Toronto Metropolitan University's Independent Student Newspaper Since 1967

People holding up sheets of paper to vote in a Board of Directors meeting
Photo: Annie Arnone
All News Student Politics

Five RSU board members resign amidst 6 Fest drama

By Sarah Krichel

Five members of the Ryerson Students’ Union (RSU) board of directors have collectively resigned.

The resigning board members wrote a letter to RSU executives and board members on Feb. 6, citing the current executive team not fulfilling their duties as the reason for the resignation. The statement specifically references RSU president Obaid Ullah and vice-president student life & events Harman Singh as the source of the lack of transparency and communication.

The letter also cites a deficit of at least $1 million, which has accumulated over the past year—$750,000 from 6 Fest and $250,000 from the 6 Cent concert in May. According to the letter, the numbers were provided by the financial controller on Feb. 3.

The Eyeopener reported in December that the last RSU audit stated a deficit of about $812,000 in the 2015-2016 academic year.

Directors of the Ted Rogers School of Management, Anthony Esguerra, Michelle Park, Nav Marwah, and Sandra Bahoua have resigned, as well as as a director in the faculty of engineering and architectural science, Michael Foppiano.

“It is with deep regret and difficulty that we are informing you of this, however, we feel that this decision is in the best interest of our faculties and our students across campus,” the statement reads. “We are gravely concerned that our philosophy and vision for the organization is no longer in line with the majority of the board.”

More to come. 

3 Comments

  1. As a former VP Finance and Services for the RSU almost a decade ago, two points: 1) that’s a big deficit and 2) that’s a lot of resignations.

  2. Jesus Navas

    damn

  3. Mike

    Probably money funnelling … using RSU’s budget to fund some other business ventures

Leave a Reply to Cancel reply