Jillian French – News Editor

On Sunday, Sept. 21, the BSR met to discuss issues for the 2024/25 year. The meeting opened with the announcement of Environnemental Representative Maxwell Shewan’s resignation. To replace this position, an appointment committee will review candidate statements, which will be open for interested BU students to submit at a later date. 

To start the meeting, several new clubs advocated to be ratified. Bishop’s Brewing club presented a closed membership club, where they would host educational and experimental events. They emphasized that prospective members would need to be in good standing with the university and security. Roser Rise, VP of Academic Affairs, asked how they planned to check security standings, as the information is private, and raised concerns over underage members’ presence at beer tastings. Drew Hastings, co-lead of the club and SRC President, conceded that the club would not have access to security information, but members would need to be in good standing with the Bishop’s Arches, and assured Rise that underage members would be limited to educational events without alcohol. The Creative Writing club made a case for creating a space for peer-reviewing prose, and the Happy Hour club highlighted  a strong interest in social events at the gait such as trivia, dance workshops, and more. After moving into a closed session, the board conditionally ratified all three groups.

Next on the agenda, the executive council presented updates. Notably, Rise updated the board on the shortage of 3 librarians, including the research assistant position, which has been particularly difficult for graduate students working on research projects. This issue stems from Bishops’ financial deficit, which was predicted last year due to the announcement of the tuition increases. How this issue will be addressed remains unclear.

Near the end of the meeting, the board considered the SRC annual budget and annual plan for approval. Director of Finance Taylor Morgan presented the budget, which was made with the goal of narrowing last year’s deficit. The SRC is currently projecting a deficit of almost 46,000 dollars. Although large, this would be an improvement from last year’s deficit of nearly 57,000. He noted that ideally, a non for profit organization should be within a 10,000 dollar range of zero. When Rise how he planned to further narrow the gap, Morgan replied that generally, they planned to cut costs and increase revenue by increasing student fees and external funding. This would mark the second rise in student fees this year, after the board approved a seven percent increase in student fees at the last meeting of the 2023/24 year. Although continuing to raise student fees may prove both unpopular and unsustainable, the SRC does maintain some of the lowest student fees of all Canadian universities. Both the annual plan and the annual budget were approved unanimously during the meeting.

Graphic courtesy of Damita Melchi

On the following Monday at noon, the SRC held their Annual General Meeting in the Gait to review the SRC’s financial statement last year, appoint accountants for this year, and present the newly approved plan. The council highlighted improvements to organization, engagement, and transparency. 

For organization, they presented the plan to revisit the structure of the SRC and elections, which will be modified by the end of December. The gait will also see some changes: Friday gait nights will be removed altogether to reduce personnel costs. According to the financial plan, the gait’s profit’s should skyrocket from around 2000 dollars from last year to around 23,000 this year. Lacey Baillerge, VP of Student Life, also plans to open the Gait to the student population during the day for a social gathering space. In engagement, the execs plan to implement an alumni network and improve advertisement of SRC funding opportunities. Lastly, their initiatives to increase transparency includes student access to information on how student fees are used. Currently on the SRC website, under Finances and Fees, the linked document for student fees is a one-page graphic featuring no more than four vague sentences. If not inaccurate, the posted information is certainly incomplete, leaving students to rifle through multiple pages of budget spreadsheets linked further below in order to glean how their money is being spent.

As Bishop’s faces fallout from the tuition hikes announcement, it’s important to have a board of representatives who plans to tackle these issues, and, more importantly, will follow the plans through. Students who are interested in these concerns are encouraged to attend BSR meetings, which are open to the public and held bi-weekly. More information and further resources can be found on the SRC website.