Students' union financial situation is unsustainable, U of Regina president says

CBC News

· Posted: Apr 08, 2025 1:28 PM EDT | Last Updated: 10 minutes ago

The president of the University of Regina says the instauration is stopping its postulation of fees for the University of Regina Students' Union's (URSU) because an auditor's study showed URSU's finances were unsustainable.

The U of R announced the determination past week, with it to instrumentality effect on Aug. 31.

The URSU fiscal study for 2023-24 says the "union's unrestricted nett assets are successful a shortage presumption of $1,368,362 arsenic of April 30, 2024."

U of R president Jeff Keshen said URSU has been moving expanding deficits.

"The auditor pointed to an ongoing worldly uncertainty, which successful auditor's connection means that the fiscal sustainability of that enactment is successful superior question, meaning that they whitethorn not beryllium capable to wage their bills, they whitethorn not beryllium sustainable," Keshen said. 

Kenshen said the auditors recovered URSU is "depleting immoderate reserves that they have." He said the assemblage has a work to students to guarantee the fees they wage are utilized responsibly. 

The determination to not cod fees volition efficaciously unopen down the union. URSU president Mahad Ahmad admitted the national is in a fiscal crisis, but said the enactment has been addressing the issues. He said URSU has made important changes successful the past twelvemonth to amended its fiscal bottommost enactment and that will beryllium reflected successful the adjacent audit report.

Ahmad said URSU has laid disconnected unit to chopped expenses and volition unfastened a java store soon to summation revenue.

Ahmad said the assemblage should hold for a caller auditor's study earlier deciding to halt collecting fees for the union.

"Why can't you hold 2 much months and our ain caller audit ordered for fiscal twelvemonth 2024-25 volition beryllium retired and past you tin spot what we person improve?" Ahmad said.

"What we judge is that we volition beryllium affirmative astir $400K this year, [but] lone if we person our funds."

URSU put guardant an emergency fiscal plan, but it was rejected by the university.

"We were ne'er satisfied that that program that they enactment forward, which we really hadn't truly seen overmuch details of that plan, were going to code the worldly uncertainty that that enactment has," Keshen said.

Besides the fiscal troubles, URSU is besides facing a pupil petition to dissolve the union.

Keshen said that contented should travel to a caput successful the coming weeks.

When the determination to halt collecting fees for URSU was announced, the assemblage said it "wishes to guarantee students that halfway pupil services volition proceed successful the Fall 2025 term, arsenic volition the postulation of pupil fees that money those services."

"The indispensable arrangements volition beryllium enactment successful spot implicit the coming months," the connection said.

Asked however that would work, Kershan was not specific.

"We volition beryllium supporting arsenic necessary, oregon a replacement of the existent URSU leadership, those services which are indispensable for students," helium said.