UVic Graduate Students' Society

Update: We believe that the issues with our main website (https://gss.uvic.ca/) have been resolved. While we will continue to update this page, information can also be found there.

Elections for the Graduate Students’ Society Executive Board and a referendum on Food and Beverage Services at the GSS will be held March 9, 9am (PST) - March 11, 4pm (PST) 2022. Nominations for the board open February 15. Nomination packages and information about nomination deadlines by emailing gssoffice@uvic.ca. To learn more, please email the GSS Electoral Officer, Chris Jones, at votegss@uvic.ca 

Voting Info:

Eligibility: Voters and nominees to the board must be currently registered graduate students and registered in the 2022-01 academic term.

When: 9:00am PST March 9, 2022 to 4:00pm PST March 11, 2022

Where: webvote.uvic.ca (Log in with your Netlink ID to vote)  

GSS Election

The GSS Executive Board is responsible for the governance and management of the Graduate Students’ Society (GSS) and is the official representative of GSS members to the University of Victoria and other bodies who make policies that affect graduate students.

Nomination Package

Available Executive Board positions:

1. Chair

2. Director of Communications

3. Director of Finance

4. Director of Student Affairs

5. Director of Services

Term of Appointment: April 1, 2022 — March 31, 2023

How can I learn about the role?

Bylaw 9 describes the duties of Executive Board members. The GSS bylaws can be viewed here: GSS Constitution and Bylaws.

Come to one of our Meet the Board Events to learn more about these positions and the work of the Executive Board. Meet the Board Events will take place 12-1pm PST, Monday, February 14 and 5-6pm Friday, February 18. Please email gssoffice@uvic.ca for the meeting link.

GSS Fee Referendum

The GSS is seeking member input into the future of the Grad House Restaurant. Prior to 2020, the UVic Graduate Students’ Society (GSS) operated a full-service restaurant in the Halpern Centre. Due to several factors including a suboptimal location on the edge of campus, competition from other on-campus food and beverage services, and a desire to keep food costs affordable and provide decent wages to student staff, the restaurant operated at a significant loss of around $62,000 per year on average from 2013 to 2019. These losses were subsidized by the GSS Operating Fund which is made up of fees collected from all graduate students. This use of funding is not in keeping with the original purpose of the Operating Fund and impacts the GSS’ ability to provide graduate students with other services and activities. Since March 2020, the restaurant has been closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As past experience with numerous business strategies has shown the restaurant is unable to run on a break-even or better basis, a new student fee would need to be collected from all on-campus students in order to reopen the restaurant as a student service. GSS financial analysis shows a new fee of $20 per semester, paid by every on-campus graduate student, would be required to resume a full-service restaurant experience. In March 2022, the GSS will be holding a referendum asking graduate students whether they prefer collection of a new $20 fee and reopening the full-service restaurant; no new fee and no food and beverage services at the Halpern Centre; or a reduced food and beverage service supported by a smaller fee.

Through consultation with our membership during January and February 2022, the GSS is proposing three options for how we could use our Grad House Restaurant space. We are asking you to vote on the following:

1. Do you support:

a. An increase to your student fees to maintain some or all Food and Beverage services at Halpern Centre, as set out in Referendum Question 2, or

b. No increase to your student fees, no Food and Beverages services at Halpern Centre, and renovations to screen off the previous kitchen and sales spaces to allow the Grad House and Side Project spaces to be used for study and gathering spaces

2. If Referendum Question 1a passes, do you support:

a. A new mandatory Food and Beverage Fee of $20 per student per term for all on-campus graduate students to fund operations of a full service restaurant in Halpern Centre, or

b. A new mandatory Food and Beverage Fee of $11 per student per term for all on-campus graduate students to fund operations of a counter-service, limited-menu food and beverage service in Halpern Centre

For more information about our member consultations, please find the results of the survey monkey survey, an FAQ, and the powerpoint from our town halls on our main website.

All currently registered UVIC graduate students may campaign on the referenda questions and vote. Voting takes place on https://webvote.uvic.ca.

To register a campaign side, graduate students must email the electoral officer by 4 pm February 22, 2022. The campaign period is from February 23 to March 8, 2022.