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Senior Stick is a title used for the President or heads of student associations at University of Manitoba. No other known Canadian university that uses this title. The term Senior Stick is also sometimes used to refer to the actual stick of office carried by a Senior Stick.
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Stick of Office
The stick of office is a staff of office carried by the Senior Stick as a symbol of their position.
While the styles of sticks of office vary greatly between student associations, they are typically composed of an elongated wooden rod, painted or stained dark, with a metal bottom cap and an ornamental metal top in either silver or gold.
Faculty of Engineering
The University of Manitoba Engineering Society (UMES) has been electing a Senior Stick to serve as its head since 1909. Every spring at the annual UMES graduation ceremony the ceremonial passing of the Stick-of-Office takes place. During this ceremony the outgoing Senior Stick passes the newest Stick-of-Office to the incoming Senior Stick and whispers words of wisdom that have been passed down from Senior Stick to Senior Stick. These words are only known by the Senior Sticks and no one else. At the end of every year the name of the outgoing Senior Stick is added to the Stick-of-Office along with the year that they served as Senior Stick.
The tradition of having a Senior Stick as president of UMES was brought to the University of Manitoba by Professor E.E. Brydon-Jack who was named as the first professor of engineering at the University of Manitoba in 1906. After starting in engineering this tradition of having a Senior Stick quickly spread to all faculties at the University of Manitoba. There was insufficient funds for the creation of the first Stick-of-Office until 1927. At this point all the names of the previous Senior Sticks dating back to 1907 were added retroactively. In 1987 the first Stick-of-Office no longer had any room for additional names. A new Stick-of-Office was commissioned and the names of all the Senior Sticks since 1988 have been added to this Stick-of-Office instead.
Faculty of Arts
The Faculty of Arts followed the Faculty of Engineering and started electing a Senior Stick in 1915. The Faculty of Arts elected both a Senior Stick and a lady stick until 1974. In 1975 the Faculty of Arts then decided to drop the position of lady stick and simply allow both male and female students to run for Senior Stick.
Board of Senior Sticks
At the University of Manitoba there are meetings that are called between all of the Senior Sticks. These meetings are called by the University of Manitoba Students' Union. These meetings are called Board Of Senior Stick or BOSS for short.