ASUS restructures executive

Last semester, ASUS announced it’s restructuring from two to three executive positions: President, Vice President of Operations, and the new Vice President of Student Affairs.

ASUS President Alyth Roos and ASUS Governance Officer Kristen Sutherland said this restructuring has been underway since 2020 under former executives David Niddam-Dent and Matt D’Alessandro.

“One of the major things [Niddam-Dent and D’Alessandrio] were looking to do is make these roles as accessible as possible,” Roos said in an interview with The Journal.

According to Roos, ASUS used the three-executive structure decades ago.

“It’s been at least 30 years of us having a two-executive structure, which is a bit unique because we are one of the bigger faculty societies,” Roos said.

When asked what sparked the governance change, Roos said after consultations with the student body, as well as in keeping with goals to “expand resources” to support students, the team found it was ideal to have three people to balance support for each other.

“I think another big consideration was considering different people who are looking for these kinds of roles,” Roos said.

“Oftentimes, people want to take on more of an advocacy role, but maybe won’t be inclined to take on that President role […] The VP of Student Affairs role is perfect for that kind of dynamic, and it gives VP of Operations the opportunity to really focus on that finance piece.”

Roos hopes having two vice presidents (VPs) will reduce the workload of each and provide more accessibility for interested candidates.

“The VP of Operations would oversee more of the financial managerial side of things, a lot of operational pieces like the house and the financial management,” Roos explained.

“VP of Student Affairs would take on a lot of that advocacy alongside the president, as well as a lot of the internal interrelationships.”

Roos said this change will spur more efficiency for the society to expand beyond its current state.

According to Sutherland, since the workload of ASUS executive roles may seem “daunting” to students, the added role will encourage more students to run in the upcoming executive election.

Before the end of the Fall semester, info sessions were held for students interested in running for ASUS executive positions.

“We wanted to help students with this transition because we recognize that most people when thinking about running for ASUS executives, are thinking about finding one person to run with,” Sutherland said.

She explained that since having to find a bigger team may pose as a barrier for students wishing to run, the governance office hosted a mixer before the winter break for prospective candidates to meet each other.

The nomination package for the ASUS election can be submitted until Jan. 19 at 11:59 p.m. The candidate debate will take place virtually on Jan. 26.

“There’s still a lot of time to get involved, and we encourage all our students to do so,” Sutherland said.