Councillor recalled, six councillors absent, DSU aims to divest, elections policy amended
About three audience members observe any 2014 DSU council meeting, and two of them are Gazette writers. The livestreams of these meetings generally attract one or two viewers. If you aren’t one of these five people, and the @Dalgazette council livetweets don’t cut it for you, we will be providing deeper insight into the process of these meetings in upcoming weeks.
1. Good luck finding out who represents you on council – there’s a good chance they were not present regardless
Three absent council members sent their regrets for this meeting.
Six councillors were not present and did not express regrets: Kristofer Pervin, computer science representative; Vishwa Patel, Dalhousie Association of Graduate Students representative; Aaron Szeto and Uytae Lee, who are the architecture representative interchangeably; Yazan Matarieh, member-at-large; Dylan Letende, senate representative and Emily Whelan, medicine representative.
Giovana Celli, international students representative, was recorded as being absent without regrets – but she is actually no longer on council, and this was not recognized at the meeting. Celli recently resigned from her position as Vice President (External) of the Dalhousie International Students Association, vacating the council seat occupied by the holder of this position.
Jacqueline Skiptunis, Vice President (Academic and External) [VPAE], was the only executive member not present at the meeting. She had sent her regrets in advance.
Some positions on council are still vacant, including two Residence Representative seats.
If you’re a DSU member trying to figure out who represents you on council, you cannot rely on DSU.ca’s list of councillors, the only public listing of councillors you can obtain without directly asking the chair or phoning or visiting the DSU offices in person.
As of this story being published, the list says the positions of Black Students rep, Computer Science rep, and two Health Professions rep positions are all vacant – one Health Professions Rep position is vacant, but the other mentioned positions are not.
This means Black students or those studying computer science who are not already aware of their representative member on council would see DSU.ca’s list of councillors, see the vacant position, and likely be deterred from going forward with any grievances, questions or suggestions they may have.
2. The DSU changed the policy governing elections after it got to the chair too late to be included in council packages
One item on the agenda was to vote on a revised elections policy. Council Chair Andrew Christofi let everyone know he did not receive the amended elections policy by the deadline of Sunday at 6:30 p.m., so he was unable to circulate the policy to councilors along with the rest of the council package (the documents each member of council receives from the chair at least a day prior to council meetings).
“We have an amended elections policy, as amended by the Board of Operations (BOPS), and the question is whether we’re going to be working from that text as opposed to the text councillors have already received,” Christofi said.
(BOPS is a board comprised of the DSU executive, the chair, the union’s general manager, five non-executive students and up to two alumni. The board is responsible for overseeing the health and functioning of the union.)
DSU President Ramz Aziz said most of the amendments BOPS was looking to make applied to the Vice President (Finance and Operations) [VPFO] position, which will be elected for the first time this year. He suggested Christofi send a copy of the policy with BOPS’ amendments to all councillors and proxies, and for the motion to be voted on at this meeting.
(Proxies are acquaintances of councillors who vote in their place when they cannot be/are not at council meetings. Every councillor using a proxy must sign a form to have their proxy approved in advance.)
“I don’t feel particularly comfortable voting on policy changes that we haven’t received until after the start of the meeting,” said councillor Hannah Klug, president of the Undergraduate Engineering Students Society. “I think it’s hard to notice the details that have changed during the meeting.”
Christofi acknowledged if anyone felt there wasn’t enough time to make a fair vote, the motion would be tabled until the next meeting.
A motion was passed to have the amended policy, as well as a document detailing what changes were made, circulated among all councilors and proxies.
Later in the meeting, the amendments were reviewed line-by-line in front of council. Various changes needed to be made to the policy now that the position of VPFO is elected, rather than appointed, as of last month’s AGM where Grawood patrons and the cast of Alice in Wonderland: the Pantomime were recruited at the last minute to meet the number of voting members necessary to amend the constitution.
Council voted so that nominees for the VPFO position will have to answer a DSU questionnaire and have their answers publically posted shortly after announcing their intent to campaign in this upcoming elections period.
3. Administration allegedly appointed students to budget committee without consulting DSU
The Budget Advisory Committee is a committee of Dal administration that examines Dal’s finances and balances its budget each year.
