July Board Meeting Recap

Sunny campus with glass walkway, trees, and text "July Board Meeting Recap" and "WUSA" in the corner, capturing the highlights of the recent July Board Meeting.

Here’s what happened at the July 16th WUSA Board of Directors Meeting: 

Items Adopted by Board: 

  • The Elections and Referenda Committee (ERC) brought the 2026-27 committee work plan to Board for approval. This plan includes consideration of procedural changes to make sure elections remain fair, including reviewing the Clubs Endorsements introduced last election. They will also hear about new operational strategies of promoting elections; Board has asked for alternative strategies to the sweepstakes giveaway from the past 3 years. 
  • The Board Policy Manual had minor edits approved by Board after the Governance Reform changes from 2025-26 resulted in a structural change to committees with the Advocacy Committee now including more input from student leaders from Student Societies; plus the full implementation of the Vice-President, Student Experience officer role. 

 

Items of Business 

Continued work from AMM Motion and WUSA’s Corporate Social Responsibility Policy 

Board discussed the importance of putting together an update for students on what has been going on behind the scenes following this motion passed in March. The update article can be found here.   

 

New Support Role for Societies  

The Board has allocated up to $100,000 from the general reserves to fund this new Societies Manager role to be a greater systematic support for WUSA’s student societies. Our societies will get a further update at the next Committee of Presidents meeting. 

 

Extension of Member Benefit Programs 

Board approved extensions for New York Times and SPC Membership. Students can learn more about these, and other deals, at https://wusa.ca/deals/  

 

Health Plan Coverage Review 

Board tasked the Executive Director and operational staff to review the coverage details of the Alumo (formerly “Studentcare”) Health Plan provided to all WUSA members.

 

Executive Director Report: 

  • There has been ongoing work to introduce Board members in articles on LinkedIn, about 1-2 per month as board members are available to be interviewed for this content. 
  • More articles and website updates around the Annual Plan and Budget to maximize transparency so student members can see what directions WUSA is taking over the next year and the projects under development to make student experience better on campus. 
  • Board Transparency is also priority on the Board of Directors page where the Decisions section will list the big decisions made by Board each month, and the impact. 
  • Continuing WUSA’s strong system of feedback and issue escalation so that students can get closure and resolution on issues they report. https://wusa.ca/about/contact/#_feedback is a tool all students can use to escalate things they want to see improved. For inquiries that are not necessarily feedback/complaints, students can find help in the Jira general inquiries form. 
  • More updates, including summaries of WUSA’s Elections and Advocacy committees can be found under item 7.1 of the Agenda. 

President Samir Sharma Report: 

  • President Sharma noted Senate meetings with WUSA’s internal Advocacy Support staff, some Student Society meetings, Graduate Student Association, as well as UW departments like Food Services, Ombuds Office, Co-op & Experiential Education, and the President’s Office. 
  • Chaired the first Advocacy Committee Meeting. 
  • Was able to do some relations with government and other university student associations during a trip; to the Calgary Stampede, and more relations with associations during a Summit hosted by Alumo in Quebec. 
  • Working with CASA’s (Canadian Alliance of Student Associations) Federal Policy Committee and  
  • focused on the AI policy, and Canada Dental Plan policy papers 
  • WUSA signed an new 5-year contract with Alumo as a Health and Dental Plan provider. 
  • Director Remington Aginskaya-Zhi will be taking a leave of absence for the remainder of the Spring term. 

 

Vice-President, Student Experience (VPSE) Majdalen Azouz Report:  

  • Vice-President. Student Experience has met with UW leadership working on the SSAC (Student Services Advisory Committee) strategy and will have more of an update in September. 
  • Continued work with Food Services: discussing broad student concerns around meal plans and affordability – and working to assemble students to a focus group for more consultation 
  • Met with the Student Experience department regarding Welcome Week, multi-faith spaces, Committee of Presidents (CoPs), and SLEF (Student Life Endowment Fund) direction 
  • Working on setting up the Accessible Teaching Award Committee 
  • WUSA had great turnout at the watch party for the Canada Soccer games in June/early July 

 Vice-President, Government Stakeholder Relations (VPGSR) Rory Norris Report:  

  • Worked on WUSA’s Audit and Finance Committee to review the Budget in early June before it went to Board for approval.  
  • Attended Kitchener City community event to understand Council’s annual priorities.  
  • Attended Calgary Stampede and Alumo Summit with President Samir and engaged with Provincial Premiers, plenty of other MPs and MPPs, as well as other student leaders from across the country. 
  • OUSA (Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance) formally confirm the organization’s advocacy and operational priorities for 2026–27 
  • 1) OSAP and financial aid reform 
  • 2) Affordability and students’ basic needs 
  • 3) Supporting Ontario’s future workforce, including AI literacy and work-integrated learning 
  • Continued three-part summer training series for Steering Committee members and delegates 
  • OUSA also marched in the Toronto Pride Parade on June 28, and government relations outreach continued with the Premier of Ontario’s office on OSAP and Bill 33 matters 
  • CASA Policy and Strategy (PoliStrat) Conference: 
  • Board and membership confirmed both advocacy and operational priorities for 2026–27 and established the year’s committee structure, including the Ad-hoc Committee on Financial Sustainability and Planning (FSP) 

Director Reports:  

  • There were no oral director reports – all written reports can be found in item 7.5 of the Agenda.  

Board Member Time Tracker   

These hours reflect the period of June 1-30, 2026. 

Table: 

  Board Responsibilities  Committee Work  Engagement with Students  Ongoing Initiatives  Irregular Meetings  Miscellaneous  Total 
A. Razmjoo  5.6  4.5    4    6  20.1 
B. Chen  12.75  2.5  11.5    1  5.5  33.25 
I. Khan  7  23.5          30.5 
J. Lewis  14  6          20 
K. Wang  6.5  6.5  1    7  3  24 
M. Jejeran  14.5  1.5      7  13.75  36.75 
M. Kanji  26  11.33      8    45.33 
M/ Haider  7.5  17  8  2.5  4    39 
O. Gaballa  12  6.91  0.75  2  3.83  8.5  33.99 
R. Zhi              0 

 

Published: Thursday, July 23, 2026