Your OUSA Executive continued to meet up and work on your behalf throughout the semester break. With the results of the referendum coming just before the beginning of first semester’s exam period, they spent much of the meeting discussing the complaints arising out of the voting period and the results. The Returning Officer for 2017, Bokyong Mun, who is in charge of the promotion and oversight of the referendum, saw “an increase [in turnout] of approximately 20 percent in comparison to the May referendum in 2016”.
At the end of the voting period on 31 May, the results were posted on the OUSA website, but not labelled as ‘provisional’, as required by clause 13.3 of the OUSA Referendum Policy. Mun said that, although this is a “serious issue,” it is not too complex to solve. She advised that the OUSA “Executive look very seriously into ways that they can effect changes into the structure of communications platforms at OUSA, particularly that of the website.”
Another significant discussion was for the replacement of the upstairs windows in the OUSA Recreation Centre on Albany Street, for which two separate quotes of $48,000 and $55,000 were given to complete the job. At the time of publication, Critic is unsure whether either quote has been accepted, or whether work will begin this year at all.
At the end of semester, each individual executive member was required to submit their second quarterly report, outlining what they had attempted and achieved throughout the second quarter of the academic year, in order for the rest of the executive to vote on whether they should receive their honoraria payments or not. Beside a few grammatical and formatting issues, each report passed without any problems, with the only exception of Admin VP William Guy, whose report was criticised by Education Officer Bryn Jenkins. Jenkins noted that “he’s struggling to find a reason to pay him his full honorarium compared with the other executive members,” going on to mention that “these are the same concerns as last quarter”. Guy was paid his full honorarium and told to address the concerns that were brought up throughout the next quarter.