Board of Governor’s Representative JD Hutton told council that two students are supposed to sit on the committee each year in consultation with the DSU, but when he asked if he could be on it this year, he was told the two students were already appointed by administration. The DSU had not been consulted.
“Given the gravity of this committee, it’s kind of a big deal,” said Hutton.
.@CarolynatDal what was reasoning for going around @DalStudentUnion to select BAC student reps? @DalPres @DalGazette #transparency #nspoli
— Taylor Quinn (@TaylorQuinn92) November 5, 2014
4. Councillors will now be required to submit public monthly reports
A motion was passed that will see councillors required to submit end-of-month reports, that will be publically viewable, on the activities and concerns of their constituencies. The first reports should be published around the end of December.
5. DSU may opt to divest their portfolio of investments in fossil fuels
On Nov. 25, Dalhousie’s Board of Governors will vote on whether they will divest the university’s portfolio of investments in fossil fuel companies, and the DSU has been talking about divesting their own portfolio for months.
A job posting for the DSU staff position of Divestment Commissioner may be found here.
Aziz said members of the Divest Dal activist group recently helped the DSU draft amendments to their Investment Policy after it was found the DSU does indeed have investments in fossil fuels.
The DSU will be holding a town hall meeting on divestment for all students to attend on Nov. 24 at 6:30 p.m., in the lobby of the Student Union Building.
If the DSU wants to vote on whether they should divest before the university’s Board of Governor’s does, this will have to happen at the Nov. 19 council meeting, a week before the town hall on divestment.
How these schedules may conflict is anyone’s guess.
6. Two of the people regulating this year’s DSU elections have not been seen by DSU council, did not submit letters of introduction
At the previous DSU council meeting on Oct. 22, political science student Dylan Ryan was appointed to be Chief Returning Officer of the DSU’s Elections Committee. Shaila Jamali, a Masters of Planning student, was appointed to be a non-council member on the committee.
On Nov. 5, the committee still needed at least three non-council members. Dylan Ryan gave Board of Governors Representative Rebecca Haworth the names of three nominees – Courtney Taylor, Theresa Borwein and Sarah Estrin. None of them were present in the room, but Christofi had received their confirmation that they wanted to be on the committee.
Estrin was the only nominee who sent in a letter of acceptance, which Christofi read. Christofi said Borwein and Taylor were notified they had the opportunity to write a letter but did not.
“Now we’re in the position where councilors don’t know what these people even look like, and they’re the only nominees for the elections committee that we have,” said Christofi.
Dylan Ryan briefly spoke to the character and background of Borwein and Taylor.
Estrin said on Twitter that she didn’t have enough notice about the nomination to book time off work to attend the meeting.
@DalGazette in the case of the nomination I was given not enough notice to book times off work. — Sarah E (@SarahEstrin) November 5, 2014
Christofi let council know the procedure for successful appointments to the committee. A council-wide vote is not necessary unless there are any objections.
“I’d like to point out we’ve had four weeks to scrounge up people. Obviously this is not an awesome committee that everyone’s jumping to be on,” said Rebecca Haworth, Board of Governors representative. She suggested council move on in the agenda.
From Sept. 24 to Oct. 10, the DSU Tweeted the link to where the CRO position could be applied for four times. They did not advertise the CRO position over Facebook once. They never advertised through their online presence or sent out an email explaining how students interested in being nominated for the elections committee could get involved.
Christofi announced Borwein, Taylor and Estrin are now on the elections committee. Estrin is the Deputy Returning Officer.
7. SUB renovations over budget
Aziz announced the university introduced new fees to the DSU for the upcoming SUB renovations by surprise. He said the project is currently over budget, and that he’ll have more updates in the coming weeks.
8. Little interest expressed in unadvertised DSU staff position
Aziz announced there were two applications for the position of Executive Project Commissioner, which is essentially an assistant to the DSU president. The application for this position that pays $1,000 was not advertised by the DSU until the Gazette published a story featuring the detail this position had not been advertised, when two days were left to apply for it.
The DSU staff position of Policy and Research Coordinator has also seen its application period end. Aziz said the results of the hiring should be known “next week,” which is this week. As of this story being published, the results of this hiring process have not been publically announced.
