The Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO)’s Board of Administration (BOA) meeting will take place at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 5, at Roger Guindon Hall, room 3001.
Governance Review motion
One motion that will be discussed today looks to revamp the executive positions of the SFUO. It would change the names of some of the positions, with vice-president finance becoming vice-president operations, vice-president services and communications would be renamed vice-president internal, and vice-president university affairs would be renamed vice-president external.
The motion would also update the constitution with more in-depth and updated job descriptions, with some new additions. For example, a requirement has been added that the president of the federation must have “at least six (6) months of experience as Executive of the SFUO or a Federated Body” to run for the position.
Another change calls for the president to “act as the Press Correspondent of the Federation, coordinate requests from media for interviews and news stories, and direct reporters to the appropriate sources.” This is a role currently filled by the vice-president services and communications.
Policy manual updates
Another motion seeks to update the SFUO’s policy manual. The policy manual differs from the federation’s constitution in that it lays out general principles for the federation and its commitments, and is more a set of principles to be followed by the organization than specific, binding points like job descriptions.
The policy manual in the most recent version of the constitution available on the SFUO website currently states that the federation promotes equal use of both official languages, supports measures that would make campus more sustainable, and opposes mandatory meal plans, among other items.
The motion for this meeting would outline additional political stances taken by the SFUO, including that it is pro-choice, pro-Palestine, supports fossil fuel divestment, supports the Black Lives Matter and Idle No More movements, will fight to make the U of O campus a more Trans Inclusive space, and will take an anti-Islamophobic stance.
The latter motion caused some debate on Facebook, with SFUO vice-president equity Leila Moumouni-Tchouassi posting in response to a post my Marisa Maslink: “I love that Marisa Maslink can post my name all up and down her wall on a place where I can’t respond. I love the ways in which people like to target others.
To the students if you need to contact me my email is [email protected]
To Marissa, Darren GB I would love to have a conversation about your claims as concerned students my office is in the back of the SFUO main office.”
The post received many comments back and forth discussing the motion to amend the policy manual.
Moumouni-Tchouassi invited the participants to attend the BOA meeting on Nov. 5.
The SFUO declined to comment on the matter in advance of the meeting.
