File photo by Belle White.
The meeting began with the Electoral Committee acknowledging the two resignations that occurred earlier this month, Mariah Luzon and Artem Kuklev.
Following the Electoral Committee’s comments, UVic’s World University Service of Canada (WUSC) Club gave a presentation to the board to spread awareness of the committee and the work they do to help young refugees access post-secondary education and resettle in Canada.
Nationally, WUSC runs the Student Refugee Program, and has sponsored over 25 000 students since its founding in 1978. The local committee at UVic currently works with refugees in South Sudan and Syria.
WUSC UVic currently relies on a $2.57 student levy on full-time students through the UVSS, $30 000 directly from UVic, and $8 000 annually from the Graduate Students Society (GSS) following a reduction of their grad student fee levy earlier this year.
For the past few years, WUSC has sponsored four students per year. As a result of the GSS referendum, WUSC is now only able to support three students per year, which they anticipate will eventually decrease to two students a year.
The cost to sponsor a refugee student for their first year is roughly $50 000, which covers housing, tuition, and other expenses.
WUSC UVic said their long term plan is to raise more funds.
K’sana Wood Lynes-Ford, the Native Student Union’s (NSU) Firekeeper, said she worked with GSS on the referendum question, and that the funds were redistributed to UVSS Advocacy Groups.
She said the GSS sought to redistribute the funding as WUSC was receiving “significantly more” in student fees, and thought graduate students would be better served by greater funding towards advocacy groups.
Most of the evening’s main motions were to fill various committee vacancies left by the two resignations earlier this month.
Lauren Wyler, Society for Students with a Disability representative was elected to the Member Outreach and Engagement Committee, Cherop Lyoba, director of international student relations, was elected to the Campaigns Committee, Cecilia Bulbrook, Gender Empowerment Centre representative was elected to the Personnel Committee, and Lynes-Ford and Bulbrook were elected to the Electoral Committee.
Arjun VedBrat, a UVic student who is not on the board of directors, was elected to the Campaigns Committee and several other students, Ivy (Allysa Wanjiku) Ndwiga, Wyler, Harshika Bajwa, Ntsiki Nzeku, Gilbert Imoesi, and Nokutenda Tungwarara were elected to the International Student Relations Committee.
Various other vacancies including portfolio DAL positions in Campaigns and Finance committees were also filled.
Afterwards, the board approved changes to the Electoral Policy as recommended by the Previous Chief Electoral Officer, as the Electoral Committee had reviewed and approved the changes.
The board also approved Special Project Funding, Travel Pool Funding, and Academic and Publishing Funding for various clubs.
Evan Maher, DAL, abstained from voting on this question and requested it be recorded in the minutes.
Following main motions, the meeting moved on to reports, and the meeting moved to in-camera at 7:22 p.m., ending the public facing portion of the meeting.
