Not all of the 170 attendees cast a vote. The final tally was about 70 votes in favour of dissolution, 13 against and one abstention.<\/p>\n
The vote was originally supposed to happen at a meeting in September, but was postponed over contention around the voting process and format.<\/p>\n
Some students said Tuesday\u2019s rescheduled meeting was riddled with issues that left many unable to participate.<\/p>\n
Matthew McStravick, a student senator and president of the University of Regina Model United Nations Club, said he and “dozens of students” were not permitted to join the meeting despite being registered. He was only able to get information from a student who streamed the meeting on the Discord social platform, he said.<\/p>\n
![\"picture](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1761146108_270_default.jpg\")
Matthew McStravick, a University of Regina student senator and president of the university’s model UN club, says he doesn’t believe the vote was valid. (Antoine Pejot-Charrost\/Radio-Canada)<\/p>\n
“The attendees were anonymous,” McStravick said. “The result seems completely unverifiable, because the identities of those attending cannot be confirmed.”<\/p>\n
McStravick said the process left students feeling “silenced and upset.”<\/p>\n
“It feels like students\u2019 ability to engage is being suppressed,” he said. <\/p>\n
“This would have been far better dealt with through \u2026 an in-person meeting that could have been widely attended and that was advertised much further in advance.”<\/p>\n
Meeting inaccessible, disorganized: students<\/p>\n
Fourth-year business student Jordan Cousins said he tried to vote but was not let into the online meeting.<\/p>\n
“I entered in my information to participate in this vote,” Cousins said. “I, a student who would have voted no, was not allowed to vote, even though I am a dues-paying member of URSU.”<\/p>\n
Cousins said he would have voted against dissolution, because he believes a student union still serves an important purpose.<\/p>\n
“I think a student union is important,” he said. “Regardless of what\u2019s happening with the current leadership, I think it\u2019s still important to have student union representation.”<\/p>\n
He says he is worried students will lose their voice at the university.<\/p>\n
“There will be no seat at the table when it comes to decision-making at the university,” Cousins said. “All the spaces that URSU has and all the funding that URSU gives to students will all vaporize.”<\/p>\n
Benjamin Esson, a fourth-year science student, said he was among those who managed to get into the meeting, but described it as disorganized and restrictive.<\/p>\n
“It certainly seemed like a lot of the people who were very vocal in the first meeting [in September] were nowhere to be seen in this one,” he said. <\/p>\n
“They only allowed two people at most to raise their hands and talk about any given point.”<\/p>\n
Esson said there were issues with microphones, ignored messages in the meeting chat and problems with the voting link itself.<\/p>\n
“The direct link to get to Microsoft Teams, the meeting itself, was invalid,” he said. “That becomes a problem when people can\u2019t get into the meeting to vote themselves.”<\/p>\n
He said the final result shouldn\u2019t be recognized.<\/p>\n
“I don\u2019t think they should be counted in any way, shape or form,” Esson said. “They wanted to sweep this under the rug as much as possible, and I don\u2019t think that reflects what the students want for themselves.”<\/p>\n
CBC News has reached out to the U of R Students’ Union for comment but had not received a response at the time of the publication.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Call for accountability, new process<\/p>\n
McStravick said many students want the students’ union to be replaced, but through a fair process.<\/p>\n
“It could be good news to be rid of URSU, to have a better and more representative student body,” he said. “But the way we\u2019re getting there feels completely inadequate to students.”<\/p>\n
He said the vote came from an unrepresentative fraction of the student population.<\/p>\n
“I do not think that that vote was valid,” McStravick said. “Everything about this process needs to be revisited. The meeting should be held again in a more open and transparent fashion.”<\/p>\n
In a statement to CBC, the University of Regina said it is aware that the special general meeting took place Tuesday morning and that “many students were disappointed that URSU offered only online participation.”<\/p>\n
The university said it understands the meeting resulted in a vote to dissolve the union, and said it is waiting for “communication from URSU or its legal counsel with respect to its proposed next steps.”<\/p>\n