'Your union, your choice'

The Vote Squad: Jeannie Lovesey, Matt Ryan, Sarah Amyotte, Chelsea Mulcock and Laura McCuloch. (Abriel photo)

You might have seen them from the lineup while ordering your double-double, or your Tazo/Chai Tea, or your Grande Americano.

The DSU vote squad, that is Ñ 35 students in all, fanned out around campus.

The distinctive, T-shirt clad group roamed around high-traffic areas, including campus coffee shops, equipped with Palm TrŽo smartphones. The Aliant-sponsored technology offers a new approach to enable online voting on the spot.

ÒMost people we approach have either gone online already or theyÕre excited about being able to use the TrŽo,” said Chelsea Mulcock, a poll clerk.

The effort netted the vote squad a slightly higher turnout for the March 20-22 elections Ñ with 3,155 voters, or 21 per cent of eligible students participating. ThatÕs up three per cent from two years ago, said Anneke Foster, chief electoral officer.

ÒPeople do want to vote. Students are less reluctant to vote right away because they get to play with these cool devices and it allows them to kind of not forget about it,” said Matt Ryan, deputy returning officer.

The DSU's new president is Mike Tipping. (Abriel photo)

Mike Tipping, a political science student from Orono, Maine, was elected DSU president.

ÒAs far as I can figure out, IÕll be the first international president of the union, at least in a long time,” said Tipping.

HeÕs gained experience as the previous DSU VP (Education) and believes this will assist him with the priority of lobbying provincial and federal governments on behalf of students. He is interested in seeing through efforts to make the DSU more open by engaging students with their government.

The results were announced in the Grawood Pub, only a few hours after voting closed on March 22. Cheers greeted word that questions passed in favour of a 50 cent levy to support DalOUT and a $2 levy for campus sustainability initiatives.

The new DSU executive includes: VP (Internal) Rosalie Hanlon, VP (Education), Tara Gault and VP (Student Life) Courtney Larkin. The Senate representatives are Tracy Voegeli, Victoria Jones, Christian Tschirhart and Jordan Roberts. Shannon Zimmerman is the representative to the Board of Governors. AndrŽ Arsenault was confirmed as president, and Yannick Tremblay as VP external affairs, for the Dalhousie Association of Graduate Students (DAGS).