JEDDAH - "We are preparing them for the future," Wafa Al-Baz, student affairs director of Prince Sultan University's Women's College told Arab News, commenting on the reason behind organizing the institution's first ever student council.
"The students themselves are trying to experience everything that they can in university and by organizing a student council we are giving them one more opportunity to do that," she added.
According to Al-Baz, the idea of adopting a student council first arose about three years ago from a student in the male section but was not tabled until recently when a student from the women's college again voiced the need, this time rallying fellow students in taking the initiative in coordinating with the dean to take action.
The initial guidelines for organizing the student council, finalized in December, were modeled after universities in neighboring countries and through intense administrative analyses of university student council systems in both the US and UK.
As one of the first steps toward laying the foundation in structuring the USC, the PSU administration organized an orientation session to familiarize and relate the importance and need for establishing a student council to the student body.
"We set up the orientation because in Saudi Arabia student councils are relatively new additions to campus life and aren't tradition as they are in universities and colleges abroad," said Al-Baz. "We wanted to educate the students on every level of developing the USC in order to maximize student participation and unity."
The next steps on the road to assembling the USC came with the distribution of nomination forms, available for download from the PSU website, in addition to the development of a unique computer software system designed to enable students to cast their votes for their favorite candidates in complete privacy under secret ballot.
The software, produced by students, provides election results the very same day in a secure fashion. In the upcoming election, the PSU hopes to upload the program to their website enabling students the convenience of voting completely online.
Final tallying of the nomination forms produced 17 potential candidates in the run for the USC. Students enthusiastically began designing campaign signs, fliers and finalizing speeches in efforts of voicing their objectives on the issue of making a positive change.
"The competition was very high but I was pleasantly surprised to see that they all presented themselves with professional ethics and actually bonded together in helping their competitors during the elections," said Amal Al-Toaimy, vice dean of the PSU women's college.
"I was really pleased at the outcome of the elections and the aspect of everyone thinking of others really made it an enjoyable experience for the entire Women's college campus."
Election day on Sunday proved to be yet another success yielding Wadha Al-Rashed, Noura Al-Haider, Jowza Al-Rasheed, Sarah Al-Ayaf, Sultana Al-Ahmed, and Alia Al-Jaji as the six members of the USC.
Positions were assigned in a closed-session meeting with the executive council consisting of the dean, vice dean, and student affairs director. The six members were asked to vote among themselves on the person among them most suited to be the student body president, vice president and council officers.
At the end of the meeting the seat of USC President went to Wadha Al-Rashid with the vice president position being awarded to Jowza Al-Rasheed.
Arab News spoke with Wadha Al-Rashid in a telephone interview to get her reaction and to find out what it truly takes to become the first PSU Women's College USC president.
"I believe a leader needs to know when to be strong and when to be flexible and differentiate between her own personal issues and those of the students and this is what I think will bring out the best in the student body," she said. "Like I have told some of the other student, just because you don't agree with my opinion, doesn't mean you don't agree with me as a person," she added.
She went on to say that her main goal as USC president is to concentrate on the students individually while working on changing and improving the college environment. "College should be fun and enjoyable with everyone being allowed to adapt to campus life," she said.
One of the primary stipulations in the last municipal elections, in which many women wanted to participate, was the fact that government officials stated that Saudi women had no idea or training in how the election procedures were run and therefore had no place in the process thereby prohibiting women from taking part.
When asked if the establishment of the USC was an example of training that could serve in educating Saudi women to possibly participate in governmental elections in the future, Al-Rashid said, "Most definitely, I couldn't believe how seriously the girls took the election, asking each candidate their positions on college issues and getting involved in the process. I think it was a good experience that is sure to bring positive change for the future of Saudi women," she concluded.
By Sarah Abdullah
© Arab News 2007
