UMSU hires election chief
But election budget drops off
Chelse McKee, staff
Photo by Chelse McKee
The annual UMSU election season began last week at the UMSU council meeting when Stephanie Fera was hired as the 2008 chief returning officer (CRO). However, budget cuts could prove damaging to the union’s hopes of high voter turnout.
“I care about . . . democracy, and running a fair election, and knowing that whatever results come out are in fact the right results of what the students want,” Fera said.
Fera was one of three applicants considered for the position but the only one to be presented to council. According to Garry Sran, president of UMSU and a member of the CRO hiring committee, one applicant declined the interview while the second applicant couldn’t meet the required hours of the position.
“The council decided that [Fera] was a candidate that would possess the qualities and has the skills to run a fair and neutral election,” Sran said.
Electoral neutrality and fairness has become a prevalent issue for the UMSU election since issues of possible bias surfaced last year when it was discovered that Caitlin Brown, the chief returning officer for the UMSU election for both 2006 and 2007, had familiar ties with members of the UMSU executive committee, including Garry Sran, who was a returning candidate for the 2007 election.
Brown did not reapply for the position this year.
“I don’t think biased is going to be a problem for me in terms of this position,” Fera said. “The position requires that you’re familiar with UMSU but you still have to be distanced a certain amount.”
Although Fera has worked with UMSU at the U of M Health and Dental Plan Office, she said at the council meeting that she was set far enough away from UMSU that she was sure she could run a fair election.
Fera, when delivering her presentation for her desire to be CRO to UMSU council, stated that she believed that increasing the student body’s awareness and knowledge of the electoral process and polling locations would be the way to ensure a higher turnout and interest in UMSU.
“Definitely people don’t know what’s going on, don’t know about UMSU at all,” she said.
She said that posters, classroom discussions, and using the UMFM airwaves were her electoral mediums at the moment but that newpossibilities were sure to crop up.
Student voter turnout at the UMSU election has been on the decline for many years now, with last year reaching seven per cent, down from 15 per cent in the 2005 election.
In 2006, after first winning the election for UMSU president, Sran told the Manitoban that increasing voter turnout was “something we can build on, and hopefully get more students out.”
Despite the acknowledgment from both UMSU executives and the CRO, the budget for the UMSU election has been cut. According to the 2006-07 UMSU annual operating budget, the budget for the UMSU elections had been cut by $7,500 from $40,000 in 2005-06 to $32,500. Meanwhile, the budget for staff salaries and benefits has increased by $46,000 in only one year from 2005-06.
“That decrease amount came as the amount of compensation that CROs are being paid,” Sran said.
When asked whether the budget cuts were counter-productive to the council’s objective to garner more student voters, Fera directed the issue to the campaign expense committee, saying that she and the committee were meeting soon and that she was sure that issue of the election budget would be brought up.
“We’re having a campaign expense meeting . . . so all those things will be reviewed, so I can’t really say anything yet on that. But I don’t know yet. I’ll have to look into it.”
She went on to note that the budget for the CRO seemed satisfactory and that she would not be asking for any other moneys.
