Results for the 2015-2016 University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) elections remain unofficial as the motion put before the UTSU Board of Directors to ratify them was tabled until April 15.

The board adjourned before addressing the motion due to an inability to maintain quorum.

According to the Elections Procedure Code, candidates in the UTSU are not deemed “officially elected” until they have paid outstanding election fees, attained 18 years of age, and been ratified by the board.

The code also indicates that the board’s ratification is conditional depending on any outstanding appeals against the candidates.

The Monday meeting took place at UTM, with less than 25 of the 40 total directors present.

Quorum for the Board of Directors meeting was 23 people.

Putting off ratification

Early on in the meeting, UTSU vice-president, campus life ZiJian Yang put forward a suggestion to postpone the ratification vote as an amendment to the agenda. The chair indicated that this could not be a procedural agenda amendment, and that the possibility to postpone the ratification would arise when they came to that agenda item.

Yang told The Varsity that he wanted to delay the motion at the request of some candidates. “I’ve had written request from candidates who have requested a recount and other candidates who still wished to hold an appeal session despite the elections being over,” Yang says.

Ultimately, UTSU president Yolen Bollo-Kamara made a motion to adjourn until April 15 about three hours into the board meeting, and after the board had lost quorum for the fourth time. At this time, engineering director Ryan Gomes — also the unofficially elected vice-president, internal and services — and Trinity College director Patrick Andison had left the room to bring the group two directors short of quorum.

Gomes says he did hope to see the results ratified Monday, but expected that pending re-counts might prevent this from happening. “This does delay transitioning though, so postponing [the ratification] to halfway through April will definitely be an issue,” Gomes says.

Bollo-Kamara did not respond to request for comment.

In addition to the ratification of the UTSU election results and referendum results, the board has not yet approved the revised UTSU budget.

The April 15 meeting is outside of the regularly scheduled board meetings. The tabled items will be on the agenda for that date.

UTM director Maaham Malik had also proposed reconvening the next day.

A host of students from the Brighter UofT slate who had been unofficially elected attended the Board of Directors meeting. Ben Coleman, unofficial president-elect of the UTSU, attended in an ex-officio capacity.

Student Commons fee increase incites questions

Concerns arose among some directors and some visitors over the proposed 10 per cent fee increase for the Student Commons, a project that was approved by Governing Council earlier this year.

Coleman, speaking as an ex-officio, asked why the board was being asked to approve an increase of 10 per cent when they had not seen costing projections for the project. Andison echoed Coleman’s question and added that he suspects the university would ask for the maximum amount approved by student referendum regardless of the rate of increase.

Yang and Cameron Wathey, UTSU vice-president, internal and services, both spoke in favour of the motion to approve the fee increase, which amounts to $0.82.

Andison and others ultimately agreed with the fee increase, saying their concerns stemmed from lack of information from the administration rather than the fee amount itself.

The motion passed easily. It remains unclear exactly how much the Student Commons will cost.

Also during the meeting, a motion to adopt a policy on board member accountability failed to receive a two-thirds majority. The motion called for board members to write a short report on the work directors had done in between meetings.

It was opposed by Gomes, who said that the board is mandated to hold the executives to account, and not the other way around.