Photo taken by Joshua Potter:
With the immediate closure of the University of Regina’s Student’s Union (URSU) there has been lots of speculation of why they were shut down in the first place.
President Jeff Keshen said in April the university “raised significant concerns” over its financial situation. He added that the institution had “lost confidence in URSU’s ability to serve and represent” students.
Other concerns such as a disruption at the University’s Women’s Centre meeting, the Lazy Owl and the election process are believed to have led to its closure.
There were other people who were concerned about their medical insurance and whether they would still be receiving the bus pass. Would these benefits still be offered given URSU’s closure, and would students be affected by the situation?
When asking a few people about the student’s union, it was discovered, how, for many they were either “unaffected” by its closure or didn’t even know what it offered for them.
“I’ll be honest, I didn’t really know what it was,” said second-year accounting student Phil Josh Dakussin.
However, for one student, she discusses the lack of representation within the union.
“My thoughts on URSU (are) that it’s nice for students to have representation, but sadly our representation just wasn’t good,” said Jetta Williams who is a third-year student in psychology.
She also said her other biggest issue alongside the lack of representation was how there were discussions amongst the members that they were going to shut down programs such as LGBTQ+, the women’s centre, accessibility, etc.
“It didn’t really make the school more accessible, or more accommodating to people,” Williams said.
“It actually did the opposite.”
Although URSU for many students was an organization that not a lot of people knew of, there are those students who have been at this University for a long time who have suspected that something wasn’t right about the running of the union.
“I think that something needed to change, but we still need accountability for what has happened recently,” said fourth-year business student Emma Kingdon.
Kingdon further added how she has never felt as though URSU has truly represented student’s needs. She said how the people who were running the union never fully grasped what it meant to advocate and support those who needed it.
When asked whether another student union should be created, Kingdon said she wouldn’t want to see a new one unless they had the right mindsets in charge.
“You need to see them URSU advocating for students in the media and having the general public more aware of what students need and what issues we’re facing,” said Kingdon.
Students – for the most part at least – seem unfazed by the announcement that URSU was closed. For those who knew what the union was, they recognize how it wasn’t conducting itself in a professional manner. An example of this is when two members were videoed disrupting the women’s centre’s general meeting and were actively attempting to rattle the people who were there.
In his April statement comment, Keshen said it was critical that students are driving the next steps “and we hope that it leads to a sustainable path forward to an effective and accountable student representative organization.”
