The passed referenda will create a Multi-Faith Centre and fund UOSERT
The Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO) held its fall by-election on Oct. 17-19. The purpose of the election was to fill one executive position, vice-president social, and five Board of Administration (BOA) positions: special student representative, one representative each from the faculties of Civil Law and Medicine, and two representatives from the faculty of Health Sciences.
However, most of these positions were not even contested. Of the six positions, the only one filled was a BOA seat for the faculty of Health Sciences, which was won by Simran Aggarwal. As she ran unopposed, Aggarwal won with 310 yes votes to 31 no votes.
Students also voted on two referendum questions.
The first question was: Are you in favour to contribute $1.25 per full-time student and $0.65 per part-time student per semester in order to fund the development of a Multi-Faith Centre on campus as a Student Federation service?
The question passed, with 2287 students in favour versus 1241 against.
The second question was: Do you agree to contribute $1.50 per full-time student and $0.75 per part-time student per winter semester for the University of Ottawa Student Emergency Response Team (UOSERT) in order to maintain a high level of first aid care on campus?
This question passed as well, with 2844 students in favour versus 667 against.
Voter turnout in the by-election was 10.12 per cent. This is higher than last October’s by-election, which saw a turnout of 7.82 per cent, but lower than the recent election in February, which saw a turnout rate of 14.6 per cent.
According to section 4.3.5.4 of the most recent constitution document posted on the SFUO website, at least five per cent of the student population must vote on a referendum question for the results to be valid. Since voter turnout in this election was just above ten per cent, the referendum results hold.
