Philanthropic coordinator position unclaimed for three months
Photo by Tina WallaceThe Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO) has had difficulties replacing the volunteer coordinator and philantropic coordinator after both members left their positions at the beginning of September
Sunny Bui, a second-year health sciences student, filed the volunteer coordinator position in early November. But the hiring committee did not choose a replacement philanthropic coordinator until its meeting Dec. 1.
The philanthropic coordinator is responsible for the SFUO’s charitable initiatives, including Shinerama and Movember. Lindsay Hamilton left the position to study at the U of O’s Faculty of Medicine.
“I really loved my job,” she said, “but med school requires a lot of time and dedication.”
Former volunteer coordinator Christine Kiki Lefebvre left her position for a different role as an SFUO events and promotion coordinator at Roger-Guindon Hall. The main responsibility of the volunteer coordinator is to organize all SFUO volunteers, like 101 Week guides and PartiParty! participants. Due to the workload, Lefebvre said she left because she wanted to focus on school and work in a more relaxed environment.
Both coordinators are employees under the SFUO vp social Pat Marquis. He said he was “not impressed” with the hiring process. It took three weeks to place advertisements on the SFUO website, and the positions must be advertised for a minimum of two weeks before decisions can be made. It took until November for interviews to take place.
“The delays are actually quite ridiculous,” Marquis said. “I would have liked to have these positions filled as soon as Lindsay and Kiki indicated that they were leaving, but there are many procedural steps that must be taken.”
The SFUO and the philanthropic enterprises of the federated bodies were affected by the delays.
Marquis said he and his volunteers had to take on the Gee-Gees for Awesome and Movember campaigns.
“Relay for Life is the big project for the winter semester, and we intend on having the coordinator before that starts,” he said.
However, Marquis said the quality of the university philanthropic events has not been affected.