9. The committee meant to hold DSU execs accountable may amend its policy to let any student assist in its reports
Dalhousie Arts and Social Sciences Society president Kaitlynne Lowe is chair of the Executive Review Committee (ERC).
DSU.ca says the purpose of the committee is to “conduct performance evaluations on each member of the Executive”, and in Lowe’s own words, the committee exists to review the DSU executive to make sure they are fulfilling their constitutional duties.
Lowe said the committee’s policy allows for a non-council member to sit on the committee. This policy is not available online. She said the policy says there may be “one” non-council student on the committee, which she interprets as “at least one,” and that she’s open to having as many people on the committee as possible.
Councillor Klug disagreed. “I would interpret ‘one’ to be ‘one,’ and I think we should give the opportunity to advertise this to other students,” she said. Christofi agreed.
The current non-council member of the ERC, named Sayeed, has been unresponsive. Lowe was unaware Sayeed was still on the committee – he had been appointed in May, and was not automatically recalled in September as Lowe had thought.
A student named Malik had expressed interest in becoming more involved with the DSU, and Lowe thought joining the ERC would be a good opportunity for him – but the non-council member position is still occupied by Sayeed.
Christofi recommended Lowe keep trying to contact Sayeed. This business was then tabled.
The ERC’s first report of the 2014/15 year was released on Sept. 24 and may be viewed online.
10. Aboriginal students’ rep recalled from council
After the meeting’s agenda items had been dealt with, the Gazette informed Christofi that Aboriginal Students rep Michelle Martin had missed at least three council meetings without expressing regrets.
A clause in the DSU’s constitution says councillors are to be recalled if they miss two meetings of council during their term of service without providing reasonable excuse.
Christofi acknowledged this and recalled Martin from council, vacating the position.
Christofi also said Martin had sent him an email earlier in the day sending her regrets and saying she wished to no longer be on council.
11. Policy on sexism and racism tabled until further notice
Vice President (Academic and External) Jacqueline Skiptunis put forward a notice of motion for a non-tolerance policy towards racism and sexism at the council meeting of Sept. 24.
One agenda item at the Nov. 5 meeting was the “Motion to adopt a Policy concerning sexism and racism”. Christofi said Skiptunis was still doing consultation for the policy. A vote passed for the motion to not appear in front of council until council members have received the text of the policy.
12. Councillor allegedly given four hours’ notice by university to come up with presentation on student retention
Earlier this month, Aziz attended a consultation on Dal’s student retention strategy that were, in his own words, “poorly advertised but pretty important.” Dal students and faculty are being consulted in this process. Aziz said he was told how the results of these consultations are handled will be up to the discretion of the Provost.
Vice President (Student Life) Danny Shanahan and International Students Representative Amr ElKhashab expressed distress at how the consultation sessions were advanced with very little notice.
ElKhashab said he was informed of a consultation by the university four and a half hours before it was to be held, and was asked to give a presentation on student retention with just that amount of notice given.
13. Proxy member takes notes on his own votes
The meeting began with an announcement the recording secretary, Chloe Edwards, was not present and would not be appearing. Christophi let the room know that both councilors and regular DSU members are eligible to take minutes when this happens, but councilors acting as secretary would lose their voting privileges.
Ali Calladine, senate rep, had a proxy representing her for the meeting, Alex Butler. Alex Butler took on the duty of secretary – but because he was a proxy, and not a regular councillor, he was allowed to vote on motions while also taking minutes of the meeting.
Flashback: The most recent previous time a non-council member, non-secretary took minutes was the council meeting of June 18, 2014, when a staff member of the T-Room agreed to take down minutes. (The minutes from this meeting are not currently available on DSU.ca).
14. Puppy room returns
If the way things are going has you feeling stressed out, the famous puppy room is confirmed to return to the SUB, Dec. 1-3. (If you can’t wait until then, try visiting the Senior Common Room of the A&A building at the University of King’s College on Nov. 14. Therapeutic Paws of Canada will have puppies there from noon until 4 p.m.)
(Correction: the original text of this article said seven councillors were absent without regrets. It was actually six councillors who were absent without regrets – one of the original figure of seven had resigned but this was not recognized by council.)
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