SBESS elect president for 2012-13 term

Along with last week’s Wilfrid Laurier University Students’ Union (WLUSU) presidential election where students selected Michael Onabolu president for the 2012-2013 year, the School of Business and Economics students voted an additional time to select Sarina Bruni as the president of the School of Business & Economics Students’ Society (SBESS) for the same year.
Bruni currently holds the title of executive vice president of academic affairs on the SBESS board. Since its inception in 2008, SBESS has had three presidents, but this is the first one that had to go through an election process. The last two were acclaimed.
The SBESS oversees the university’s business clubs, offering services including a mentor program for first years and runs many events including a special orientation day during O-Week for business and economics students, the Snow Ball and 5 Days for the Homeless.
For this year’s SBESS presidential election, a little over 1,500 students turned in their vote, representing close to 30 per cent of the SBE student body.
Dragana Savic, the current SBESS president, said, “I’m pretty sure it was a huge increase from last year, showing that people are realizing that this is important and does directly impact their lives [at Laurier].”
Bruni has been involved with the SBESS for three years and responded with, “I was ecstatic” when asked how she reacted to winning the position for next year.
“[I’m] looking forward to seeing SBESS evolve and grow,” Bruni added.
Savic has no doubts about how her successor will handle the role.
“Sarina is what I define as a leader, someone who can interact with and motivate people,” she said. “She will take the organization to the next level.”
For the upcoming year, Bruni has a few ideas on how she plans to add value to the organization. For her, the first step is to “stop providing students with what we think they want, and start providing them with what they do want.”
She also added that it is all about creating more value for the student dollar and helping students evolve.
“[I want to] implement better communication for students with SBESS to get their voices heard,” continued Bruni.
According to Savic and Bruni, the organization has truly grown and can only continue to grow. Savic remembered when “O-Day was held in the DAWB parking lot in a tent because it was a small event.”
Today, it involves over 500 people. Meanwhile, Bruni added, “The SBESS can be a role model to other universities’ business societies.”