The average University of Manitoba Students’ Union (UMSU) board of directors meeting lasts two hours and 11 minutes with 15 observers, according to data compiled from the meeting minutes.

The data, which is reflective of all 2024-25 board of directors’ meetings that occurred in 2024, reveals that the longest meeting lasted 3 hours and 37 minutes on Nov. 21, followed by 3 hours and 31 minutes on Aug. 14. The first meeting amongst the current board lasted the shortest — amounting to one hour and 23 minutes on May 9.

Of the board members who were elected in the 2024-25 UMSU general election, three members had perfect attendance — president Divya Sharma, vice-president external affairs Prabhnoor Singh and vice-president university affairs Rachhvir Dhaliwal. Vice-president student life Bolu Akindele scored a 90.9 per cent attendance rating, followed by vice-president finance and operations Carolyn Wang with an 81.8 per cent attendance record.

Black students’ representative Damilola Ojo attained the lowest attendance rating — 63.3 per cent — of all elected candidates from the last UMSU general election.

The most watched board meeting occurred on Aug. 14 with 66 total attendees, of which 41 were observers — non-board members and non-staff members — the most observers of any meeting. The meeting featured Motion 0619 which sought to allow the ad-hoc committee until Dec. 9, 2024 to devise an anti-Palestinian racism definition, as part of the board’s effort to formulate a position in the UMSU Position Statements Book. The ad-hoc committee dismantled prior to fulfilling its mandate for various reasons, citing “lack of guidance” from UMSU staff on the motion and “extreme disrespect,” amongst other reasons in a Nov. 7 committee report.

The first meeting of the board had the lowest total attendance with 27 individuals, and was tied with the Sept. 19 meeting for the lowest number of observers — garnering two observers in the seating gallery.

Data from the meeting minutes also indicated that Heaven Kaur, Women’s Centre representative, moved the most motions of any board member. Kaur, who moved 14 motions within the timespan, was followed by Andrew Beck, representative of the Interdisciplinary Health Program Students’ Association with nine motions moved.

Student-at-large Victoria Romero was tied with Arts Student Body Council UMSU director Gurpahul Kaur for moving the third most motions — each moving eight motions.

Beck seconded 18 motions — the most motions seconded by any member, followed by Heaven Kaur and Gurpahul Kaur each at nine motions.

The executive committee and governance committee both moved nine motions, each more than under the 2023-24 board of directors during the same number of initial meetings.

Executive motions included allowing Wang and Akindele to enroll in more credit hours than the limit imposed on UMSU executives, setting the board meeting dates and locations and striking an ad-hoc committee to create a position expressing UMSU’s opposition to anti-Palestinian racism.

Other motions moved by the executive committee included appointing an interim chairperson, establishing a working group to develop a 2025-2030 strategic plan, and tasking the governance committee with reviewing UMSU’s governing document structure.

The governance committee moved motions to fill the 2SLGBTQIA+ students’ representative vacancy with an October election, unsuccessfully remove the mature and part-time representative position and call a byelection for the same position. Other motions included adopting changes to board meeting procedures and adopting changes to the UMSU elections manual.

The finance committee and the judicial board moved three motions, followed by moving two by the ad-hoc committee and the selections committee moving one.

The member services committee moved zero motions, which was on par with the previous year’s board during the same timeframe.