As of this Thursday’s KE meeting, Edward De Gabriele was established as Education Commissioner, the last member to join KSU for 20/21. De Gabriele was the only candidate contesting for the role, however, he received a full vote of confidence by the commission nonetheless.
De Gabriele has been a fervent student activist throughout his last 4 years on campus. He first served for two terms in MHSA eventually becoming President, and then another two terms in UoM Wolves having become Vice President. De Gabriele is also currently a student representative on the board of the Faculty of Health Sciences until November 2020.
The Third Eye got in touch with De Gabriele to talk about his plans moving forward within the Education Office of the Council.
I’m extremely honoured to be given the approval of the Education Commission to take on this role for the next term. I look forward to working hand in hand with all the student representatives throughout UM as well as with the relevant bodies at UM.
It’s definitely a fresh page for KSU. With the new faces and the first ever Student Affairs Officer it will be an interesting year. I look forward to working with Elsa Cassar, Education Coordinator to ensure that we bring the most of out the Education Office this year.
De Gabriele said that he has already started preparing for one of his main proposals from his manifesto. His intends to enhance the Education Commission so it can continue to be a supporting organ to all student representatives, especially in light of the current difficult situation. De Gabriele is planning a multiple-faceted approach to increase the attendance and reliability of the Commission.
Tackling issues from the get-go
One main issue that he highlighted was that the Registrar’s communication with elected and potential student representatives is not efficient. De Gabriele aims to open communication with Registrar to see how the issue can be tackled collectively.
Student representatives are elected through systems run by the Registrar. Unfortunately, the Registrar does not inform student representatives of their duties to the Commission before or after their election.
Another issue brought up was that post graduate student representative positions often remain vacant. De Gabriele has plans to meet with the elected post-graduate representatives to see how they can work jointly to increase interest. This will hopefully result in a more representative Commission.
As an active student and current student representative himself, he is also aware how difficult managing these responsibilities can be. So, he hopes to introduce new systems with regards to the annual meeting schedule to aid student representatives to balance their schedules and commitments.
De Gabriele has other proposals which he outlined in his manifesto which he also seeks to work on relating to areas of Student Wellbeing, Safeguarding UM as well as continuations of past successful work done by the Council.
The Third Eye team wishes Ed and the rest of the newly elected team the best of luck for their coming term in KSU!