SFUO elections held to fill vacancies
Jesse Mellott | Fulcrum Staff
The Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO) held a byelection from Nov. 5-7 in order to fill vacancies on the Board of Administration (BOA), Board of Governors (BOG), and the senate.
The BOG is responsible for the management of the university, making financial decisions, implementing policies, and appointing university representatives including the president and vice-president of the U of O. Only two students sit on the 33-member BOG—one graduate and one undergraduate. Natalie Rydell, a third-year Telfer student, won the vacant undergraduate seat.
Rydell said she ran for the BOG undergraduate representative position in part due to her previous experience as a member of the BOA.
“I really had experience working with other students on the Board of Administration, and that made me really passionate about student issues and how the university is running.” said Rydell. “I had a lot of supporters who wanted me to represent student voices on campus … I worked really hard this week and I tried to reach out to as many students as I possibly could.”
Rydell also wanted to address the issue of discrimination on campus and concerns over tuition.
“I wanted to work with the administration and students to make tuition more affordable, because the university has been raising tuition by five per cent over the past six years and had no justification to do so,” said Rydell.
The BOA is responsible for the management of the federation and is composed of SFUO executives and student representatives from every faculty. Brad Lafortune, a fourth-year science student, won the byelection for the BOA seat for sciences, after running against two other candidates.
“I am happy that a lot of people went out to vote, and that people agreed with what I was saying,” said Lafortune. “[I’m happy] that they thought that I would do well at representing the faculty of science.”
Lafortune added that he would like to use his position as a BOA member to look over budgetary matters. “I want to work towards increasing student spaces, especially [for] science students and also just review the budgets and the funds of the SFUO so that they’re accountable,” he said.
