Faculty of medicine rep leaves in protest, VP equity says this was her last meeting
While much of the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO)’s April 10 Board of Administration (BOA) meeting was taken up with questions about the student union’s financial status, there’s a lot more to know.
Motions were passed, vice-president equity Nicole Maylor departed early, and Faculty of Medicine representative
Emile Hashem left the meeting in protest.
Updates
The meeting was presided over by Sylvia Soufi, who presided over the most recent GA, as Katherine Giroux Bougard,
BOA chair, was again not present.
At the beginning of the meeting, Ahimakin talked about the mobile app he had proposed earlier in the year, saying that it was still in “the development stage,” but that he hoped it could be ready some time in the summer.
When asked about an executive member(s) losing credit card privileges, Touzany said she can’t comment on who exactly lost the privileges, but that it was up to the vice-president finance’s discretion, and that one of the factors was whether or not executives returned their receipts on time.
Multiple BOA members raised concerns about the previous BOA meeting, and the fact that it was rescheduled on short notice to March 23. Hashem said that the timing made it impossible for people in his faculty, who are doing clinical placements, to be present.
In the middle of the meeting, vice-president equity Nicole Maylor left the room and did not return, and reports later surfaced that she had resigned. Maylor was not available for an interview, but after consulting with her, Ahimakin told the Fulcrum “she did not submit her resignation to the board.” He said that what she did was notify the BOA that Friday, April 8 was her last day, and used her vacation time to go on break. “As she said at the BOA, she’s very, very tired at the moment, and she’ll be using her vacation time to take care of herself.”
Hashem left, and tweeted that he was “leaving in protest of the execs mismanagement and accountability throughout the year. Also in solidarity with staff.”
Motions
There was an emergency motion added to the docket, which would have the executivelook into finding the
best way to provide financial training to next year’s BOA members. The motion, brought by BOA representatives of Social Sciences and Arts, Francesco Caruso and Chloé Rockarts, was designed “taking into consideration everything that happened in the last month,” said Rockarts. The motion passed unanimously.
Another motion, brought by Telfer School of Management representative Tanner Tallon, sought to put in place a system for accommodating more regular financial updates by the SFUO. It read that additional financial updates
released by the SFUO would be looked over by the finance committee. It also passed.
Almost all motions brought forward received passing votes, apart from one to amend terminology in the
University of Ottawa Student Emergency Response Team (UOSERT) constitution.
Motions for the composition of UOSERT’s advisory committee, the duties of the finance committee, a change to vice-president social’s title to ‘vice-president of social affairs’ and bracelet cutting training for 101 Week were all passed.
A second reading for the BOA to have oversight of the executive work manual was also passed, as well as a second
reading on the formation and details of a General Assembly (GA) outreach committee.
Two motions from the previous BOA meeting were brought forward which were originally presented at the GA.
The first, the Emergency Hardship Fund, was amended to be brought forward in the 2017-18 budget, as opposed to its original implementation in 2016-17, due to the recent financial issues. The motion was passed with the amendment, so it will not be available in the upcoming
academic year.
The second motion, which aimed to promote bilingualism among SFUO executives was defeated, with several board members saying it would make the positions less accessible.
This was the final meeting for the current BOA. The first meeting for the next BOA will take place in July.
