By: Isabella Urbani, Staff Writer
Editor’s note: Rastko Koprivica, who was interviewed for this piece, is a former Peak contributor. The Peak has taken steps to prevent conflicts of interest or potential bias from influencing the article.
Rastko Koprivica, the acting vice president finance and student services, resigned one day before the end of his term in protest. Koprovica cites a “severely flawed governance structure” and “hostile work environment,” among other complaints.
Koprivica is not the first former SFSS executive to accuse the administration of harassment. In his resignation letter, Koprivica said he was a victim of “bullying and intimidation tactics,” and a “witness to other instances of bullying and harassment both in the Executive and outside.”
In an interview with Koprivica, he reflected on how he was pressured by executives to vote in a certain favour. “If you disagree with folks on policy, you can expect to be singled out and made an example of. Members of council, including myself, would be told ‘If you don’t vote ‘X,’ bad things would happen.’”
To try to combat toxicity in the workplace, Koprivica said he attempted to suggest the SFSS executive committee involve SFU or a third-party specialist to “mediat[e] relations,” but was unable to make anything happen.
Koprivica is also very critical of the SFSS’s governance model, referencing the resignation letter of a former vice president internal. Quoting her, she wrote, “popularity contest, disguised as an election.”
“The SFSS Governance model is flawed as it expects, with little to no training, that Executives manage staff and the entire organization directly instead of just focusing on goals and advocacy,” Koprovica said.
He added that a “return to the standard model of student union governance where an executive director takes care of legal and HR issues would free up the Board to pursue advocacy positions that could benefit students; instead of getting tied up with staffing issues and legal problems with no experience.” Some of the advocacy issues Koprovica believes the SFSS should spend more time looking at are tuition costs, affordable housing options, and food security.
Another allegation Koprivica is levelling against the SFSS is the mishandling of money. “Board members do not seem to understand that money doesn’t grow on trees,” he stated in his resignation letter, following up with on in his interview.
“The SFSS would constantly doll out donations all while exceeding the budget and asking external organizations to donate to the SFSS,” he said.
He said if the SFSS would have “been more responsible and applied and planned long term, they would have never been in this financial position right now, which is such a shame as students need funding for services such as the legal clinic and clubs.” The SFSS has made new budget cuts to several committees including the equity, BIPOC, and academic affairs committees.
In light of this information, Koprivica “forwarded all instances of financial transactions of a questionable nature to the Society auditors.”
As of right now, Koprovica said the auditors have “escalated their investigations into financial misconduct” and “hopes the SFSS membership gets to see this report when it is done.”
In his resignation letter, Koprovica also mentions he was not made aware of a motion to recommend his censure two weeks earlier. Instead, he found out through public records, despite his attendance earlier in the meeting. The reason behind the censure recommendation was for “not respecting other executives.
“People are required to be notified of any censure proceedings targeting them, and legal advice is supposed to be sought as well as the reasons communicated clearly. This did not happen at all,” said Koprovica, who believed members were being “deceitful.”
He added that the recommendation was retracted and he received an apology.
To close out his letter, Koprivica urged more students to vote in elections and is excited for when the “SFSS isn’t run by those only seeking a position to launch their future political careers but ran by those that truly care about the reason student unions exist.”
The Peak reached out to acting vice president Abhi Parmar for an interview, but did not hear back by the publication deadline. Vice president internal and organizational development Leonarda Ognjenovic declined to comment.
