Earlier this month, the Waterloo Undergraduate Student Association (WUSA) received a member-submitted petition requesting a referendum. At this time, the petition has not yet been finalized nor has a referendum question been called. The spirit of the petition generally asks that WUSA adopt a stance that will make recommendations to the University relating to their relationships with academic institutions in Israel.

The petition was discussed by WUSA’s new Board of Directors at their meeting on May 16, 2024, and the Board voted to move this on to next steps at the Elections and Referenda Committee (ERC). The ERC will review the content of the petition and work with the petitioner to ensure that the final referendum question that is recommended to the Board to be posed to our membership is aligned with the spirit of the petition.   

For more information on the referenda process, please see section 12 of the Election and Referenda Procedures. All WUSA members have the right to bring forward a petition following the process outlined in these procedures. 

We’ll provide additional updates in the coming weeks on a finalized question and timeline for when you can expect this to happen, so stay tuned to our website and social media accounts. 

In the meantime, if you have additional questions relating to the referendum, please reach out to Marvin Adesanya, WUSA’s Governance Manager, at oeolusho@wusa.ca.