20-year-old vying for UG Presidency

Nov 24, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – Twenty-year-old Shaquawn Gill, who is currently pursuing his Bachelor’s Degree in Communication Studies at the University of Guyana (UG) is one of three candidates vying for the post of President of the UG Student’s Society (UGSS).

Gill will battle it out with Nishida Persaud and Jamaal Thornhil for the top post of the decades-old student body. Speaking with Kaieteur News Gill shared: “once I am given the opportunity to lead, the mantra of my presidency will always be about servant leadership.”

Shaquawn Gill

He said that in his campaigning, he met with more than 200 students across several faculties and programmes, “not to pitch empty ideas or not to pitch fairytales, but to identify the real issues of students and to identify sustainable solutions to the challenges they face.” “Out of these discussions have emerged five pillars of which an SG-led [Shaquawn Gill-led] administration will pursue,” he added.

If appointment as President of UGSS, Gill vows to put together a team to analyse and make a proposal for the reduction of facilities fees. He explained that the fees have been of grave concern and an SG-led UGSS will identify mechanisms to reduce the monies paid through the reduction of ancillary fees, library fees, and badge fees, while also ensuring the optimum output is given for all services offered.

Gill shared that he would also establish a Student Complaint Operating System (S.O.S). “This system will serve as a fully operational and sustainable mechanism for students to lodge their issues and concerns surrounding the performance of the University, and be given close to real-time updates on the resolution of the issues/problems they have,” he said.

Some other plans Gill vows to execute are to ensure the full resumption of sporting and other extracurricular activities, foster bilateral relations amongst Caribbean universities and place an enhanced focus on mental health and services.

Voting begins today at 10:00hours and ends at 19:00hours. Kaieteur News understands that UG will be using an online election system (ElectionBuddy) to record and tabulate the votes. ElectionBuddy will send an email with the details for voting at beginning of the voting period. Notably, the initial email to voters will contain a unique link for the ballot and no two persons will get the same link. A voter should expect: an email from invitations@mail.electionbuddy.com with the subject: “Vote now: University of Guyana- Students’ Society Elections 2022.”

Importantly, students who do not receive an email by 10:15hours today is asked to check their spam or junk folder. Also, to increase the likelihood that you will receive the email from our election platform, you can whitelist the email address before the beginning of the voting period. Please see https://ug-sseta.atlassian.net/l/cp/SKd3um3m.

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