Current UOSU president running unopposed
The University of Ottawa Students’ Union (UOSU) general election will have a two-day voting period from Feb. 15-17. The Fulcrum spoke with Candidates for the university board of governors and UOSU board of directors (BOD) and executive.
On Feb 14 the Fulcrum interviewed current UOSU president Delphine Robitaille about her campaign for a second term as president. What follows is a transcript of that interview, lightly edited for readability.
The Fulcrum (F): Can you please briefly introduce yourself?
Delphine Robitaille (DR): My name is Delphine Robitaille. I’m [in] interdisciplinary social sciences with a minor in [political science], but I just say I’m in poli sci for ease. And I’m in my third year.
F: Can you tell me about your experience relating to the responsibilities for this role?
DR: I’ve been president since mid-November. I was elected in mid-October in the byelections. The role of president is a super interesting one because the role had been vacant since the last general elections…so it was kind of a role that needed a little bit of reinventing.
When I stepped in, it wasn’t necessarily super defined because the executive team had been doing without it for a couple of months. And they were honestly doing it well [even though they were] being understaffed, in my opinion. So it was kind of a matter of coming in and figuring out where my place was in the team, and where I could pick up the slack, make things work, and make things more efficient. So, that’s the background context piece, in terms of what the role entails.
I think what I love about it is that it’s so varied and like it’s always different. So I deal a lot with the finance and HR part of the organization. So that internal piece, especially because we didn’t have an executive director since the end of December, because she retired. Our new executive director just started on Monday, which is super exciting. So it’s going to mean that my role can return to a bit more of a political role in the organization if that makes sense. By handing off some of those like finances and HR pieces to her, because there’s so much that goes on behind the scenes that people don’t know about the roles.
Some of the stuff might sound deeply uninteresting, but dealing with HR things like paid sick days, vacation time, accommodation requests, etc; I’ve learned a lot definitely throughout that. And then the other part of the role is being a leader for the executive team and figuring out what they need from me, and how I can best support them in their respective portfolios. And being kind of that little bit…with the advocacy commissioner kind of being the political driver for the union. And working on some of my projects and initiatives, like food insecurity that I talked a lot about during my campaign.
So really, overall, it’s been just diversified, and I’ve tried to keep people updated as much as possible by doing my bi-weekly updates and stuff like that because I know it’s a role that has a little bit of like — not like mystery, it’s probably just that we’re not advertising well enough. That’s kind of how I’ve seen the role so far.
F: How do you plan to apply what you have learned this term to a full mandate?
DR: I think that a new mandate is challenging in the sense that we found a routine with the current executive team, and I love working with them and I love the dynamic that we have. So it’s definitely a little stressful, I guess, to go into knowing that [the] dynamic is gonna change. We’re gonna get some new people but it’s also really inspiring. I’m excited to see the experiences that they bring and the vision they bring. And so I know that they will be…I’m gonna have to use what I’ve learned to help with their onboarding, to kind of create a cohesive team as fast as possible.
These are really niche thoughts, but I think that it’s hard to start these roles because there is a lot of turnovers, so I feel a responsibility to make sure that I onboard the new people who come in, and that I’m supporting them throughout their new role, etc. So I think I’m going to take what I wish I knew when I started this role and try to onboard them as best as I can to create that team cohesion, as early as possible so that we can hit the ground running.
We know that summer — or May when the new people start — is a super busy time for the Union, which it might not seem like it because students are leaving campus. But it’s like budget approvals are happening for the next year, like a ton of consultation on that, a ton of work, 101 Week planning is starting. So there are really big things to set in motion for the next academic year. So I’ve seen my role is kind of being a facilitator for that also.
So that’s more on the new exact piece but then, of course, I’m taking all the lessons and the knowledge that I’ve gotten into a full mandate. And I think on the more personal piece of it, I think that I was faced with a lot of reality checks about time management and work-life balance and things like that. [Which are] fine to kind of be working 24/7 when you’re doing it for maybe four months but knowing that I’m running unopposed and probably fingers crossed, going into it for a whole year.
