URSU Board update

Our intrepid Minuteman braves boredom to bring you your URSU update

By-election results, financial policies, and new rules for tabling

On Oct. 13, the University of Regina Students’ Union (URSU) held a regularly scheduled board meeting. The agenda included the results of the recent by-election, the approval of a new financial policy, and changes to poster policies.

Hill school of Business JDC west came to requisition $7,500 to make URSU an executive sponsor, and to help pay for the cost.

Next, the CRO report for the recent URSU by-election was presented. The KHSS Director (Kinesiology and Heath Studies) is Sena Debia, who took 53 votes versus Mark Matthies’ two votes, representing an 8 per cent voter turnout. Dustin Koch was confirmed as Luther Director with 10 yes votes, which represented a 5 per cent turnout. Emily Barber was instated as the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) director with 116 yes votes, 33 no votes, and 43 abstentions. This represented a turnout of only 1.4 per cent. The Nursing director will be Courtney Lamothe, who was acclaimed with six yes votes, which represented a 0.4 per cent voter turnout. FNUC will be represented by Ashley Herbert, who was elected with only 2 yes votes, representing a 0.3 per cent turnout. The Part-Time Student Director will be Maria Aman, who managed to take 95 yes votes, 51 abstentions and 35 no votes. This represents a 1.3 per cent turnout. Finally, the Women’s Director will be Gina Soparlo, who had 118 yes votes, 36 abstentions, and 30 no votes, representing 1.3 percent turnout.

Sofia Aman had handed in a nomination package, which was not discovered until after the nomination period due to an oversight. As such, she was not included in the by-election.

Last year turnout for the by-election was 1.7 per cent. URSU President Devon Peters says that he believes the drop may have been “because of the new constituency requirement,” which requires the voter be related to the area they are voting on.

The first board vote of the night was to approve the new URSU financial policy. Director Stevan Mikha introduced an amendment that would see the policy be enacted only after a new budget was approved.

Mikha said, “We are changing the policy and relinquishing control of a certain portion of our control by having voted on the budget already. I think we should wait for this policy to be implemented.”

In the end, Mikha’s proposed amendment was defeated, and the financial policy passed by a vote of 9 to 2.

URSU poster policy was updated next. Non-profit groups will now be able to table for free up to fifteen times, and after this they will be charged a fee of $75. For-profit groups will be charged $75 for all bookings. URSU then approved the CRO’s report and the MNP audited financial statements.

VPSA Jason Gagnon worked on clearing up opt-out issues with the Health and Dental plan, and Vice President of External Affairs Lynn Barber expressed her pleasure with URSU’s recent Get Out and Vote campaign saying they registered “over 500 students” to vote in the federal election.