UR Pride says URSU’s move to defund follows relationship ‘breakdown’

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A move by the University of Regina Students’ Union (URSU) to defund the UR Pride Centre for Sexuality and Gender Diversity’s feels pointed, says the organization’s board.

“We feel this is targeted,” said Style Stenberg, vice-chair of UR Pride.

URSU’s board of directors passed a vote on Sept. 13 to hold a student referendum this fall on whether to discontinue two student fees that go toward UR Pride and the U of R Women’s Centre.

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The referendum has since been paused indefinitely.

URSU issued a statement on social media Friday, saying both centres have been out of compliance with their service agreements for some time, which is what prompted the motions.

In the statement, URSU said the Women’s Centre has been “closed for several years in a row” and has not been fulfilling its service pledge to students and that “extensive attempts were made to ensure compliance.”

“We are disappointed that some individuals have resorted to name-calling and making baseless claims of a gender-targeted attack. There is no truth to these accusations,” reads URSU’s statement.

Women’s Centre executive director Jill Arnott told the Leader-Post that URSU’s claims are untrue and the move to initiate a poll on defunding the centre was a shock because URSU’s leadership had not been in touch about compliance.

UR Pride, however, has been out of compliance with its service agreement since at least last December. Financial reporting issues date back further, but the centre was in active discussions with URSU to resolve the problem.

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Stenberg previously served as the LGBTQ+ director on URSU’s board. He said that in 2023 the union was willing to offer “quite a bit of support” to come into compliance but talks “broke down” following URSU’s general election and his departure as liaison.

A new executive and board of directors took over in May, shortly after URSU’s current general manager took on his role in March.

Stenberg said a memorandum of understanding was first offered in the spring to help UR Pride produce two years of financial reports and audits, but URSU abruptly issued a two-week ultimatum to deliver the documents by September. With its executive director role currently vacant, Stenberg called the request “extremely unrealistic” for UR Pride to achieve.

Neither URSU’s president Mahad Ahmad or general manager Aoun Muhammad has responded to multiple requests for comment from the Regina Leader-Post.

“Even if they are defunded by the membership, URSU is already serving the campus community and will ensure that better services are provided to all concerned demographics,” URSU said in its Friday statement.

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In the Sept. 13 meeting that presented the referendum motions, URSU’s board also heard a proposal to create a new Centre for All, run by URSU and funded by student fees. That motion failed.

Stenberg questioned why the union would move to pull funding from student centres that have several decades of experience, and instead create a new one from scratch.

UR Pride receives around 50 per cent of its operational funding from student fees while the rest comes from various grants or alternate core funding. Full-time U of R students pay $5.25 per year to UR Pride and part-time students pay $2.75 per year.

Should the proposed referendum pass and funding vanish, Stenberg said UR Pride intends to “continue doing the work that we’ve always done” by finding other avenues to continue operating.

It will be “challenging,” he acknowledged, as the centre would lose its space in the Riddell Centre on campus because that lease is held with URSU.

“Students find community here, they find space and they find people who are just like them,” Stenberg said. “It makes them flourish and bloom into these beautiful individuals, so it is terrifying for us at UR Pride knowing that could be off the table.”

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lkurz@postmedia.com

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