The Math Society’s special council meeting on June 26 announced that president Arnav Gupta will not be serving the remainder of his term due to personal and medical reasons. He previously served as the VP of finance prior to his appointment as president.  

Gupta was voted in for the spring 2025 term with 18 out of 25 votes in favour of his assignment. The president position is appointed by the board of directors and includes duties such as representing the society, appointing members, attending WUSA committee meetings and working with other executives.

MathSoc has appointed councillor Alex Lavallee as interim president to take Gupta’s place, who was previously an at-large representative on MathSoc council.   

However, according to by-law 9.2 of MathSoc, the council must run a by-election to take place for a new president for the remainder of the spring term. 

The issue? Having a by-election to find a replacement would mean the elected official would only serve for two weeks. Additionally, “the by-election is likely to interfere with the election for next term’s executives.” 

Eligibility to be an executive includes: eligible to sit on the board of directors, must be a math student, has completed two terms of study, and no other full-time non-academic commitments. 

Samir Mohammed, who is in his 3B term of computational math states, “The kind of executives in MathSoc don’t affect my day to day life. The events they hold are good, but focusing on the bureaucratic system is taking away from that just because of these by-laws. If they save the time and avoid the by-election, and save time by having another executive to step in temporarily, they would be able to focus on their events.” 

A few steps ahead, MathSoc executives seem to aim to address this very issue by changing the by-laws themselves. The meeting moved to amend by-law 9.2 so that elected executive positions that become vacant the first month require a by-election, as opposed to the previous first two months. 

Article 13 of the by-laws states that amendments can be made if there is “both a two-thirds majority vote of the board of directors and a two-thirds majority vote of council, or by a two-thirds majority vote of a general meeting, with notice.”

If the amendment is voted only by the directors and council, then it can be effective immediately but is subject to confirmation or rejection by general meeting. The next MathSoc general meeting for members is expected to be held on July 17.

The Math Society (MathSoc) holds events for math students, owns and operates the math Coffee and Donut Shop (CnD) on the third floor of the MC building, and provides various resources including exam banks for students. Under MathSoc, there are also numerous clubs including the Actuarial Sciences Club, Statistics Club, and Data Science Club. 

Bureaucratically, there is the MathSoc council and the MathSoc board. The council provides a voice for the society and math students, approves budgets for clubs, and is responsible for upholding the purpose of the society. It consists of the six executive officers (president, VP of finance, VP of operations, VP of communications, VP of internal, VP of academics) and 29 representatives of the different programs and first-year reps. 

The board, on the other hand, is responsible for long-term plans and managing legal, financial and human resource areas. It is composed of the same six executive officers, two community representatives, two council representatives, and six at-large directors.