St. Francis Xavier University Students' Union
The StFX Student Union, known as The U, represents the students at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is a student-run organization; it represents over 4000 students and it provides many services and activities. The U sits as a voting member on the federal lobbying group CASA and studentsNS (formerly ANSSA).

Structure

The U is organized as a collegial student government. Each January a president and vice president run separately from each other, and are elected by the student body. The elected officials then choose an executive team which serves as their cabinet for the following year. The new executive team works to structure the following year's budget and determine the organization's direction.

The hired executive is then ratified by the Students' Representative Council (who are the elected officials of The U).

The executive and chair of council work at the university during the summer to plan for the following year. In September, when the students return, council becomes active and the executives and council meet to discuss the general operations of the union and report/vote/pass various issues affecting student life at X.

For the 2023–24 term, the president is Sophia Fabiano and the chair of the Board of Directors and Student Representatives is Brendan Roberts.

Past presidents include:
2021–22: Jack Irvin
2019–20: Cecil VanBuskirk

Past chairs of council include:
2021-22: Naomi Stobart
2019–20: William Fraser

Bloomfield Centre
The StFX Students' Union is located in the Bloomfield Centre in Antigonish Nova Scotia. The offices of the president, executives and councillors are located on the fourth floor. Council Chambers can also be found on the same floor; this is home to Council and Senate meetings.

History

The StFX Student Union was incorporated in 1965  by James Sutton, Paul Rusyniak, Thomas McGowan, Joseph Coffey and Robert Hutton. Since its incorporation, the union has been a major part of the university.

The Students' Union initially began to represent the student body as a whole while providing activities and social events on campus as well as societies. The union has since expanded through adding services such as the on-campus bar, the Golden X Inn, and on-campus convenience store, the Kevin’s Corner Food Resource Center, the student's Union marketing studio, student advocates, and DriveU, a safe drive-home service. It has also created off-campus support services such as a housing list, as well as employing staff to help with tenancy concerns.

The union was also integrated within the University administration over the years, sitting on all major committees to represent student concerns at all levels within the University.

The well known "X-Ring" ceremony, which takes place each year on 3 December, is also organized by the Students' Union.

In 2004 the union successfully lobbied the University for lighting to be installed on campus to prevent crime and sexual assault. They also succeeded in increasing library hours.

In February 2006, Adam Hinton and Lila Pavey were elected as Students' Union president and vice president. During the 2006–2007 academic year, the union brought in communications initiatives to improve signage, branding, and technologies among other things. As part of this process the StFX Students' Union was rebranded as The U. In July 2006, the Student Union launched its new website which included the new logo.

In early 2007, the Student Union implemented a long term strategic plan which focused on communication, accountability, environmental sustainability, post-secondary research, financial growth, and enhanced internal leadership training. A new constitution, which declared the Student Union's stance on students rights issues, was also passed.

In January 2007 the Student Union organized a protest against plans to change the residences of Burke, Fraser, and Plessis into a single residence. The protest was based on the strong house spirit of each of the residences.

In January 2011 the Student Union organized a protest after the administration made the decision to abolish the student-run campus police force without consulting the students, and then revoked the student union's ability to send out email messages to the student body. Instead, vice president recruitment and student experience, Keith Publicover, must now approve all mass email communication. Another issue is the possibility that the school's all-female and all-male residence houses, Cameron Hall and MacKinnon Hall, could become co-ed on May 1; the Residence Office has refused to reassign students to those houses or communicate about what the plans are for the two buildings. The plans never went through, and the residences remain single-gendered. 

In January 2014, council made a motion to pass a new executive structure, which will now consist of: the president (elected), vice president (elected), VP internal, VP finance and operations, VP communications, VP activities and events, and VP external.

During 2017–2018, the Students' Union announced their full support of the administration's move to change Cameron Hall and MacKinnon Hall to co-ed residences. This decision was met with very vocal opposition leading to a large attendance in the gallery of student council on February 11.  Soon after a petition for impeachment of the president and vice-president was circulated. The next council meeting reported their own survey results stating "The majority of students in this survey did not support these changes so to change our wording to support would be a direct contradiction to what was mandated by the students." In a later council meeting, upon hearing that the student petition to impeach had surpassed 900 signatories, moved to acknowledge an ambiguity in the bylaws effectively making them unimpeachable. The committee tasked with resolving the ambiguity did not complete their mandate.

In 2018, the Students' Union successfully lobbied the university for the addition of a fall reading week.

On March 14, 2019, council struck an ad hoc committee, named the Governance Review Committee, to redraft the union's governing documents (including the act of incorporation) and remove ambiguities.

On January 27th, 2023, the governance review bylaw referendum was passed. 

In May, 2023, the Golden X Inn renovation began.

References

External links

St. Francis Xavier University

Students' associations in Canada
Antigonish, Nova Scotia