20090128 Haldenby Board Eng

January 28, 2009 Board of Administration Student Federation of the University of Ottawa Ottawa, Ontario Re: Electronic Voting Decision Dear members of the board, I feel it important to notify you of the developments over the past couple of weeks with regard to the decision taken at our last board meeting held on January 11, 2009. The decision taken by the board was the following: Be it resolved to approve the e-voting method as presented by the elections’ staff. As you will recall the system was described by the elections office at the board. The system was an electronic voting system accessible online by our students. The Elections’ Office described the details of the system. Soon thereafter, the constitutionality of the board decision was challenged by an individual member. The Student Arbitration Committee (SAC) was convened by the Chief Arbitrator, Pamela Mezher. Both the elections’ office and I worked closely to defend the decision of the board and show that this was not unconstitutional and the board was within its right to make this decision. As the president of the Student Federation and spokesperson for the board, I found it essential that I defend the decision made by our board. The SAC decided that the aforementioned decision was constitutionally sound, thus rejecting the request to overturn the board’s decision. Within the two business day time period after the SAC decision, individual members decided to appeal the SAC decision to the board. This was ruled in order for the business of the board by our chairperson, according to Right of appeal, under section 8.8 of the constitution. The question that will be posed to board members on Sunday, February 1, 2009 is whether or not they would like to hear the appeal. Should the board wish to hear the appeal, they will have a presentation from the appellants, followed by a final decision. The latter would deny the right to hear the appeal, thus finalizing the January 11, 2009 motion. Please note that until the request for an appeal is settled on Sunday by the board, I am not conducting business on behalf of the federation with regard to this issue; therefore, I am unable to conclude contracts verbal, written or otherwise for any voting system. It is important to note that arrangements have been made concurrent with the board’s original decision (as was the will of the board); however contracts have not been concluded on any voting system. This is the most responsible and prudent step I am taking as we move forward. …/ 1

Further, I have instructed the elections’ office to prepare a contingency plan by Friday, January 30th, 2009 in the possibility that the board decides to hear the motion and overturn its original decision made on January 11, 2009. I have recently been receiving communications back and forth, to and from board members with regard to this debate. Without diminishing the concerns of those board members, I would kindly ask that debate be kept to the board table. I have requested that other parties do the same. Please keep in mind that it is impossible for our chairperson to mediate across the World Wide Web. In closing, let us remember that while we are passionate and principled on subjects such as evoting, we must remain respectful to one another in order for that passion and principle to matter. Please do not hesitate to contact me should you have any questions on the above subjects. Yours truly,

Dean P. Haldenby President, Student Federation of the University of Ottawa Chairperson, Elections’ committee Cc:

F. Carvajal, Chairperson, SFUO

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