all with the aim of representing student interests alongside those of the McGill administration. To ensure that student voices are heard and advocated for, balancing the powers between councillors, executives, and the SSMU members – in general assemblies and student referendums – is essential. To underscore the importance of democratic participation, from staying informed on the SSMU’s affairs to running in the upcoming elections, QPIRG speakers contextualized the SSMU’s history of advocacy as the result of initiatives led by executives who were passionate about social issues. “We have things at McGill, like QPIRG, Midnight Kitchen, and CKUT because there were execs who wanted those things to exist, and therefore they [came to exist],” the primary speaker, a SSMU member of staff, shared in the presentation. She stressed that during this election cycle, students must “make sure that the students elected care about democratic accountability and protect student services.”
While discussing how to get involved with the SSMU beyond the election period, multiple student attendees expressed difficulty understanding how the SSMU operates. “[Transparency] is a huge problem,” the speaker answered. “We need people to know what’s going on in the SSMU, and it’s a high-effort thing to find out, but you can go to legislative council meetings and hear about things that [councillors and executives] are voting on. You can also email your execs; they are meant to represent you and you can discuss what they’re doing.”
“People don’t know what’s going on at SSMU, and it’s a real problem,” the speaker continued to the Daily. “I just think that it’s really important right now, especially around elections, to get the word out in a way that will have an impact on these elections. It does really matter for the future of student democracy.” She added that students often don’t realize the role SSMU plays in their university experience, from activity nights to graduation. “Engagement is really the only way [to ensure that student needs are advocated for]. If SSMU doesn’t actually represent us, that just gives McGill the ability to go against what [students] actually want.” She urges students to start getting involved through voting, but also encourages them to support a campaign, submit referendum questions, and hold the SSMU’s representatives accountable: “the more people hold them to account, the more accountable they will be to us.
The SSMU also hosted an information session on Thursday, January 22, for students interested in running for an executive position. The presentation covered an overview of the electoral process and gave potential nominees the chance to pose questions to current execs on what working at the SSMU is really like.
For those who missed the info session but are inspired to run for candidacy, the nomination kit, which outlines requirements, is available on the SSMU website under “Elections and Referenda.” Students can also reach out to incumbents to learn more about the details of their position and what being a SSMU executive really entails. The deadline for nominations is February 12, and the voting period will begin on March 9.