Laurier Brantford starts off the school year by bringing two new faculties to campus – the Liberal Arts Association and Human and Social Sciences Association, which house many available majors. The only faculty associations that existed on the Brantford campus previously were Criminology, Journalism, and Leadership.
Faculty associations provide opportunities for students to work with other students and faculty. It’s a way to become further involved in your field of study, your program, and meet people who share your interests.
“I was blown away at what the groups did, but I started to question why there was only three when there are tons of other programs,” mentioned Adam Lawrence referring to the work the current associations carried out. The Dean of Students, who did his undergrad at The University of Western Ontario and initially worked as the Dean at the Wilfrid Laurier University campus in Waterloo, was utterly impressed to see such passionate students.
“I was very intrigued by the number of students engaged,” Lawrence further explained. “There was such a high level of involvement.”
Lawrence saw the idea of program associations at the Waterloo campus. Quickly, he took action.
“I went to campus operations who [were] facilitating the existing groups and I found out that they were approved and set up through the Non-Tuition Fee Protocol Committee,” he said.
The committee had implemented a fee and after the Student Union’s investigation, it was clear students were paying a higher price at Laurier Brantford than at other institutions. “First thing was to revisit the existing fees, and existing groups and [figure out] how we implement more,” said Lawrence.
Lawrence was overwhelmed with the faculty’s interest and success of how the existing groups worked.
“It was determined that we couldn’t access fees for all of the other programs through the Non-Tuition Fee Protocol Committee, so we would have to do it through a student referendum,” explained Lawrence. “We want to let the students have the opportunity to share their voice.”
This referendum will happen during election time in February 2015. Now the program has started a search for a President, Vice President of Finance, and a Vice President of External Affairs and Marketing for each of the two associations.
