The Rideau River Residence Association (RRRA) needs reform.
As a member of the RRRA Council and RRRA staff last year, I saw an association that put too much authority in the executive team and a council that could not provide effective oversight due to flaws in the association’s constitution.
This year, I want to bring a series of reforms to RRRA. I have discussed these reforms with colleagues and we believe they will bring the necessary accountability to RRRA, which will make it an effective student-led organization.
I’d like to outline a proposal of financial, governance, and advocacy reforms to the structure of RRRA.
Today, the RRRA executives spend money with little oversight from RRRA council. A budget is reviewed and passed with little time for serious consideration and, as we saw in 2016, the budget was evidently abandoned by the executive team, leading to a deficit of $182,000 in that year.
RRRA council needs to exercise greater accountability over the spending of the Association. It can start by enforcing its own Constitution.
The RRRA Constitution states that the president shall be responsible for the presentation of the mid-term financial review to the RRRA Council; however, from my own experience at the meetings, I can say that council received no such report last year.
At this year’s first RRRA Council meeting on Oct. 15, the current budget was tabled, despite there being no documented budget presented to Council by the executives.
A good first step would be to ensure that this year, the president presents a fulsome mid-term financial review, as well as detailed updates on the spending of the association at every meeting of the RRRA council. Given that RRRA invested significant monies this summer to update its accounting software, this should not prove too difficult.
Secondly, let’s touch on governance reform.
Last year, RRRA members experienced a failure in the governance of the association during the executive election process where the results were only made official by council at the end of April, with only days remaining before the summer break. This needs to change.
RRRA council should ensure that all RRRA staff are hired through transparent and open competitions, and that staff are chosen based on their competence and dedication to the association and its Constitution, not their loyalty to the executive team.
To start, all hiring board members should be approved by RRRA council and have at least one non-executive council member to ensure oversight.
Next, the process for the removal of an executive member should be the same for all executive team members to ensure that they are equally accountable to the council. Term limits for executive members should also be examined.
RRRA executives should be paid in bi-weekly payments only, effective immediately, at a fixed rate established by the council. Presently, RRRA executives are compensated through no less than five forms of monetary and non-monetary payments, most of which increase in value every year. It also makes the removal of an executive member challenging, as their free room and board, for example, is fully paid-out at the beginning of the year.
Finally, in recent years, RRRA has not been an effective advocate for the rights of residence students. Tuition fees and residence costs rise every year with little protest from RRRA.
RRRA council needs to stand up for the rights of residence students and evaluate the best way to do so. Despite signing onto Our Turn National, the recently-launched national initiative against campus sexual violence, RRRA has begun to coerce students into attending sexual assault support training through payments of $50 to floor representative funds. This is not necessarily the best way to further goals of combatting sexual violence, as evidenced by the fact that this practice was brought up as an ethical concern at the aforementioned RRRA council meeting.
As a member of RRRA, I plan to present these reforms, among others, with a concerned group of students who want to see greater accountability and action from our Residence Association.
I ask you to join with us to reform the Rideau River Residence Association.
