On the evening of November 27th, 2025, the Student’s Union Okanagan (SUO) held their Annual General Meeting (AGM) in the UNC Ballroom. Despite the cold weather, this year’s AGM had a good turnout and students seemed eager to hear about the SUO’s budget, reviews of the past year, proposed bylaw changes, and plans for the remainder of the academic year.
Quickly following the start of the meeting, a group of students associated with the RBC Off Campus activist group moved to amend the meeting agenda to address some of their requests for the SUO. Sheets with all of the proposed resolutions were handed out to students and the executive board in attendance at the AGM. These papers included two resolutions regarding UBC Okanagan divesting from Israel, and removing RBC On Campus from the UNC building.
The first and second divestment resolution asked for the SUO to write a letter to UBC President Benoit-Antoine Bacon, Deputy Vice Chancellor and Principal Lesley Cormack, VP Finance Frank Laezza, and the UBC and UBCIM Board of Governors. In this letter, they wanted the SUO to ask for an update regarding the responsible investment strategy adopted by UBC Okanagan, and to “cancel all student mobility agreements with institutions upholding apartheid” until the UN no longer considers Israel an apartheid state. Both of these motions were adopted by the SUO.
The RBC Off Campus movement then had specific resolutions they proposed to the SUO regarding the status of RBC being allowed to operate within the UNC building on campus.
The first of these resolutions called for the SUO to review contracts between the SUO and RBC, redact any confidential portions of the contract, write an explanation regarding the redacted sections, and make all of these documents available to members of the SUO one month after the AGM. Meeting chair, Joey Hansen, explained there would be issues setting a timeline when the SUO would need to speak to legal counsel for this information to be released to members. SUO President, Peter Idoko, explained that the SUO would be seeking legal counsel on this matter following the AGM.
The second resolution requested for the SUO to release a statement saying that they would not renew their lease with RBC On Campus upon its expiry and would explore the possibility of early termination of that lease. Upon this request, Idoko stated the SUO “[does not] want to cross any lines [they] are not legally allowed to cross,” which would prevent issues related to prematurely withdrawing from the contract with RBC. It was also amended that the SUO will publish the legal opinion on this matter after speaking with legal counsel.
The third resolution sought for the SUO to lobby for early termination of the RBC On Campus lease, hoping that all parties involved in the contract would walk away with no retribution. Following this, the SUO would find a credit union to take RBC’s place on campus so students can still conduct banking activities in an accessible manner. In response to this resolution, Vice President External Olivia Lai emphasized “this needs to be taken with a lot of precaution,” and that the current executive board could do very little because this agreement was made long before any of them had even begun attending UBC Okanagan.
The fourth and final resolution asked that the SUO release the meeting minutes from specific in-camera sessions to the public. However, no notes were taken for these past sessions, so none are able to be released. It was also mentioned by Vice President Internal, Shreya Patnaik, that there is ongoing discussion within the SUO to change the secrecy of these meetings.
Vice-President Rajat Arora then presented the financial audit for 2024-2025. This audit was conducted by the accounting firm Tompkins Wozny, which concluded that the SUO adhered to the standards of a non-profit organization. The budget for the 2025-2026 year was also presented, and importantly featured a decrease in total membership revenue, meaning the SUO will have a lower budget this coming year than they did last year. However, students should not expect any dramatic changes in the services they receive from the SUO.
Bylaw changes regarding the new Graduate Student Association (GSA) also took place, and the amount of time taken by Patnaik to read out these changes in entirety was impressive and showed her dedication to ensuring a smooth transition as the GSA separates from the SUO.
This AGM demonstrated that the current SUO executive board is committed to transparency, maintaining open communication, listening to students’ concerns, and providing the best possible support for the student body. In the future if students at UBC Okanagan wish to make changes to how the SUO operates, the AGM is a perfect opportunity to do just that.
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