UMSU judicial board forgoes year-end oversight report

Board of directors waives requirement for judicial board to present cumulative report on executive performance

The UMSU judicial board is no longer required to present the year-end oversight report on UMSU's five executive members, pictured from throughout the 2024-25 year. Photos by Milan Lukes

The University of Manitoba Students’ Union (UMSU) board of directors has waived the requirement for the judicial board to present the year-end Executive Oversight Report.

The judicial board is mandated to present the report semi-annually to the board of directors which is to include “an outline of the general performance” of each member of the UMSU executive, according to the UMSU Governance and Operations Manual.

Motion 0658, which was moved by the judicial board and carried at the April 10 UMSU board meeting, states that the judicial board has begun the process of completing evaluations, “but deems the current timeline to be unconducive to conduct evaluations thoroughly and methodically.”

The motion also states that a year-end report cannot be produced “due to several internal and external factors” such as “low procedural quality, judicial board workload and external commitments of members.”

The oversight report was to also include any specific recommendations for each executive member, as well as the number of complaints received regarding executive members and the outcomes of each complaint.

An amendment by Gurpahul Kaur, vice-chair of the judicial board, was carried which allows for an unofficial verbal report to be provided instead at the judicial board’s discretion.

“This would mean that […] in closed session, we can just give a brief of what we got,” said Kaur.

The first Executive Oversight Report, which was to be presented to the UMSU board of directors by Nov. 1, 2024, was previously granted two separate extensions — before being presented on Jan. 16.

The year-end report was to be presented by April 1 and cover the period spanning back to May 1, 2024, when the 2024-25 UMSU executives officially took office.

All UMSU Executive Oversight Reports are to be provided in closed session, per the UMSU Governance and Operations Manual.

The motion waiving the requirement of the year-end report passed unanimously in a secret ballot vote.