I think that I’m gonna need to set better boundaries with myself to work on my time management and to spend time with my friends and family, etc. But also working my full-time job and it’s a priority I love it so much, but I need to be better at having a work-life balance. So that’s more on the personal piece. That’s something that I’m going to take into strong consideration going into a full year.
F: Just briefly following up on that, I know you mentioned onboarding and making sure the new committee and new directors know what they need to know since they pretty much hit the ground running when May starts. And I know that last year around May, it was a bit difficult to get started because of transition reports, information, and things like that. So assuming that this is part of your responsibility as president, how would you help facilitate an easier transition? Do you have a strategy plan for making sure that everything’s in the right place for the new hires?
DR: I started my role as chair [of the board of directors] last May, right at the same time as the new board started. We started at the same time, so I saw a lot of those challenges on the executive and directors’ side. And I think it’s something that the Constitution is kind of prohibitive of, like good transitions like there’s nothing codified, there’s nothing in place. It’s kind of like, well, these execs finish April 30, and these execs and directors start May 1. And you know, they don’t really interact.
So I know that there has been a will from the board of directors and the Elections Committee to start inviting, for example, all the directors that are going to be elected to come to meetings for the first couple of weeks before they start, so that there’s more of like a smooth transition. I’m hoping to do the same with the incoming executives, to make sure that where there is an executive in their current role. For example, for the advocacy role, our incumbent isn’t running again. But I want to make sure that everyone gets a chance to sit down with their counterpart ahead of the year starting.
And I know so far that’s not something that’s codified in the Constitution. It’s not an expectation for the people coming in to start working before their term. I don’t want to overburden anyone. But I’m hoping to see an interest and willingness from the people coming in to engage with the current executive team and the current board a little bit before they start.
That’s actually a constitutional amendment that I plan to move after this election cycle. There is kind of…it’s an easy excuse, but I guess no time to do that in the short time that I’ve been here, but it needs to go through the Governance Committee and the Board etc. But it’s something that I’m going to be pushing for so that it’s in place starting at the next election, like a codified transition period. Whether, for example, two weeks that overlap or a designated amount of hours that people have to put in. I’m very flexible on how it’s gonna look.
But in the meantime, doing some of that more informal transition and having meetings, but also social moments where we can kind of call get to know each other before things start, I think it’s kind of where my head’s at. And obviously keeping my execs accountable for writing comprehensive transition reports, and making sure that they’re submitted on time, which is also the executive oversight committee’s role. But you know, so it doesn’t get to the point of having to run after anyone. I think all of the execs have started working on their own transition reports, etc. So, just making sure that there was an oversight on that and that it gets done.
F: What were some issues UOSU tackled in the last term that you respected? What were some issues that you believe were ignored?
DR: Yeah, I mean looking way back, one of the first things that I heard UOSU doing was when they pushed for that pass-fail thing during COVID. That was one of the things that affected me as a student when I was in first-year, I didn’t really know what the student union was. Those were the kinds of things that I heard.
In terms of the most recent term, right before I started, I can think of so many things but I think Rayne [Daprato] spearheaded a fantastic 101 week where there was a lot of focus being put on sexual violence prevention, knowing that one on one week is in that red zone of where a lot of sexual violence happens on university campuses. Having a ton of volunteers mobilized for, having that training for every single participant in 101-week and having resources, so I think that part was super cool. And I’m excited to see how the next 101-week will be even better but I’ve been a guide for the past two years, as well as I had like a great experience in this one. And I think that sexual violence piece was so important.
I think that Maisy [Elspeth], our advocacy commissioner, has been great. It’s obviously very much of an ongoing issue but being a good listening ear, but also pushing for change, regarding like everything like anti-Palestinian racism on campus, the issues of like the situation in Gaza, the humanitarian crisis, like I could go on. I think that there has been a lot happening behind the scenes in terms of advocacy to the university and in terms of, for example, Dr. Yipeng Ge who was suspended, etc. I think that Maisy has taken a lot of initiative on that, and that was good to see. And obviously, something that needs to keep happening and that needs to keep going and…we’re keeping the university accountable on that and pushing them…we have like a letter coming to them soon. They’ll hear about it. But so I think that that was good.
