UFV’s Student Union Society (SUS) held a ratification meeting Tuesday morning to announce and ratify the results of this year’s general election and referendum. All members of the SUS executive committee were in attendance, as well as most of the electoral candidates.
During the meeting, the minutes of SUS’s March 17 meeting were ratified, and the results of the SUS general election and referendum were announced then ratified by the board. Notably, the March 17 meeting saw SUS vote to temporarily suspend aspects of referendum policy related to requirements for in-person polling stations and Q&A sessions, without which the referendum would not have been able to proceed.
General Election Results
Executive Committee
SUS President: Jessica Levesque
Vice President Internal: Duncan Herd
Vice President External: Andrew Stahl
Vice President Students: Prabhpreet Singh
Board Representatives
Faculty of Health Sciences Representative: Jasleen Brar
Faculty of Sciences Representative: Reece Doppenberg
College of Arts Representative: Tripat Sandhu
Professional Studies Representative: Harman Gill
All newly elected board members will begin their terms on May 1.
According to election results, a total of 705 students participated in the general election. Hayden Buker, SUS’s chief electoral officer, noted that this number falls within expectations for a general election at UFV, indicating that the COVID-19 pandemic did not have a significant impact on voter turnout.
Buker’s recommendations for future elections included the creation of an emergency plan in the event that future elections are forced to move to an online-only format, and more detailed requirements for what candidate statements should include.
Among other suggestions, he said that due to technical issues encountered during the election, SUS should look into replacing SurveyMonkey, the platform currently used to conduct online votes, with an alternative service.
Referendum Results
Following discussion of the election, Tania Smart, SUS’s vice president internal, presented the results of the referendum questions.
Three questions were asked in the referendum, two of which were related to proposed fee increases for the inter-campus shuttle service (which has been running at a deficit), and one related to a proposed $2 levy for UFV World University Service of Canada’s (WUSC) Student Refugee Program.
A total of 675 students participated in this vote, which required a minimum participation of 491 students (five per cent of SUS’s membership) in order to be considered valid, as per SUS’s referendum policy.
Smart’s presentation showed that students overwhelmingly voted against the proposed shuttle fees, with the 15 per cent fee increase proposed in the first question receiving 479 “no” votes to 190 “yes” votes. This result rendered the second question (which proposed doubling the fee increase proposed in question one) a “no” by default.
“Because the referendum didn’t pass, we should be expecting a bigger cut on shuttle runs, so be prepared,” said Tripat Sandhu, SUS’s current president.
