Yesterday evening, the Physical and Health Education Student Association (PHESA) announced Hailey Banack and Dean Vlahaki, both PhysEd ’07 as their new co-presidents, after a two-day election period, held on Wednesday and Thursday.
Katie MacKay, PhysEd ’07 and the internal affairs director, said the voter turnout was just above 50 per cent—relatively high for their small faculty of approximately 400 students.
Banack and Vlahaki will succeed current co-presidents Meaghan Dodgson and Julie Davidson, both PhysEd ’06.
Both Dodgson and Davidson expressed their confidence in the new co-presidents.
“Hailey and Dean have worked together forever and they’ve been on committees together since first year,” Davidson said. “We’re happy with the results. They’re very qualified individuals and they’re going to have a great year.” Before next year, the School of Physical Health and Education will take on a new name.
This is one of the main challenges that new executive will face, Vlahaki said.
Vlahaki explained that earlier this year, the School of Physical Health and Education decided to change its name to the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies, and will include the existing department of health studies.
“The transition is going to be huge for PHESA,” he said. “PhysEd is a small, tightly knit faculty with a lot of traditions and values we want to maintain. Since our program is being phased out, maintaining those things will be a major objective for us.” Vlahaki also addressed problems of communication that he hopes to solve with his co-president.
“The biggest role in the last year was getting word out to students in terms of events,” he said. “It’s hard because we don’t have money that other faculties do, but we hope to improve this.” For Banack and Vlahaki, the co-presidency will mark their fourth year of involvement with the association.
“We’re ready for an awesome year,” Vlahaki said.
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