The USC announced its newly-hired vice-presidents on Monday, completing the executive team for the 2024-25 school year.
Sarah Fullerton will be the University Student’s Council’s next VP orientation and programming, Daniel Klapper will be VP student services and Shreya Menon will be VP student engagement.
Fullerton is a fourth-year psychology, biological anthropology and archaeology student. One of her top priorities is to make sure that all student leaders feel respected.
“The number one thing I want to ensure I do in office is make sure that all of the students working underneath my portfolio feel completely supported,” said Fullerton.
Fullerton wants to enhance the educational experience of all Western students by organizing both large- and small-scale events that cater to a diverse student body.
According to Fullerton, a huge part of the orientation and programming portfolio is the project management aspect and creating programming that is representative of all students.
Klapper will take on the role of VP student services. He has already been in talks with the rest of the executive team for the last few days about what next year will look like and wants to sit down with the team to develop a more complete plan.
“We’ve been talking in hypotheticals for the last couple of days and really discussing what we want to get done,” said Klapper.
Klapper said one of his goals is to identify the areas in the USC that need maintenance, as well as the areas that need to be expanded upon to cater to student needs.
“I’m only two days into this, so I still have a lot to learn,” said Klapper. “But I’m prepared to get that done and to work with my executive team to accomplish that.”
Menon is a fourth-year political science student with a minor in media, information and technology. She wants to meet students where they are at by going to different groups on campus and club events to put a face to the USC that students can trust.
“I’m really excited to use my experience in the community communication field to get this done,” said Menon.
One of Menon’s priorities as an incoming executive member is to build the USC brand through storytelling and engaging with different media outlets.
“We’ve gotten a lot of feedback that we’ve been giving students a lot of information, but not necessarily taking their feedback into consideration,” said Menon. “So I really want to develop a solid two-way stream of communication.”
Council renamed the VP communications and public affairs position, changing it to VP student engagement at their Jan. 24 meeting. The name change reflects the role’s emphasis on community engagement initiatives and communication between students and the USC.
The three hired VPs will join VP university affairs Mariana Batista and VP external affairs Michelle Wodchis-Johnson as well as president Emilie Kalaydjian on the executive team for the 2024-25 school year.
Fullerton, Klapper and Menon were hired by six-person internal panels. The outgoing USC president, Sunday Ajak, the outgoing VP for the hired position and the USC senior manager of People and Development are non-voting members who provide suggestions to the three voting members who make the final hiring decisions. The voting members are the incoming president, a USC board of directors member and an elected USC councillor.
The VP university affairs and VP external affairs roles are elected through an internal blind ballot by USC councillors.
Seventy-five of 92 council members — 81.5 per cent — voted in the VP university affairs and VP external affairs election this year, around a five per cent decrease from the previous year.
The newly-hired VPs will transition into their roles in the coming weeks.
Editor’s Note: Incoming VP student engagement Shreya Menon was previously a Gazette video intern in first semester of Volume 117, but is no longer affiliated with the Gazette.
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