URFA members vote to pause URFA General Meeting, Officer Elections and COR

March 25, 2020

Last week, the URFA Exec­u­tive Com­mit­tee (EC) asked mem­bers to vote on their pro­pos­al to tem­porar­i­ly sus­pend Arti­cles 8.12, 10 and 11 of the URFA con­sti­tu­tion and pause the sched­uled April 1 Gen­er­al Meet­ing and Offi­cer elec­tions, as well as the April 7 Coun­cil of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives (COR) Meeting.

Vot­ing closed on Sun­day, and we can now report that mem­bers have vot­ed in favour of this pro­pos­al. Can­cel­ing the April Gen­er­al Meet­ing and Offi­cer elec­tions, as well as the April COR meet­ing means that the cur­rent URFA EC will remain in place until the sit­u­a­tion on cam­pus returns to nor­mal. The URFA EC believes that this is the best course of action to address this unprece­dent­ed sit­u­a­tion. This will ensure the sta­bil­i­ty of the lead­er­ship of URFA, as we do not believe that now is the best time to be onboard­ing new mem­bers onto the URFA EC. All cur­rent mem­bers of the EC have agreed to stay on past the end of their April 30, 2020 terms if necessary. 

We also under­stand that many are focused on fin­ish­ing the semes­ter, mak­ing changes to their work­ing envi­ron­ment, and stay­ing healthy. Paus­ing the elec­tion until a time when the sit­u­a­tion on cam­pus has returned to nor­mal will ensure every­one has the oppor­tu­ni­ty to hear from the can­di­dates and the oppor­tu­ni­ty to cast their vote. 

This week will be the first full week of online instruc­tion, and the first week where many mem­bers are start­ing to work from home. If you have any ques­tions or con­cerns about the changes that have been made to your work­ing envi­ron­ment due to COVID-19, please do not hes­i­tate to con­tact us. The URFA office is also still avail­able to assist you with any oth­er work­place issues or con­cerns you may have.