There were a ton of other things I could mention, but I was really happy to see. More involvement with the general assemblies and with the election, the voter turnout increasing — obviously not to staggering numbers, but I think that was good progress. It’s really great to see services and Pivik, for example, being more and more integrated into the university community and becoming a central part of it, so that’s been super cool. The last thing I’m gonna mention: RBC off-campus, a lot of cool environmental clubs, and the Indigenous Student Association with their advocacy commissioner got to meet with… senior RBC executives and things like that.
In terms of things that I think can go better, or that I’m hoping to work on at least, some more of those food insecurity initiatives that I mentioned. I think that our food bank and our food bank employees are doing fantastic work. I think that I’m looking forward to seeing like more of a push on the advocacy surrounding that issue. And you know, the Food Bank and the programming, some of it is meant as a very much last resort kind of thing, like emergency support. So I’m looking forward to seeing us take more of an active role on direct advocacy for it. Advocating for food security on campus, advocating for its food systems that support our communities, etc.
I think that that part of me was missing and I’m super excited to to bring it. This is not the fault of anyone, I’m just saying this is one of the things that I care about and that I’m excited to be bringing. It’s more of an exec advocacy point in collaboration obviously, with our food bank and our service employees.
In terms of other things, we passed a couple of referendums in the fall — not ‘we’ but students moved a couple of referendums, for example, about a student pub that was passed in the fall. It’s only been a couple of months, but there hasn’t been significant movement being done yet. Also, with the executive office being understaffed, we’re starting to work on it now, exploring potential locations which is super exciting with the spirit of creating community and student spaces, etc. So that’s gonna be cool.
Yeah, I don’t know. I just think that I’m trying to look at it from a very constructive perspective of being what hasn’t been done and can be we do better rather than ‘you didn’t do that, you suck’. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying everything’s been done perfectly, I’m just trying to pinpoint specific examples. I might circle back to it if something else comes to mind.
What do you hope to achieve within the role of president? What projects do you plan to continue as part of your mandate?
DR: I’ve touched on it in a couple of different questions, but I think my overarching goal is, you know, the union is still a very young organization. It’s a couple of years old and right when it started, COVID happened, right? So it’s still an organization that is very young. So my goal really throughout everything that I do is to help integrate it and cement it into the university community. For it to become part of the social fabric of the campus, that means having more visibility for [the union], creating more engagement from students, and having more participation. Which, you know, can sound like buzzwords, but I try to keep that in mind in everything that I do. How are we going to reach every student? How are we going to show students what we’re doing for them? How are we going to create a union that they feel confident is spending their fees in ways that are meaningful and that are improving their lives? So that’s kind of my like, overarching goal and just to create a strong union and a resilient union.
And in terms of some specific projects in ways that I want to do that, and I guess that also ties into what I think hasn’t been done in the past and that I want to do, is improving the financial sustainability and security of the Union. Not to get technical but the union is a big organization with a large budget, and it has so much cash in non-interest-bearing accounts. Obviously, these are reserve funds, which are vitally important to an organization’s safety, but none of these reserve funds are making any interest. I worked over the winter break with my deputy, Jack who is fantastic, on an ethical investment framework. It’s a 20-page document where I’ve outlined: here’s the situation, here’s how we can invest in a way that’s ethical and so that’s supporting our communities, but also that is going to help us give back to students through generating interest but also through having assets. The union has a lot of cash but it doesn’t have any investments, doesn’t have any assets. So also part of looking at a student pub, that’s a physical asset, right? So I think these things are super important for the longtime health of the Union.
And then they all tie back to the visibility piece because a pub is a physical location that can have the logo on it. So it might sound small, but that financial security piece is something that I want to get done within the next couple of months, and that’s going to happen. I’m hoping to do that in March so that it’s with this current board because this is an issue that I’ve talked to them a bunch about and I’m working with our finance committee on that. Food insecurity, like I mentioned I just nerd out about it something really dear to me.
And one of my biggest projects that I talked about in my campaign back in the fall is around creating credible alternatives for students to food options. So as I mentioned the food bank is fantastic, does really important work it’s got like 500 students a month but it’s not a first-line solution. So what I’m hoping to do is to create an affordable at-cost grocery store on campus. Working towards that right now, [I’m] in conversation with the university, with partners like Ottawa Public Health. I’m hoping to loop in the Graduate Student Association, and the Alumni Association, so still very preliminary but putting in a lot of research and having a lot of conversations.
