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By Ian Whynacht Andy Gallant is the new student union president at the Summerside Centre for all the right reasons. The Business Information Technology student, who won his presidency by acclamation, says he took the position in order to be more involved in campus life. "The experience I got through being social director was great and I really enjoyed it," Gallant says. That experience involved organizing pub crawls, being co-chair for the Christmas party and serving as his class student union representative. This was something new for Gallant who, before coming to Holland College, had never been involved in such activities. He feels that in his new role he can improve on a number of things within the college. "I can improve enrolment and activities." One of his first acts was establishing an office for the student union. As of April 1, students can find him in this office rather than searching the entire campus. "If anything was going on that's where they can find me." In order to make things run more smoothly, he has assembled a committee and hopes to be able to purchase a new computer for the office. The computer would contain the student mailing list and would keep track of budgets and events going on in the college. "It's a little database to keep track of all the events we've done," he explains. He also wants to review the student union bursaries and have one for anyone on student council and the other for someone within the Summerside Centre student body. Each bursary would be valued at $500. "We decided to change them. One for anyone involved in student council and the other for the student body itself." Part of his supporting cast next year will include new vice-president Charlene Hanlan and treasurer Kim Arsenault. The role of recreation director will be filled in the fall by a first-year student, he says. "I'm looking very forward to working with them and between the three of us we should do a great job together." He noticed a lot of the activities going on in the college weren't getting a lot of press resulting in poor attendance, mainly because class representatives weren't informing their classmates. His solution is, if a representative misses three meetings, Gallant will approach the course instructor and ask that the current representative be replaced by someone who can attend regularly. He added no more publicity should be given to a pub crawl than a badminton tournament. He feels that every event should have an individual advertisement. One of the things he's working on now is the spring fling. He's hopeful it will be held at Shaker's Lounge and that everyone can attend. "It'll be more or less the same way we ran our Christmas party," he says. One issue he wants to solve is having more social events for all the students. For example, after an event like a softball tournament, a barbecue could be held for all students. "After that day we want to do something that everyone can be involved where you don't have to be 19 and over." Gallant says that holding events like this is a way for students to meet more people, adding that knowing a broad range of people is important to him. Gallant is hopeful this plan will help produce a more positive atmosphere amongst the student body. "You actually meet people from other courses. It makes it a lot better when you walk down to the cafeteria and know everybody," he says.It makes for a better atmosphere."
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