Senate

UOSU logo on office window

2,482 undergraduate students voted in the elections; a turnout rate of 6.74 per cent. This is notably a point lower than the turnout for the most recent by-election which had 2,999 ballots cast for a 7.7 per cent turn out — the highest by-election turnout in UOSU’s brief history.

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Students who choose to submit their candidacy will run for one of four bodies of governance: the UOSU Executive Committee, the UOSU Board of Directors, the University of Ottawa Senate, or the University of Ottawa Board of Governors.

Jacques Frémont

The U of O president’s report to the Senate did not provide the same updates in both languages when it came to the University’s reception of the academic freedom report. The updates in French were much more extensive, and the message very different — these updates should have been the same in both languages to not keep unilingual members of the U of O community in the dark.

“The Senate, one of the most powerful governing bodies in our institution, should have cancelled classes this Friday. They should be tasking themselves with assembling a campaign aimed at promoting further education, organization, and collaboration to address this problem,” writes U of O student Lorin Clive D’Arcy Van Dusen.

The letter highlights a series of recommendations for a new student union: a constitution that can only be amended at an annual General Assembly with a majority vote, elections managed by an independent third party, a model of governance which includes mechanisms for punitive action should trust be breached, and accountability to its membership.

It’s not every student that will embark on a 10-year journey to see their idea passed by Parliament, but every student can effect political change right now. Hopefully, some of the lessons Grosman learned on her journey to passing a bill will inform and inspire you to be a driver of real political change—no matter how heavy your class schedule is.

Canada’s government has announced that Huguette Labelle, a former chancellor of the University of Ottawa, will lead the Independent Advisory Board on Senate Appointments, an advisory body that suggests Senate appointments to the prime minister. There are 22 spots that currently need to be filled, and the government has said they intend to fill them …

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