URSU Update
Author: Derek Cameron | News Writer
Our intrepid news writer braves boredom to bring you news from USRU
by brett nielsen
URSU keeps busy during summer vacation
President Jermain McKenzie and the 2016-2017 University of Regina Students’ Union (URSU) are already hard at work.
Since orientation, McKenzie says he has been in meetings with “various university departments and other groups that are closely associated to [URSU’s] services.”
One such service is daycare. McKenzie says he has been working to figure out how to “ensure that students receive priority and majority spacing in daycares on campus.” McKenzie is hopeful that an understanding will be reached.
The Owl, the university’s campus bar and the perennial problem child of URSU, will be “going through renovations as URSU seeks to change its image and improve its brand so it can start to generate revenue for student services,” according to McKenzie. The Owl lost $100,000 last year and $200,000 the year previous.
Continuing recent efforts by URSU to increase student voter turnout, McKenzie met with Paige Kezima, community organizer with the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour, to figure out how URSU can help promote Municipal elections. He says, “URSU will be working to help students understand how these elections affect them and trying to get them to take up their civil duty and vote.” URSU will be mounting a get out and vote campaign in the Fall.
McKenzie and the URSU executive attended the provincial throne speech and McKenzie says he is “working on a response to the speech from the throne.”
Shawn Wiskar, Vice President of Student Affairs, says he has been “working on resolving student issues from the winter semester and working on student appeals.”
Coming up, URSU executives will meet with the University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union (USSU) executives to exchange ideas. As well, McKenzie is working on the agenda for the upcoming strategic planning retreat and has been working with Vice President of Operations and Finance Matthew Mutschler to finalize the budget.
