VP social responds to critics, promising more events
Photo: Sofia Hashi
Three vice-president socials of federated bodies have begun circulating a petition calling for the impeachment of Ikram Hamoud from her post as the vice-president social of the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO).
Almost 500 students have signed the petition since mid-December, according to Hanna Fazal, vice-president social of the Student Association of the Faculty of Arts.
The petition will needs at least 1,500 signatures in order to trigger a referendum, which would be decided by a majority vote with quorum set at five per cent of the undergrad student body.
Fazal began the petition alongside Anne-Marie Cooke of the Science Students’ Association and Stephanie Meloche of the Undergraduate English Students’ Association.
“I think she should be impeached because she hasn’t been a good social,” Fazal wrote in an email to the Fulcrum.
“She hasn’t planned events, she’s made mistakes without taking blame or apologizing, she hasn’t proved herself and especially during the summer months (and) 101 week it was incredibly difficult working with her.”
Hamoud said she wasn’t aware of the petition for her impeachment.
“I didn’t even know that the vp socials were working on that,” said Hamoud. “I’ve always been open to feedback, I’ve always been open to communication with everyone that I work with.”
She and SFUO president Anne-Marie Roy said none of the executives have received formal complaints about Hamoud.
“My job is not to monitor what’s happening on Facebook and whatnot. I have to stay away from that … because a lot of people are really disrespectful,” said Hamoud.
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Much of the criticism has taken place on social media, namely a Facebook group called SFUO Does Not Represent Me.
“What’s happening on Facebook, typically, I like to take with a little grain of salt,” said Roy.
The student reps initially planned to bring their petition forward at the next meeting of the Board of Administration on Jan. 18, but Fazal said it looks like they won’t have enough time to collect enough signatures by then.
Hamoud said she has several events planned for the upcoming semester, including bar nights, the Winter Challenge, a Montreal trip over reading week, an anti-racism week, and a contest asking students to submit ideas for events they’d like to see happen.
The contest asks students to offer their suggestions for an accessible on-campus social event with a $9,000 budget.
On the other hand, some have used the contest as another way to criticize Hamoud.
As it currently stands, Hamoud’s term will conclude at the end of April, and she told the Fulcrum she doesn’t intend to run for an SFUO executive position in the general election next month.
