Hello MRU students,

We are your 2022/2023 Representation Executive Council (REC). REC is comprised of four MRU students just like you who were elected by MRU’s student body and hired by the Student Governing Board to represent student issues to MRU and all levels of government. 

The 2022/2023 executive team is:
REC President, Joseph Nguyen
Vice-President Academic, Yasmin Ahmed
Vice-President External, Tera Cardinal
Vice-President Student Affairs, Pamela Malec

In this post, we want to let you know about the highlights of our advocacy work from November 2022.

Summary:
CASA Advocacy Week
CAUS Counterparts Conference
Academic Integrity
Living Room Letters Project
MRU Board of Governors Retreat
Parking on Campus
GNEDs and Indigenization
Academic Plan Steering Committee
Upcoming REC Application Period

CASA Advocacy Week

The week of November 21st, Tera, Joseph, and Mark (REC’s External Indigenous Ambassador volunteer) were in Ottawa as part of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA)’s advocacy week. SAMRU, as a member of CASA, prepares recommendations to the federal government to improve the lives of post-secondary students. Advocacy Week is when these recommendations are presented to Members of Parliament, Senators, Ministers, and other stakeholders. Tera and Joseph were in fourteen meetings throughout the week and also attended a Question Period and a Reception hosted by the Parliament of Canada. To learn more about their work during this year’s Advocacy Week and to see some photos, visit this blog. 

CAUS Counterparts Conference

SAMRU is a member of the Council of Alberta University Students (CAUS) which advocates on behalf of students to the provincial government. Once per semester, a member of CAUS will host a Counterparts conference to bring student executives from across Alberta together to share information and build relationships. This semester’s Counterparts was hosted by SAMRU in Wyckham House from November 28th to 30th and was a great success. 

Academic Integrity

At a “Promoting Academic Integrity” workshop, Joseph discussed with MRU faculty how students coming to MRU don’t recognize the terms “academic integrity” and “academic misconduct”. Joseph suggested that faculty should be explaining to students what those terms mean, why it is important (beyond simply saying that “cheating is bad”), and explaining how it relates to the course. Joseph also suggested to faculty they should view students who commit academic misconduct in a holistic-lens as students who have poor financial, food, and housing security are more likely to fall into academic misconduct. 

Joseph would also like to remind students that they can opt-out of Turnitin, MRU’s new plagiarism detection software. Simply email your professor at the beginning of the semester and the professor will make other arrangements to receive assignments from you for that course. Students must do this for each individual course, but not each assignment. Students can also use Turnitin to their advantage by checking how much of their essay may be accidentally plagiarized.

Living Room Letters Project

During the fall semester, Pamela hosted the Living Room Letters initiative to meet students where they’re at. The project concluded with another successful week in November in the Recreation area. Pamela gathered lots of great data on student involvement in extracurricular activities on campus. Your feedback will help inform Pamela’s advocacy for the rest of her term. 

MRU Board of Governors Retreat

As student representatives on the MRU Board of Governors, Joseph and Pamela attended the Board’s yearly strategy and team-building retreat, which was held overnight in Kananaskis.

During the retreat, Joseph discussed with the other Board members the student perspective on work-integrated learning (WIL) opportunities by saying that:

• MRU needs to help students learn how to translate their WIL experiences into career competencies.
• MRU needs to communicate to students what employers are looking for in their desired careers.
• MRU should increase the amount and variety of WIL opportunities for students.

Pamela discussed with the other Board members that MRU’s e-career portfolio should be rolled out to more faculties/programs, and that a co-curricular record should be added to the e-career portfolio.

Parking on Campus

At an MRU Transportation Committee meeting, Joseph advocated for a real-time occupancy system to communicate to students which lots have available parking space and which ones do not. Joseph was told that MRU would consider this in the future.

GNEDs and Indigenization

Did you know? MRU is currently developing a mandatory 3-credit Indigenous course requirement for all programs. At a recent meeting to discuss this, Yasmin advocated for this component to be delivered through the GNED foundational courses.

Yasmin also told MRU that the current structure of the GNED (General Education) foundational courses are not meeting the needs of students, and that MRU should revamp the material and learning outcomes of those courses to provide students with a foundational understanding of topics such as EDI and Indigenization instead.

Academic Plan Steering Committee

Yasmin was asked by MRU’s Provost and VP Academic to sit on the Academic Plan Steering Committee as a student representative. The purpose of this committee will be to develop the next academic plan for the institution, since the current one expires at the end of 2022.

Upcoming REC Application Period

Applications for next year’s Representation Executive Council open in the beginning of January! From January 4th to February 22nd, 2023, students will have the opportunity to apply for a position on the Representation Executive Council. Represent your fellow students in the new semester!

Thanks for reading!

We, your REC members, are employed in our respective roles full-time over twelve months, which means that every day is full of advocacy and representation happening behind the scenes dedicated to improving your student experience at MRU. 
Keep your eyes open for updates, statements, and more on these and other upcoming initiatives on social media by following the SAMRU REC Twitter @SAMRUREC. If you have questions, email us at representation@samru.ca. You can also visit this link to learn more about the four REC members this year, view updated position descriptions of each member of REC, as well as learn how to potentially become an elected student representative yourself!