Agreement will be in effect from May 1, 2024 to April 30, 2029
At the Jan. 21 meeting of the University of Ottawa Students’ Union’s (UOSU) Board of Directors (BOD), advocacy commissioner Maisy Elspeth shared the outcome of negotiations on the Union’s new main agreement with the University of Ottawa. This is the second main agreement between UOSU and the U of O, the first remaining in effect until April 30 2024.
During the meeting, Elspeth presented the newest version of the agreement for board approval, stating the newest draft was “the product of a lot of really hard work and many many meetings.”
The 47-page document includes a breakdown of UOSU’s fees (Schedule A), a list of registered clubs (Schedule C) and terms for the use of University space by the Union (Section 8.2b), among many other sections.
The essence of the document lies in its recognition of UOSU as the voice for U of O’s undergraduate student body: “The University hereby recognizes the UOSU during the Term of this Agreement as the exclusive student association representing undergraduate students registered at the University.”
UOSU’s first main agreement was signed shortly after the collapse of the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO).
This current draft of the agreement appears below. Once signed by parties representing both groups the agreement will be in effect from May 1, 2024 to April 30, 2029.
“Last board meeting on [Dec.] 28th, there was a discussion on the main agreement,” said Elspeth. “Some of the things raised there such as the [general assembly] date was changed, as well as my name being misspelled, and ‘UOSU’ was changed to ‘the UOSU’ throughout the document, all minute changes.”
“We need to approve this. This establishes our relationship with the University for the next five years. Under Ontario law, it is obligatory that the University have a recognized association or union representing students, so they have to have a main agreement. I broadly think there are a lot of wins in this document: [it has] clearer dates, clearer expectations, less ambiguity around the failed student choice initiative of the Ford Government.”
The board passed a motion approving the signing of this document.
In a later interview with the Fulcrum, Elspeth shared more on the process of updating the agreement to the current realities of the UOSU and U of O relationship.
“For example, when UOSU first started, the organization had absolutely no money. And so when that happens, we got a loan from the university, which we [have] entirely paid off. [S]ome of the changes specifically from that document are just to remove any mentions of that loan agreement, because it just no longer applies.”
Elspeth shared the pieces of the agreement that gave her reason to feel hopeful for the Union’s future at the U of O.
“There’s a few pieces that we’ve negotiated into this contract: [first,] the ability to have general assemblies [and have] the university automatically provide us a space. It’s also come on the back of some problems that happened [with] the last General Assembly, where it happened on a Hindu holiday [Diwali], and part of the reason it happened is because there was no availability for booking and the university wouldn’t give us priority. So in this new agreement, we’ve included a clause [which] basically says we’re automatically going to get a room on this date. And because we know that ahead of time, we can look and make sure if there’s any conflict, we can go to them early and mak[e] sure that we can switch it, and make sure that everything’s all good. So that’s a big one.”
“Another one is not necessarily in our main agreement, but it’s in our license to use space, which is a tandem document and that’s called the University’s Center Building User Group (UCBUG). So with the UCBUG, the goal is that we become more in the loop about what’s happening with the University Center building, because students pay a levy for the maintenance of that building and students’ voices have been pushed out of decision-making for a long time.”
Elspeth shared her thoughts on the significance of this moment for UOSU:
“This is a momentous time and you will see history. We are still new, [so just] going into our second ‘five-year term of recognition’ is pretty big. And I think it’s really important to have good documentation of these negotiations and these processes to look back. So that’s something I’ve been focused on quite significantly. I’ve written a document that talks about the process of negotiation, hopefully in five years when someone’s doing this again, they can look back and learn from my process and what I’ve learned.”
University spokesperson Jesse Robichaud said of the negotiations on behalf of the school: “The current agreement between the University and UOSU is in place until April 30, 2024. The University and UOSU have been discussing a new agreement which is not yet finalized. However, we anticipate that we will reach a new agreement and look forward to continuing to work with the UOSU to support their continued services to students.”
Editors note: this piece was updated on 13/02/2024 to include a response from Jesse Robichaud.
