By: The Cadre Editorial Board
Before reading our report cards, check out our rubric here. The grade and explanation of each executive report card is the collective opinion of the Cadre Editorial Board.
Emma Drake
Grade: B+
Overall Emma is meeting all the requirements of her job and has been an excellent representative of the UPEISU brand.
One of the most important parts of being president is being the “face†of the Student Union, and in that regard, Emma has done an excellent job. She has done multiple interviews with media and has met with politicians and attended conferences many times. Emma is a professional and highly-respectable spokeswoman for the students of UPEI. Given Emma’s past record as Associate Director of Communications and Vice-president Academic & External, it’s no wonder she knows how to best present the Student Union to the general public.
The initial mandate presented at the first council meeting was a bit vague, which made it difficult to accurately assess how well she’s doing. One of the biggest projects set out in her mandate was improving SU elections. Low numbers of candidates and poor voter turnout made the Fall Council Election disappointing, but Emma has been working hard to ensure the Spring Elections see much higher engagement. Creating a culture of engagement is no small task, however, and success might not be seen during her presidency.
The other two points of her mandate, the Bicycle Co-op and the development of the Club’s Hub, were both launched this semester. Emma has said that the Co-op has gone very well. Based off of our observations we would agree with her. The Club’s Hub appears to be less successful so far. Emma told the Cadre that in the summer she decided to push the launch of the Club’s Hub back several weeks, saying it would not have been ready in time. Since launching the Club’s Hub has been seen little use, but Emma is confident that use will improve as time goes on.
Emma is a high-energy character who does her best to engage with the student body, the University, and the government as much as possible. Internally, Emma says she has taken on a consensus-focused leadership style, saying that the executive feels like more team now. Overall, Emma says the experience so far has been positive for her, and she feels proud of what she has accomplished.
Emma’s different style of doing things makes assessing her difficult; she has made few concrete improvements to the Student Union but under her leadership, everything is going very well. Overall, Emma has done a good job of what she had promised to do.