By: Vee Babbar, Peak Associate
The Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS) provides the SFU undergraduate student body representation, support, community, and extracurricular opportunities. The recent voting period has revealed the new executive committee and referendum vote results.
Newly Elected Executive Committee
The SFSS is made up of representatives from each undergraduate department. They also have the executive committee, made up of the president and six vice-presidents. As the previous executive committee’s year-long term is coming to a close, the elections to elect the new executive committee has now closed. The voting period ran from February 14–16, and the results were announced the next day.
Liam Feng was elected the president with 430 votes in favor and 255 against. The vice-presidents elected are as follows:
- Vice-president of internal and organizational development: Leonarda Ognjenovic (430 votes in favour, 203 against)
- Vice-president of finance and services: Jadvinder Bolina (431 votes in favour, 200 against)
- Vice-president of the university and academic affairs: Thomas Lueth (354 votes)
- Vice-president of external and community affairs: Nancy Brar (466 votes in favour, 162 against)
- Vice-president of equity and sustainability: Priyanka Kaur Dhesa (394 votes)
- Vice-president of events and student affairs: Ayooluwa Adigun (435 votes in favour, 171 against)
Referendum Results
The referendum upheld four questions in total. The first referendum was to increase the SFSS Student Health and Dental Plan to keep up with inflation. If passed, the fee would have increased by $31.92 and given the SFSS permission to increase by another 5% every year. The updated plan would have given students access to unlimited mental health counselling and psychology services.
The SFSS attempted to make these changes at the previous referendum in November 2022, but the vote failed to reach quorum — not enough students participated in the vote so it did not pass. During this voting period, the vote also failed to meet the 50% majority required to pass: there were 307 in favour and 498 against.
The second referendum proposed a revision of SFSS bylaws to correct minor typographical and grammatical errors. Although it received more votes in favor (526) than against (180), it still did not meet the required threshold of two-thirds of the total majority.
The third referendum asked for bylaw updates to clarify, safeguard, and democratize the current regulations. This referendum also failed to meet the required voting threshold, with 508 votes in favor and 163 against.
Finally, the fourth referendum proposed updating bylaw six to allow e-voting in council meetings. It received 509 votes in favor and 174 against, but this was still not enough to pass.
The SFSS was unable to meet the required voting threshold to pass any of the four referendums.
