Group of students petition for temporary dissolution of URSU

A group of students are petitioning against the University of Regina Students' Union, calling for a temporarily dissolution of the union. (Angela Stewart / CTV News)

A group of university students at the University of Regina have put together a petition to temporarily dissolve the students’ union.

The University of Regina Students’ Union, also known as URSU, represents the students by advocating for their rights, but some feel the union has veered from that mission.

“I think over time because there’s just a lack of regulation and also here’s no one to hold URSU accountable,” said Samantha Nalumansi, a student at the university.

The group feels many of the student voices are not being heard. They also alleged financial mismanagement of student fees for clubs and activities.

“Students pay money for different activities but at the end of the day we don’t even take part in those activities. we don’t get to know how the money is being appropriated,” said Nalugo Bayiga, a student at the university.

According to the organizers, certain clubs within the union have easy access to funding, while others do not.

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In order to temporarily dissolve the union, the students need five per cent of the student body to be on board, for a total of 850 signatures. So far, they have 700 signatures.

“The students would vote to dissolve URSU or not and if there are enough votes, there would be a temporary dissolve while they look at restoring the constitution and getting a forensic audit done,” said Meerup Ashraf, a student who signed the petition.

The next step would be to hold a specialized general meeting.

“We hope to start this whole process of working with the university to restructure URSU over the summer because we can’t have URSU functioning in the fall when a lot of students need services,” Nalumansi said.

“The University respects the arms-length relationship it has with URSU and the independence that is required for effective student governance. Additionally, URSU is in the process of electing a new executive so are in a state of transition. Therefore, it would be inappropriate for us to provide comment on the petition,” a statement from the university said.

CTV News reached out to the students’ union on the petition, but they declined to comment.