By Katherine Gibson (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: March 5, 2014
Proper notice of board meetings for membership?
Rep-at-large Jay Mitchell spoke to his motion, which would call board meetings out of order should students not be given proper notice of the meeting.
“Rather unfortunately, it occasionally happens that [meeting] information is not properly [publicized] to [students],” said Mitchell, “and I don’t think a meeting should be able to continue if the membership has not been properly notified.”
Davies noted that this motion would not change anything, as the board is already able to call meetings out of order when protocol is not followed. However, Mitchell maintained the motion was less about change and more about “reinforcing the idea” of informing the student population.
BCSA president Jennifer Martel also spoke, explaining that she has been confused more than once about when board meetings were occurring. She suggested SUS should post board meetings on their online calendar and use social media, saying that many students search out most of their information online.
“Obviously [using social media] is not going to solve student apathy; we’ll never be able to necessarily solve [that],” Martel said. “But it does show that SUS is working toward that.”
SUS president Shane Potter agreed, expressing that he believed SUS was “a victim of [its] current structure.”
“I believe that within the new structure [and] with our engagement officer,” Potter noted, “this will be a problem that we rectify.”
Potter proposed the motion be tabled to the governance committee and the board agreed.
The board also tabled a motion regarding the use of “to be announced” (TBA) when announcing meeting locations and times. The motion was aimed at encouraging the board to make their meetings more accessible.
Motions concerning student health and appreciation
Rep-at-large Jay Mitchell brought forward a motion asking the board to lobby UFV administration for a fall semester reading break.
He noted that some universities have now implemented an additional reading break to address mental health issues facing students, such as stress.
Potter motioned that the issue be tabled to advocacy, to which the board unanimously voted in favour.
As well, Mitchell brought forward a motion asking for bi-monthly student appreciation nights.
“I think that [SUS] should more frequently show [its] appreciation to our membership and I believe that student appreciation nights would do that,” Mitchell explained. “Whether it be providing coffee for people to get together and just chit-chat, or it be something, like an ‘80s rager neon party — we can leave that up to the events committee, but I think that we should appreciate our students more regularly.”
Davies motioned that the board table the idea to the events committee, and the board agreed.
Motion to extend nomination period
Rep-at-large Jay Mitchell proposed a motion to the nomination period for SUS positions was brought forward — the hope being that with an extended amount of time to participate, more students would become engaged with the student government process.
“It is an affront to our democracy,” Mitchell said, “when we have 10,000 to 15,000 students any given semester and we have one person running for a position.”
While Davies acknowledged the benefits of the motion, he also noted that the change would take time and research.
“It’s not something that I will expect governance committee to be doing very quickly — it will take a bit of time,” he said.
Potter agreed with Davies, but also noted that extending the time was more of a “patch solution,” asserting that the core of the problem was more to do with student engagement issues — an assertion that was agreed upon by the board.
After extensive conversation, the motion was defeated, though Mitchell maintained that an important point had been made — low student engagement with SUS is an issue at UFV.
SUS upgrades to full CASA membership
The SUS board decided to upgrade to full membership status with the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA) when their associate membership status expires after the current board term.
VP internal Greg Stickland spoke in favour of the motion, explaining to the board they would either have to upgrade or leave the organization. Stickland went on to note the benefits of remaining CASA-affiliated, stating that CASA is a powerful tool and ally for the board.
Mitchell also spoke in favour of a full CASA membership, saying, “It [is] quite refreshing to see such a positive and pro-active stance” towards the organization.
The board voted unanimously in favour of this motion, making the student union a full member of CASA once the current board term ends.
Funding requests: D-fest, Big Bang, portfolio funding, and conference fees
The theatre students association (TSA) submitted a request to fund its annual Director’s Festival. The finance committee recommended partial funding of $1495, despite the theatre student association’s (TSA) request for $7500 to host the event, a fixture of local theatre. Davies addressed the large discrepancy between the funding request and the board’s recommendation, explaining that TSA’s request had included the salaries of UFV faculty members.
“The main reason the finance committee took [the funding] down rather heavily was that included in their budget was salaries for UFV staff members, and this is something which the finance committee does not support putting the money toward,” explains Davies. “That’s something that we feel UFV needs to figure out.”
During board discussion, many members brought up concerns regarding whether the event would be able to run properly with the reduced funding. Mitchell questioned the time-sensitive nature of the request, explaining to the board that he would rather wait for more information before voting on the amount of funding. Potter echoed this sentiment, motioning the board to table the request until their March 7 meeting.
Also discussed was a funding request for the third annual Big Bang event, hosted by the science student associations. Initial confusion about the request prevented the board from discussing funding during the February 21 meeting. However, the finance committee came back to recommend granting $3,657 to the event’s organizers.
Davies explained that with the board funding and the three partnering science, physics, and CIS student associations putting in $1,000 of their automatic funding, the event would have enough funding to run properly.
The graphic design department also received funding, albeit reduced from their request. Despite requesting $3000 to help host their grad portfolio exhibition, the SUS board chose to grant $1200 to the event.
Davies said that the partial funding would still help the graphic design department run the event.
The board also granted the graphic design department $790 toward a book-binding seminar.
David Seymour, a student wishing to present a paper at the Quebec University English Undergraduate Conference, requested $850 in funding from the SUS board to help fund his attendance. Jay Mitchell spoke in favour of supporting this request, thanking the finance committee for “finally heading in the direction of sponsoring individual students.” Mitchell went on to state that, “there have been times in the past where [these requests] have been shot down,” and commended the board for moving towards more support of individual UFV students.
The motion was passed unanimously by the board.
Proposed budget for 2014/2015: no discussion
Rep-at-large Thomas Davies presented the proposed operational budget for 2014/2015. Elements included $438,407 being allocated for student services, which is comprised of things like AfterMath, student clubs and associations, Weeks of Welcome events and SUS grants.
Also notable is the change to AfterMath’s operating budget, deceasing from $130,000 to $100,000 this coming year.
With no discussion, the board was unanimously in favour of the budget, carrying it to be voted on at the March 12 annual general meeting.
