Students elect new members of executive, BOA, BOG, Senate
Ikram Hamoud led the United Campus slate to victory as all four of its members were elected to positions within the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO) on Nov. 1.
The SFUO by-elections wrapped up around 2 a.m. Nov. 1. Hamoud claimed the executive position of vp services and communications left vacant by Brad Lafortune following his resignation in October.
By a vote of 912 to 577, Hamoud was elected over Vincent Rioux, last year’s editor-in-chief of La Rotonde. United Campus was publicly endorsed by SFUO president Anne-Marie Roy.
Hanna Sam, who was elected Board of Administion (BOA) social sciences member, Sam Randazzo, elected BOA arts member, and Todisoa Audrey Paraina, who ran unopposed for BOA Telfer member, were all part of United Campus.
Hamoud, a fourth-year political science student, said she would work to “make students’ lives easier and more enjoyable on campus.” She said her first order or business is to make more microwaves available on campus.
“It was a part of my platform and it’s also the first project I want to work on,” she said.
Hamoud said she also wants more 24-hour study spaces, and for student-run businesses such as Pivik and Café Alt to stay open longer during exam periods.
Myriam Whalen was elected to the Board of Governors (BOG) representative position. Whalen, who also ran with the United Campus slate, said she wants to allow for more student consultation in person and through online platforms, and to increase the BOG’s visibility.
“As student reps, we’re here to represent the students and I’m pretty sure that 99 per cent of the people I talked to had no idea what the BOG was,” she said. “The first thing I’d like to do is create a space, through the help of the SFUO, for students to clearly see who their representatives are and who they can talk to if they ever have any issues.”
Whalen was absent from the Oct. 28 BOG meeting due to academic and campaign commitments.
Contention surrounded the by-elections because of two candidacy dismissals and the absence of a chief electoral officer (CEO). However, Roy said participation was high compared to previous years, likely because an executive position was also being filled.
“Usually by-elections get a little less attention than the general elections, but I’m really happy with the engagement that we found and hopefully we see more of that in February,” she said.
In the most recent BOA meeting, Roy said she was conducting all her personal support for the elections outside of the SFUO offices and on her own time.
“I didn’t break any election rules,” she said. “I did endorse some candidates because we had common goals, a common vision. I ran in February being very honest about what my objectives were for the student federation and what my objective was and I’m basically working towards that.”
Hamoud said it’s the students’ job to read platforms and know the candidate positions.
“I feel like if it did make a big difference, it would’ve changed the results in the elections last year,” she said. “I know the executives last year as well were endorsing candidates publicly.”
This year’s by-election was also the fifth year in which there was no CEO. Roy said the constitutional committee would be working to fix the issue for future elections.
1Campus, the opposing slate, had three of its six members elected: Jonathan Savard-Shaw, Marilyn Tourangeau, and Alexandre Roy, all of whom did not run against a United Campus candidate.
Three winners were independent: Miso Gostimir for BOA medicine, Myriam Whalen for BOG, who was also endorsed by Roy, and Christine Kiki Lefebvre, who was elected as Telfer’s representative for the Senate.
