General Information

An appointment process was called under part 11 of the Elections Policy to appoint vacant positions to the DCSA board of Directors.

The vacant positions are as follows:

• Director from the Faculty of Business;
• Director from the Faculty of Health Sciences (HS);
• Director from the Faculty of Skilled Trades & Apprenticeship (STA); and
• Director from the Faculty of Hospitality and Horticultural Science (HHS)

The role of the Board of Directors is to:

• The Board of Directors is the body of the organization whose duty is to “manage the affairs and activities of the Corporation”
• The Board of Directors is a collective, meaning that with only a few exceptions, the Board as a whole is responsible for the duties and responsibilities of the management of the affairs of the corporation.
• Individually, directors do not have the authority to direct staff or manage the affairs of the Corporation.

The role of the Members of the Board of Directors is to:

• oversee the governance of the corporation by attending and participating in Board and Committee meetings; and
• serve on various college committees as required.

Members of the Board of Directors receive an honorarium between $350.00 – $550.00 per semester. (See section 7 of the Non-Union Managers and Corporate Officers Remuneration Policy).

Election timeline

The Timeline for the By-Election is as follows:

Nominations Open and Notice Date:

September 29, 2022

Nominations due:

October 7, 2022 at 2:00 p.m.

Statements  issued on website:

October 12, 2022

Voting starts:

October 17, 2022 at 9:00 a.m.

Election date:

October 20, 2022 at 5:00 p.m.

Eligibility to run

Who is qualified to run?

To run for the position of Director, you must:

• Be a full-time student of Durham College registered in a post-secondary program within the faculity which you seek to represent;
• Be over 18 years of age;
• Not be deemed ineligible to manage property under various federal or provincial statutes, including being bankrupt;
• Be in good academic (2.0 GPA) and non-academic standing with Durham College;
• Not be convicted of an indictable offence or convicted for an offence regarding property, public order, contract or trades, sexual offences, or offences against the person under the Criminal Code for which  absolute discharge, conditional discharge, pardon, or record suspension has not been granted.

Current Staff of DCSA

Any Durham College Student Association staff are to be placed on a leave of absence for the election period. If they decide to run, if they win, they are deemed to have resigned their staff position with DCSA upon taking office.

Nominations

An information session will be held on October 4, 2022.  A recording of the session will be available on the DCSA Election page at mydcsa.ca/elections.

Campaigning

Campaigning can begin on October 12, 2022 at 1:00 p.m. You may not campaign before this time.

On Voting Days

Campaigning on Voting Days

There is no blackout period that prohibits campaigning on voting days.  However, there are several limits on how you may campaign on voting days:

• Candidate cannot be present or within 30 feet of an elector during the casting of a vote using an online system.
• Candidates cannot use a personal electronic device to give to an elector to vote on.
• Candidate cannot amplify their voice or speak loudly to tell an elector to vote or not vote for a candidate.
• Candidates cannot attempt or ask an elector to show their online ballot.

Candidates cannot ask a friend to do anything which they are prohibited from doing on election days.

Ballot type and counting

The Election will be conducted online using the Simply Voting System.  Every eligible elector will get log-in credentials at the start of voting, and the elector must use these credentials to log into the voting system and cast their vote.

Appointment processes use a ranked ballot to ensure the majority of those present elect a candidate.  The candidates are listed and electors choose to rank their candidates.  Once the initial ballots have been counted, if no candidate is elected, then the candidate with the lowest number of votes is eliminated and the second choice of electors who voted for that candidate is counted.  This continues until a candidate wins the majority of the votes.  This is called rounds of voting.

Campaign Finance

Spending Limits

The spending limit for any given office is $0.05 per elector to a minimum of $50.00 and to a maximum of $200.00.  This amount will be certified by the Secretary of the Board before the start of campaigning.

Taking Office

The elected candidate takes office on tenth day following the last day of voting.  The Secretary of the Board will contact the elected candidates to make the necessary arrangements to take office.