COMPSA executive election results are in

Incoming COMPSA executive want to boost women in STEM

Image supplied by: Josh Cowan
COMPSA election welcomes elected students.

The ballots are in, and the Computing Students’ Association (COMPSA) has a new leadership team.

The incoming executives President Liv Stewart CompSci ’26, Vice-President (Student Affairs) Nina Thaksee, CompSci ’25, and Vice-President (Operations) Josh Cowan, CompSci ’25, were voted in by students on March 3 following a delayed nomination period.

The election had 115 student voters, a 9.5 per cent turnout, with 92 votes cast in favour, 10 students voting no, and 13 students abstaining from the vote.

In an interview with The Journal, Stewart said she is looking forward to running COMPSA events to build relationships between computing students who feel isolated. Stewart ran to make COMPSA a more inclusive community.

“Last year, I was a first-year and felt very out of place, like I didn’t belong. I felt a bit of imposter syndrome, and I know it’s a real thing,” Stewart said.

Outreaching to sponsors to partner with computing clubs is a priority for Stewart. She said planning club events can be daunting, and she hopes a focus on communication between the executive team and sponsors will ensure events are organized.

Stewart remarked on the plummeting number of women in Queen’s Computing over the last several years and plans to partner with high schools for recruitment. Though unable to remark on the precise number of female students in computing, Stewart wants to bring more women into Queen’s Computing.

Thaksee expressed her passion for the team and affinity for leadership stemming from her experience in the Canadian military. By establishing a Computing alumni network, Thaksee hopes to support students in the job market after graduation.

“Being transparent is very important to us; our biggest goal is to represent students’ needs,” Thaksee said.

Cowan has grown with COMPSA over the past two years and called the student society’s expansion amazing. He wants to create a free academic tutoring program for computing students because he feels academic support is lacking.

“Something that I really want to bring is a lot of planning so that our students know when our events are coming out so that they can plan their schedules around them and hopefully attend even more,” Cowan said.

Cowan stressed marketing events to students. For students to get the most out of the computing community, COMPSA needs to go to them.

“At the end of the day, our goal is to represent the student body the best we can, and by picking up those responsibilities that the school of computing can’t take over anymore,” Cowan said.

Corrections

March 25, 2024

A previous version of this story incorrectly spelled Olivia Stewart’s last name. Incorrect information appeared in the March 22 issue of The Queen’s Journal.

The Journal regrets the error

Tags

COMPSA, Computing, Election2024, Executive

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