By Jessica Wind (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: March 20, 2013
Last Friday’s regular SUS board meeting at the Mission campus marked the final board meeting for the 2012/2013 SUS board of directors. We know most of you declined to attend for a reason, so we’ll keep the summary brief: of 16 decision items on the agenda, 10 of them considered funding for student groups and over $10,000 was granted in total. The board also looked at honouring an informal agreement with UFV athletics regarding funding. Finally, the recent referendum results were ratified and the future of the Health and Dental service on campus was discussed.
Money, money, everywhere: SUS doles out cash to clubs and associations
Of the groups that requested funding, all of them were granted some or all of their requested amounts.
The Visual Art Student Association was granted funding for their BFA Grad show, the Video Games club was granted funding to purchase audio recording equipment for an upcoming event and CIVL radio was granted funding for their Battle of the Bands event. The Association of Student Philosophers, the Criminal Justice Student Association and the Agricultural Student Association and the Badminton club were also granted their claims.
After a lengthy process between SUS and the Biology and Chemistry Students Association (BCSA) spanning several meetings, the amount they were owed, the student group was granted the remainder of their semester funding. The process took longer than usual, since the BCSA chose the little-used option two as how they wished to receive funding.
By unanimous decision, the Theatre Students Association was granted funding for their upcoming 18th annual Directors’ Festival.
With all this cash handed out, there was discussion surrounding the amount of money left in the clubs and associations budget. Interim VP finance Ryan Petersen assured the board that there were sufficient funds available to support the requests.
In total, SUS granted $10,815 to student clubs and associations.
SUS sends student to research conference in Quebec City
Fourth-year chemistry student Meagan Beatty requested money from SUS to travel to Quebec City and present her research. She has been working on a project in organic chemistry since May and hopes to impress the judges at the poster competition at the Canadian Chemistry Conference.
“It’s not just about the poster,” she said in her appeal to the board. “It’s about networking with other universities across Canada. I hope to go to grad school in organic chemistry so it’s the perfect time to talk to people, get noticed. If people like you, they adopt you into their group and that’s what I’m hoping to do.”
The board voted and came to a unanimous decision to fund Beatty’s trip and research presentation.
Official numbers from the Transit and Health and Dental referendums
The official numbers regarding the three recent referendum questions were presented at the meeting. The Transit referendum passed with 807 students voting in favour of a bus between Chilliwack and Abbotsford campuses; 265 students voted against the question.
The Health and Dental questions both failed. The first, regarding a fee increase for increased service, had 596 students vote for the increase and 464 vote against it. This was less than the 60 per cent majority needed to pass referendum questions. The second question regarding a five per cent increase per year to the Health and Dental fee to account for inflation saw 534 students respond in favour and 530 respond against.
VP social Chris Doyle expressed his concern for the majority not being recognized as a victory.
“I can’t get past the point that a majority of the students want something, but not enough of a majority for us to support it,” he said.
General manager Meghan McDonald expressed that the responses were affected by a lack of a “no opinion” option on the ballot. Interm president Shane Potter agreed and mentioned the likelihood of the referendum being rerun in the future.
Representative-at-large Jay Mitchell responded by asking for further research into the Health and Dental service on campus.
“Before we consider looking to up our health and dental fee through another referendum, we should look into other service providers,” he said. “Our service used to be much better than 60 and 80 per cent. It used to be 100 and 80 per cent.”
Potter agreed that more research was necessary before moving forward with another Health and Dental referendum question.
Informal agreement between previous SUS board and UFV Athletics is brought to the table.
UFV Athletics requested $5000 from SUS as part of a long-standing agreement developed by previous boards.
There has been correspondence on the subject between McDonald and David Kent, sports information and marketing coordinator of Athletics, since December. McDonald requested a funding request form be filled out, as per SUS internal policies, and confirmed that it was filled out in the days prior to the board meeting. She suggested that internal process be followed going forward so as to avoid a similar conflict.
Doyle noted that when the budget was created for the 2012/2013 year, $5000 was allotted to go to Athletics. That allotment was wiped out during the budget reform at the EGM when many lines on the SUS budget were reallocated to keep AfterMath open.
However, Petersen assured the board that there is enough money in the budget to grant the amount, should the board make that decision.
Many board members were wary to rescind the informal agreement, as it would jeopardize a long-standing relationship with UFV Athletics.
Ultimately, VP academic Dan van der Kroon amended the motion to include the $5000 amount pending further explanatory discussion with McDonald.
The next board meeting will be April 2 in Abbotsford with the newly-elected board of directors. As always, regular board meetings are open to the public, and students are invited to attend or follow the action on Twitter with the hashtag #thingsSUSdoes.
