By Jillian French – News Editor & Lauren Root – Staff Writer

The Bishop’s Board of Student Representatives has proposed a new structure to be implemented during May 2025, taking effect the following academic year. The main change proposed is a switch from a 20 member Board to a Board of nine directors, who would elect a President and Vice-President among themselves. Student leadership would undergo major changes within the SRC, but the proposed structure aims to better represent the student body through a proportional voting system, which uses ranked voting to determine the winning candidate.

In a video posted to the SRC’s Instagram, current President Drew Henkel noted that “student leader burnout, confusion about elections, non-competitive voting processes and unclear lines of accountability were noted as weaknesses in our current structure” after an independent consultant firm reviewed SRC governing policies in September. These weaknesses were presented in the BSR meeting on October 18th. The voting system and its ramifications are outlined in a new document of proposed bylaws, which were sent to all students and reviewed by the BSR. The motion to adopt the proposal was delayed until the most recent BSR meeting on November 4, and was passed at the end of the meeting. This means that the adopted bylaws will be put to the student body to be ratified in an upcoming referendum. If the majority votes yes, the bylaws will be adopted on May 1, 2025, and the new BSR structure will be put in place. 

Currently, the BSR is made up of 20 elected members, including councilors and senators, led by five student leaders in the Executive team, made up of the President, Vice-Presidents of Student Life and Academics, and Directors of Finance and Events. In the new structure, nine student board directors would elect a President and Vice-President, and the executive committee would cease to exist. The voting system for the directors would see some significant changes, moving to a single transferable vote method. Simply put, the method uses a ranked voting system. The vote of students may be transferred to their second-choice candidate if their first choice is elected with a surplus of necessary votes, or if the candidate is eliminated. This is meant to represent the student body more accurately. 

Other notable changes include the role of student senators, who would retain their positions and responsibilities on the university senates, but would no longer serve on the BSR. Referendum quotas would rise higher to require 20% of the student body to ratify a vote, rather than the current quote of 10%. This is an attempt to rectify low student engagement.

The vote to adopt the bylaws will be put to the student body in a referendum on Nov. 20 and ending on the 21st at 11:59 p.m.