Our new executive director whom I’m super excited to have is actually the previous Executive Director for an organization in Ottawa that works in food insecurity. So I’m super excited to have her insight on that because I think it’s such a transversal issue that affects so many students and that a lot of correlates with other marginalized identities and so it’s a really prevalent issue bottom line. So hoping to continue really working on that. Yeah, I guess those are two major ones. There obviously [are] a ton of things that I’m doing that are maybe smaller and I don’t want to talk for 48 hours…but I guess there’s [the] two pieces of financial security and food security.
F: Just following up on the financial sustainability part — do you foresee any challenges the committee might have with ensuring that financial sustainability without an operations commissioner this year?
DR: Yeah. So it’s meant that people have had to put on many hats before we had our operations commissioner, Jessica who started in January and has been great, who’s not running for reelection. In general, though I think the operation role is such an interesting role because we have a big business school here and a lot of students who know a lot about finance and operations and who are interested in that stuff. So it’s always surprising to me that we have trouble filling this role. This is such a fantastic learning opportunity for students who work in those fields, like when are you as a 20-year-old ever going to get the opportunity to set the budget and manage the budget for multimillion-dollar organization?
Like it’s a crazy opportunity. And I think that it shows that we’re not doing a good enough job at advertising these roles, and showing what they do and showing what they can bring students on their personal and professional journeys. That being said, I’m confident that with the finance staff that we have, with me doing a bunch of finance — more than I thought I would, honestly — with our new executive director, with our finance director, who we have as well as our finance committee on the board of directors, who are super cool and really involved.
I’m confident that we’ll be able to do that and we have big hopes for this year’s budget, and wanting to create a budget book. Which is just kind of breaking down what’s in the budget, where’s the money going. Because that information is publicly available; the budget’s public, but it’s very hard to read and decipher a budget for the average person. It took me weeks to understand.
So I wanted to make a budget book, [I want] to have a series of budget consultations. I don’t know what that’s going to look like, and I’m kind of leaving it open for Jessica to figure out. But whether it’s a large survey asking students “Hey, what are your priorities? Where do you want us? Where do you want to see us putting funding in? What kind of programs and initiatives do you care [about]?”
So I think that amping up that piece of consultation in terms of the budget and where money is going is super important because it’s shouting to students that we care and our goal at the end of the day is to put money where we think it is the most helpful and the most valuable. We have ears on the ground, you know, but we’re only a small percentage of the the UOSU members. So that’s kind of what my wish for the upcoming budget and, it’d be great to have an operations commissioner, but even if we don’t, we will put the work in and figure it out.
F: What community/campus groups are you looking forward to working with over the next year?
DR:There are so many, I think our campus groups are so cool overall. I’ve been particularly excited about striking up this collaboration with Ottawa Public Health on food insecurity. I think it’s such a cool connection that we’ve made, and I look forward to honestly working with them and any other community group who want to get involved and talking about food insecurity on university campuses. I’m involved with them as a member as well, but the Climate Justice Coalition (CJCUO) on campus does cool work. RBC off-campus also launched a new project on Fossil Free Research, doing a ton of advocacy to the university and to governments. So that is super cool. It’s maybe a little less under my portfolio and more so under advocacy. But I love them love everything they do.
I’ve gotten to me quite a few times recently with the World University Service of Canada (WUSC), the student refugee program that’s funded through a UOSU levy. Getting to know a lot more about what they do has been cool. It’s such an awesome project I’ve learned so much. I didn’t know this was a thing, honestly before I was involved in student leadership. So I’ve been working with them on just getting our basically the document that governs our relationship up to date. Seeing where we can collaborate more with, for example, International House to facilitate the integration of these students, seeing how we can support them more, stuff like that. I’ve loved working closely, or sometimes not at arm’s length, but with different cultural groups on campus to support some of their events. That’s been super cool. I’ve spoken a lot with obviously our International House, but also the International Student Association following Minister Miller’s announcements. I had a couple of media appearances on that, so I tried to do as much consultation with them as I could.
