Victoria Silman | News Editor
Featured Image: Hilly Adler and Mayan Shaar have won positions for Student At Large on the Student Centre Board. | Jordan Chu
The Student Centre Board election is over, and the results are in—Hilly Adler and Mayan Shaar have won positions as Student at Large. Jaskarn Duhra was the only other candidate running for the position.
The voting period spanned three days, between March 12 and 15, with booths located in the First Student Centre (FSC), Second Student Centre (SSC), and Vari Hall. The winners were announced in the hours following the end of the voting period.
The unofficial results, posted outside the YFS office, show Shaar and Adler winning positions with 869 and 777 votes respectively, while Duhra followed closely with 759 votes. Nine ballots were counted as spoiled. With 2,414 ballots cast, the YUSC election saw a turnout of five per cent of York’s student population.
According to Adler, the representative is responsible for voicing student concerns regarding the student centres, though the position is held separately from the YFS representatives.
“The role of a Student At Large representative is to voice students’ concerns with the Student Centre Board and help manage the centres,” he says.
Adler is a first-year political science student who is an active member of the on-campus student group Hillel, as well as the vice president of the Israeli Students Association. He was heavily involved in the recent YFS elections, which he expressed some grievances with. His involvement in the YUSC election was the next step to creating change.
“After the events of the YFS elections, I felt it was my duty to change the status quo for the better. The YUSC elections were an obvious place to start,” Adler says.
Regarding the YUSC election, he adds: “Rather than informing students in advance for the YUSC elections, only one poster—that I know of—was placed in the First Student Centre advertising the positions.”
Among Adler’s promises is one that students have mentioned: a lack of seating in both centres. According to posts online, including the YorkU forum on Reddit, this is particularly prevalent in the SSC.
According to Adler, he plans on addressing this issue as a student representative.
“My platform is fairly simple, my main focus is to add seating areas in the buildings to give students more options to spend time on campus. Many students having trouble finding a place to sit end up at Scott Library, which is extremely crowded as a result.
“If chairs and tables are added to the First Student Centre and more couches are added to the Second Student Centre, students will have additional seating options to spend their time on campus,” he says.
In addition to this, Adler plans to “give study access to unused conference rooms in the SSC, add vending machines with affordable food options, and work towards updating the infrastructure in the FSC,” he says.
At the time of publication, the Chief Returning Officer, as well as the other candidates, could not be reached for comment.
