University of Regina Students’ Union votes to dissolve during contentious meeting

The University of Regina Student's Union held a vote Tuesday to dissolve the organization amid numerous issues. Jacob Carr reports.

It was a confusing and frustrating day on Tuesday for many students at the University of Regina (U of R) and First Nations University of Canada (FNUniv) as the organizations’ embattled students’ union voted to dissolve amid controversy.

A large number of students struggled to gain access to the special general meeting held online to vote on the dissolution of the University of Regina Students’ Union (URSU).

The meeting was originally scheduled to be held on Microsoft Teams. However, students soon discovered that the meeting had moved over to the messaging platform Discord.

“Lots of students were having trouble joining with the link and then they were streaming it on Discord, but I think they were streaming the Teams, and you couldn’t get in. I’m not exactly sure what was going on,” student Olivia Livingstone told CTV News.

• Download the CTV News app to get breaking news alerts sent to your device

The meeting commenced at 10 a.m.

Despite a slew of technical issues, and a vast number of students not being able to access the meeting, a vote was held.

The results were 70 in favour of dissolution, 13 against, and one abstention.

“So, I have not had the opportunity to participate in the vote at all. It was quite appalling to me that only 70 votes, 70 students were able to vote to dissolve URSU today, out of I don’t know how many students, but it should have been thousands. It’s appalling to me that that number was the quorum that passed that today,” FNUniv student Amanda Leader explained.

And it wasn’t just students who came out of the day concerned.

Staff members of FNUniv are hopeful that going forward, the two post-secondary institutions will become more involved in overseeing students’ unions.

“I think we need to be a part of mentorship, support, overseeing some of the work being done so that there is that accountability and ensuring that students are getting the help that they need because they’re just young students, many of them who need support,” Bettina Schneider argued. Schneider works as a professor of Indigenous business and administration at FNUniv.

The dissolution of URSU also raises concerns for other students’ unions, including the FNUniv Students’ Association, which says it is currently funded through URSU.

“I just want to know who we’re going to deal with,” student association president Nathaniel Merasty said. “Because there is so much confusion on are we dealing with the University of Regina or are we dealing with URSU. So, I need to give our FNU students an answer on where our funding is coming from.”

CTV News reached out to URSU for comment but did not receive a response.