FSU by-election winners announced
FSU President Ricardo Souza
On Oct. 20, Fanshawe Student Union (FSU) president, Ricardo Souza announced the winners of the FSU by-elections. Four vacant Director seats were up for grabs, while 10 candidates vied for the positions over the course of a week-long campaign.
Candidates uploaded speeches and personal bios to the FSU website and campaigned across campus through posters and social media.
After all the votes were tallied, Souza announced that the four new FSU Directors will be fourth-year Bachelor of Commerce Digital Marketing student Cadie De Kelver, Baking and Pastry Arts Management student and FSU Class Representative Barbara Burger, Business Management student Ana Nelson and Supply Chain Management and Logistics graduate student Prakhar Kapoor.
Over 1,100 students voted in the by-election, which was held via FanshaweOnline from Oct. 18–Oct. 20, ending at 2 p.m. The margin of votes between the fourth place candidate and the fifth place candidate was just 11 votes.
Souza said he was pleased with the turnout, but said the college still has a long way to go in getting students involved in college politics.
“I think we’re getting better…. and I was super joyful to know the number of candidates we had, we had 10 candidates and I think the numbers are rising….but I think we still have a lot of work to do to have more students voting in the next elections,” he said.
The candidate with the most overall votes was Cadie De Kelver, who has been a student at Fanshawe for seven years. De Kelver successfully clinched 602 votes.
“As a Fanshawe student for seven years I have had many experiences with Fanshawe, some highlights being an international exchange where I studied in Clermont-Ferrand, France as well as took part in the inSPIRE Mentorship program virtually throughout the pandemic,” said De Kelver in her candidate bio.
Souza said De Kelver’s experience as a domestic student with years of Fanshawe expertise would be a welcome addition to the Board.
“She’s going to represent a portion of the student community that was not represented until now so I’m very excited,” said Souza. “Also with her experience, I think she’s going to add a lot of good stuff for our students.”
The newly-appointed Board of Directors will represent all fulltime Fanshawe College students on the Student Administrative Council (S.A.C.) Board of the FSU. Directors are responsible for defining the strategic goals to be implemented by the operations of the FSU. Directors are a major policy-making body of the FSU, allowing students to voice their opinions and concerns in all areas of the FSU and College affairs.
“The Board of Directors are the policy-making group in the college so they are very, very important,” said Souza. “They are a big deal and they have such an important role here at the FSU.”
See below for a complete breakdown of how students voted.
• De Kelver, Cadie: 602
• Burger, Barbara: 522
• Nelson, Ana: 485
• Kapoor, Prakhar: 313
• Gurram, Lakshmi Sai: 302
• Sannidhanam, Anurag: 271
• Bhardwaj, Sarah: 252
• Purohit, Abhishek Singh: 95
• Adeniyi, Adefolake: 88
• Ahmad, Muzammil: 62
• Spoiled: 3
Visit fsu.ca/elections to learn more about the candidates and winners for the FSU Board of Directors.
