URSU finances leave us with questions

Many questions, few willing to answer

The University of Regina Students’ Union (URSU) is an organization which was created to stand up for students’ rights, uplifting student voices within university discussions which impact them directly. Whether URSU has been upholding their end of the deal (in return for being funded by students) is up to students to decide. 

From Nov 4 to Nov 15, students will have the chance to participate in URSU’s scheduled by-election. URSU is also including a referendum on their by-election ballot this November. According to an email which went to every student, the question they want answered is: “Do [students] support increasing the Emergency Bursary Reserve levy fee from $0.25 to $3.00 per Fall and Winter semester?”

In researching the Emergency Bursary Fund usage, there are a couple items worth noting in their financial statements. Using financial statements with information for 2019 and until 2023, the salaries and benefits being given to employees of URSU and the Lazy Owl (Owl) have jumped $765,515 for URSU, and $88,872 for the Owl.

Year over year, this looks like a decrease in salaries and benefits of four per cent between 2019 and 2020, an increase of 26 per cent between 2020 and 2021, a further increase of 35 per cent between 2021 and 2022, and another increase of 29 per cent between 2022 and 2023. 

This growth has significantly outpaced inflation, which is the “Average annual rate of inflation [per cent] / Decline in the value of money” according to the Bank of Canada. Between 2019-2023, the average annual rate of inflation was 3.86 per cent. 

The amount which was spent on salaries and benefits for the Owl and URSU in 2019 was $1,254,888. According to bankofcanada.ca/rates/related/inflation-calculator, if we were to increase this number to account for inflation, it would be $1,460,350.57 in 2023. 

However, in 2023, URSU spent a combined $2,109,275 on salaries and benefits for Owl and students’ union employees, a difference of nearly $650,000 between actual 2023 spending and what would account for inflation.

Note: some of those involved are no longer with URSU, as the signing general manager (GM) in 2023 was Mohammad Talha Akbar, and they hold elections frequently.

Beginning Sept 21, the Carillon began reaching out to Aoun Muhammad, the current GM, asking that their financial statements be made accessible on their website. The two emails sent that day also asked for their meeting minutes since June to be posted and former election results to be updated, as the election results for 2021 and 2022 are still not up online at the time of writing. Three more emails were sent between Oct 1 and Nov 5, with the final fifth email sent at 9:04 a.m. on Nov 5.

We did not receive a response to the first four from the GM, but did receive a response to the last at 10:19 a.m. on Nov 5. Rather than answering any of the questions asked across five emails over the span of 45 days, the GM said staff at the Carillon should “Learn some manners when asking questions.” 

He later reiterated the sentiment: “as long as your questions are stupid, irrelevant and loaded, I won’t even respond to your emails.” Muhammad also accused the Carillon of having a “tabloid mentality.” Finally, the GM signed off his critique with: “Not many regards, Aoun.”

Before this response had been received, the Carillon managed to briefly speak in person with a front desk worker for URSU on Oct 16, getting an answer to one question. Due to concerns on the accuracy of the number given, we will not be publishing their response. The Carillon reattempted this method of contact on Oct 30 with no results. 

The interaction on Oct 30 is recorded, and there is at least one recorded time where URSU’s “Contact Us” web page was used in an attempt to schedule an interview, to no avail. According to the Nov 5 email from the GM, they “don’t entertain drop-by or barging-in meetings.”

It is also important to note the Carillon is your voice as a student centre which employs and supports students in their journalistic endeavours. Newspapers that are doing their job report on facts and, if facts happen to make someone look bad, that is on those who caused the facts to be true, not the journalists.

The specific funding for a select group of expenses has been graphed, along with a few other graphs readers should see. A spreadsheet with parts of their financial statements from 2019-2023 has also been made, which can be accessed through this link.