YGSE Elections

YGSE COUNCIL ELECTIONS -

2024/2025 Academic Year

It’s that time of year again, YGSE elections are upon us!

Are you looking to make your graduate experience more rewarding? Want to add to your CV? Want to build community and learn more about university and student governance? Nominate yourself for a YGSE position!

The York Graduate Students in Education (YGSE) is the Faculty of Education graduate student association. Below you will find a detailed description of how to nominate yourself, election rules, and other important information.

Important Dates

Nomination period: March 11-20

Campaign Period: March 21 - 27

Election Dates: March 28 - 29

Nominations

All current graduate students in the Faculty of Education are eligible to nominate themselves for up to 2 positions on the YGSE council. Please be advised that many positions are time intensive, consult our website for a breakdown. Positions are held from September 1, 2024 until August 31, 2025. If elected into a position, you may have some unofficial duties over the summer, including transition meetings with current YGSE members.

To run for a position, you must nominate yourself via our MachForm here. You will be required to submit your full name, a short blurb explaining why you want to run for your chosen position(s), a contact email (shared only with the CRO), and a photo or promotional poster (optional).

As nominations are received, they will be added to this publicly accessible nomination document so that YGSE members and other candidates can see who is running. Please allow for 1-2 business days for this document to be updated.

If the nomination period comes to a close with only one candidate in a position, that candidate will be acclaimed into that position.

Open Positions & Responsibilities

Please note, in the spring election, only some positions are open to help facilitate the transition between councils. The rest of the council positions will be voted on in September.

Some positions are more intensive than others. Make sure to consult our website and/or our constitution for a description of each position.

YGSE members are required to attend all YGSE meetings (about once a month from October - May), attend their committee meetings (as applicable), and fulfill the duties outlined in the constitution.

Executive Positions

  • PhD Co-chair (1 position)
  • MEd Co-chair (1 position)
  • Chief Returning Officer (1 position)
  • Treasurer (1 position)
  • Secretary (1 position)
  • Community & Professional Development Coordinator (1 position) - VACANCY (finish out the 2023-2024 year)
  • Community & Professional Development Coordinator (1 position) - 2024-2025 (start in Sept. 2024)
  • Equity and Communications Coordinators (2 positions)

Associate Positions

  • Graduate Conference Coordinators (2 positions)
  • Graduate Mentorship Program Coordinators (1-2 positions)

Committee Positions

  • Faculty Council Representatives (2 positions)
  • Coordinating & Planning Committee (1 position)

Campaign Period

Once the nomination period closes, you will have one week to campaign (March 21-27). You may submit 1-2 posters that will be shared with the YGSE membership via our website. You may campaign as much as you want through your personal channels, however you are limited to posting a maximum of two times in official YGSE channels like WhatsApp. Campaigning should not occur during class time or in classroom spaces. You may, however, campaign on campus or in common areas.

Candidates may post a maximum of 20 paper posters on York University grounds. You must follow York’s postering guidelines and you are responsible for removing your posters once the election period ends.

All campaign materials should be democratic and collegial, focusing on the candidate’s skills and not on other candidates. Should a promotional item be judged to be unprofessional or non-collegial by the CRO, the material will be removed. The candidate may be eliminated from the running if they continue to risk the integrity of the election.

Election Period

From March 28-29, all YGSE students will be able to vote via our MachForm website. Each student may only vote once.

Following the election, all successful candidates will be informed via email by the CRO. They will be required to accept their position within 24-hours. Should they decline or not accept, the next candidate will be contacted. Unsuccessful candidates will be contacted once all positions have been confirmed.

For more information, please contact the co-chairs at ygsechair@edu.yorku.ca.

Marika Kunnas, Chief Returning Officer, YGSE