Referendum

1. Inform yourself on the referendum
2. Check your email for the voting link or go to busrc.simplyvoting.com
3. Cast your vote!

Voting starts Nov. 20th and ends 21st at 11:59pm

busrc.simplyvoting.com

A referendum is being held as a means of getting the students voice on an important governance model change. All students will get a chance to vote in favour or against the proposed bylaw changes.

Put simply the biggest changes in governance are the following:

1. The board would go from 20 Members to 9 Directors
2. Amongst the 9 Directors, they will select a President and Vice-President
3. There would no longer be an executive committee
4. There would be a clearer distinction between governance and operations
5. Referendum quorum would go from 10% of student voter turn out to 20%

The current Board of Student Representatives hired a consulting firm to help them understand ways in which they could improve their governance model.

The consulting firm indicated several pain points in the current structure:

1. The current board structure is not set up to succeed due to the positions not being filled at the same time, causing onboarding difficulties
2. Electoral engagement was lower than desired
3. Many positions run uncontested or do not get filled within the election period
4. There is a lack of awareness from students about the SRC and its governance
5. There is a high level of executive burnout and the job is very demanding of the executive team
6. The distinction between board duties and operational duties is blurred

The proposed change aims to address these pain points.

There is no direct impact on students in the sense that voting yes or no will not change fee coverages, it will not eliminate any existing services and it will not impact a student’s day-to-day life at University. The changes will impact students in indirect ways.

Specifically in regards to their student governance. The change in the model of governance is the piece that will impact students, the hope is that the change will address concerns in the current structure but the referendum is to allow students to voice their opinion on whether this proposed change should take effect or not.

The student Senators will be selected to serve on the University Senate. Their roles will still exist as is required in the University statutes but rather than elected and sitting on the BSR they will be selected to serve their faculty on Senate. The Senators would solely serve on senate rather than on senate AND the BSR.