The University of Manitoba Students’ Union (UMSU) President’s Dinner costed $10,319.29, according to UMSU president Divya Sharma.
UMSU Forward: The 100th President’s Dinner was held on March 13 in the Marshall McLuhan Hall to unveil the union’s five-year strategic plan and was also advertised as a “special event celebrating UMSU’s 100th president.”
The invite-only event featured a networking reception, a dinner buffet and a panel discussion per the invitation, and had politicians and university administrators in attendance.
Sharma disclosed the costs behind the event at the March 20 UMSU board of directors meeting — moments before a motion by student-at-large Victoria Romero was set to be introduced that called for the cost disclosure.
According to Sharma, the largest expenses were a buffet service for 88 guests at $4,717.63 followed by an Indigenous tea set gift for 70 guests at $3,453.88.
“Canadians supporting Canadians, supporting local was at the cornerstone of this,” she said.
The event also had appetizers worth $806.78 and non-alcoholic beverages totaling $600.
Sharma said that UMSU was able to get the venue free of charge.
Romero questioned why UMSU provided a meal to university administrators and politicians that she claims “are exploiting students,” to which Sharma cited the need to build connections.
“We’re not going to get anything done by not being able to build that rapport,” she said.
Sharma added that UMSU has close relationships with the university administrators that attended, such as through bi-weekly meetings set to address students’ concerns or sitting on the same university-level committees, she said.
The President’s Dinner was held on March 13 in the Marshall McLuhan Hall.
Motion for cost disclosure still stands
“I’m aware that we just got this information from the presentation, but I’m not going to retract the motion,” said Romero.
Romero’s motion called for a public disclosure and stated that “undergraduate students who are paying members of UMSU are entitled to know how their student dollars are spent.”
She said that nothing in the meeting agenda or elsewhere indicated that the cost disclosure would be provided during the board meeting, claiming that more students would have attended had they known the disclosure would occur.
Romero also stated that she collected over 35 signatures of students who wanted to know costs behind the event.
The motion, which was seconded by Women’s Centre representative Heaven Kaur, was referred to the finance committee by acting chairperson Christopher Yendt for review.
UMSU’s Governance and Operations Manual states that a motion moved by a student-at-large that is seconded will be referred to a relevant sub-committee for consideration.
After being referred to committee, UMSU policy and strategy advisor Sophie George noted that Sharma’s presentation slide of the cost breakdown will be available in the meeting minutes online.
