No candidates ran in the NSS elections

AMS working to support lack of engagement in faculty society 

Image by: Herbert Wang
The NSS will be hiring the next executive.

With campus-wide elections around the corner in the winter semester, the Nursing Sciences Society (NSS) is struggling to find executives for the upcoming term. 

According to NSS President Crystal Sau, the 2022 election period passed with no candidates. Originally, the nominations period opened on Oct. 15 with the deadline to submit applications being Nov. 1. The election was originally supposed to be held Nov. 10 and 11.

Unlike other faculty societies or the AMS, NSS runs on a December-to-December term. This means executives are elected in November, with their terms starting Dec. 1, rather than in May.

As it stands, the NSS said they have deferred into a hiring period. The NSS is holding a special assembly at 7 p.m. on Nov. 30 to address the issue. Sau said any student from the Faculty of Nursing can run for a position, either individually or as a slate of three. 

AMS Secretary of Internal Affairs Amir-Ali Golrokhian-Sani said the NSS provides a very important perspective, and it will be difficult representing the student’s perspectives because there’s currently a lack of engagement with the elections process.

“It’s one of the smaller faculty societies [so] it’s hard for them to get candidates to fill their full roster. That’s a reality of having fewer people to select from,” Golrokhian-Sani said in an interview with The Journal. 

Golrokhian-Sani said the Nursing program is naturally demanding with clinical hours and other requirements, especially as students progress into their upper years in the program.

“Certain faculty societies have added a lot of positions to reduce the workload. I think that is among many options Nursing can take, and we can support them with that,” Golrokhian-Sani said. 

With no candidates, Golrokhian-Sani said the NSS constitution defers to the AMS elections process, as laid out in the AMS constitution. Quite soon, he said, the AMS will coordinate a timeline for next steps with the current NSS executive.

“That looks like either getting an interim [executive] in or getting a special election happening. Someone appointed until it’s possible to hold an election,” Golrokhian-Sani said.

“If this happened for AMS exec, we would be going through this process in March, so we’re going to figure out this timeline.” 

Because of the unique situation, Sau, Golrokhian-Sani, and AMS President Eric Sikich have been working under the framework provided in the AMS constitution. Golrokhian-Sani said they’re working to ensure Nursing students have their voices heard. 

Speaking to the general engagement among students, Golrokhian-Sani said he would like there to be more students voting and running—despite the increase in voter turnout in the fall referendum. 

“We are planning on a lot [for the AMS elections in January] with the marketing office. We are having meetings with executives who will be talking about their experiences, same with undergraduate trustees. Our giveaways are very successful, so [we’ll run] more online ads since they are more effective, based on analytics,” he said. 

Golrokhian-Sani said he doesn’t need a contested election, but he wants, and needs, to have compelling candidates. He wants to ensure there are passionate candidates and there are debates. The Secretariat’s office will continue supporting faculty society and other elections where needed, he said.

In her closing remarks to The Journal, Sau reflected on the challenges of nursing amidst the search for NSS’s next executive. 

“With the state of nursing globally, it has been difficult to engage students. Nursing is a wonderful career, but the future awaiting us has its challenges as we fight never-ending wars just to be treated fairly,” Sau said. 

“I only wish that more people knew how political nursing is and the impact of student government on their education.”

Tags

Election, NSS, Nursing Science Society

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