So we’re obviously in conversation with international students and international student groups after those announcements, and obviously, that’s not a homogenous group at all. It’s close to 30 per cent of our student population, but it’s a group I loved working with and that I’ve just learned so much from as a domestic student. And it’s such an active and vibrant community on campus. And that’s been super cool.
And just like, in general, our services. I’m working to strengthen the relationship between the execs in the services. There are people in between us, so sometimes there’s not as much of a personal relationship with the service coordinators and staff. But I’ve really been trying to bring that back and collaborate with them and work with them. So Foot Patrol, the Food Bank and the Center for Students with Disabilities, all three coordinators, me to launch our Emergency Food Bank delivery program targeting disabled students. So just more of that collaboration between services, I think is something that I’m really looking forward to as well.
F: What do you think makes a good leader of the executive committee? What are your goals for cooperation and collaboration across commissioners?
DR: I think I’m still learning how to be a good leader. It’s kind of…nothing really prepares you for these kinds of roles, I feel like. But I think for me, I’ve tried to make it a point to lead with kindness and lead with empathy, and to be a listening ear and have people know that my door’s always open — whether on the people in the executive team or on the outside. I know that I have constant improvement I can be doing. I’m hoping to have a more one-on-one sit-down schedule. There are always so many things going on that I want to prioritize time to sit down and like update each other and what can I do to help. So that’s one of the improvement pieces.
But I’ve really been making it a priority to try to keep updated with everything [the exec] are doing as much as possible, to make our weekly exact meeting a priority, but also we have a formal meeting and then a working session every week. So to come prepared to those things too’ I like chair both of those meetings, technically.
I think being a good leader is also keeping people on track when we need like when we’re getting off-topic, just kind of refocusing conversations and refocusing efforts, and sometimes raising questions that people might not have considered or bringing up like concerns or questions and just like kind of trying to push the exec to be the better versions of themselves. And that’s giving myself too much credit because I think they’re already super awesome. It was an interesting time to step into a team where l two people have been there for months, a couple of people were coming in at the same time as me, and a couple of people were getting there after me. So really, I was not the one with the most experience.
But I tried to take the experience that I had on the board of directors and everything else, and kind of put it to their service. I really believe in, I think it’s called servant leadership and just being the leader that people need, and having them tell me what they need from me and how I can help. And yeah everyone’s been so great, and I think that it’s an organization where sure, I have the president title quote unquote, but I still only have one vote on the executive committee, and it’s only one vote on the board of directors. So it’s that’s where it’s really important to prioritize consensus and agreement and productive discussions and compromise. And I think that the executive team has been great at fostering that.
F: Why should students vote for you?
DR: I did this last campaign so much, you know, because I was running opposed and I think the fact that I was running opposed forced me to be like, “Okay, what do I want to be showing to students in this kind of campaign period?” And I think what I’m just really wanting to do is to be like “hey, my priorities and my goals and my vision are still 90 per cent the same as they were in the by-elections when I got elected”.
I’ve obviously learned some info, gotten some new knowledge that might have tweaked some of my ideas of how I was going to go about things — I’m learning and growing. But I think that my vision is still the same for a strong and progressive and visible union and for a union that listens to students. And that’s financially sustainable, and that’s showing students the value for their money that they’re getting from us. I think that’s the bottom line, that’s everything to me, and I think that I have the experience for it.
And it’s been such a privilege to work in the executive office, but on the board of directors and in different parts [of] the union and around student life. You know, I’ve been involved with [registered student governments] and I’ve been involved with clubs. So I think that overall, I would say that I’m a pretty well-rounded candidate and individual I think for this. I’m probably too self-aware, like deeply self-aware, and I know where I can improve on that. I always try to be open to feedback and constructive criticism, and any student who wants to talk about what they want to see from the union is always free to contact me many students are doing it and I love it. And I don’t know, I like to think I’m pretty cool.
I probably would have had a much better answer for you in the Fall because, you know at the debate,[but] this time on running unopposed. But I think just if students believe in the same vision that I do for a strong, visible, transparent, resilient union that’s also what I want.
