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How to be informed on DSU issues

A new report informed by the Dalhousie Student Union (DSU) council says that on a scale from one to five, students at large are informed on DSU issues at a level of “one”.

With updates on paid DSU staff position opportunities that went completely unadvertised, chronically-absent councillors, mandatory reports being left unwritten and previously-unpublished excerpts from the union’s budget, the Gazette‘s new reports on the DSU’s activities over the last month aim to inform you and increase that “one” to at least a “two”.

The final frame of a new presentation on the DSU's performance this semester.
The final frame of a new presentation on the DSU’s performance this semester.

Report on DSU’s performance shows overall decline

The Dec. 5 meeting of DSU council saw a presentation by the Executive Review Committee, a DSU committee tasked with surveying councillors and students on their perceived performance of the DSU and creating a report out of the answers.

The report showed a decline in nearly all performance ratings of DSU council and executives from the last time the report was conducted in September.

After the presentation, a councillor asked if students said they wanted the DSU’s budget to be public. While the DSU’s budget is currently not published for legal reasons according to the DSU, some information could still be publicly available.

More details on the report and the DSU’s budget are in the full story.

Attendance weak at council meetings

Councillors have been joining and getting recalled from DSU council at a rate which makes keeping up with the current structure of council difficult. Meanwhile, some councillors have made a habit of not appearing at meetings.

Read the full story.

DSU divests, to surprise of Divest Dal

At the council meeting of Dec. 5, the DSU voted to divest their investment portfolio of shares in companies judged to have the largest potential carbon emissions. But this vote was never advertised, to the extent that even members of the activist group that originally spurred the DSU to spend a semester pursuing divestment had not heard of the vote.

Read the full story.

Mandatory monthly reports largely ignored by DSU council

As a transparency effort, a motion came into effect last month that requires DSU councillors to submit monthly reports of their activities. The first reports are out, but nearly a third of councillors neglected to fill out a report.

Read the full story.

Election dates have possibly changed, no one asks when the new dates might be

In the agenda for the Dec. 5 meeting of council, under the heading “DSU Election Dates / Referendum Question Submission Dates”, DSU President Ramz Aziz’s executive report in the agenda it says, “Dates for the 2015-2016 DSU have been amended to include longer nomination period”.

As Aziz was not present for the meeting, there was no explanation of what the new dates are for nomination.

When Christofi asked council if anyone had questions regarding Aziz’s report, he was met with silence. The Gazette emailed Christofi and Dylan Ryan, Chief Returning Officer of the DSU’s Elections Committee, last night asking for the new dates. We will update this story when we have more information.

Currently, the elections page of DSU.ca shows the date for nominations opening at 8 a.m. on March 5, 2015 with the nomination period ending at 8 p.m. the next day. This now appears to be outdated information.

Regardless, the election dates and referendum question dates have not been advertised once by the DSU since they were first set in November.

This is despite a conversation occurring after the DSU’s first AGM of the year in Oct. 23 where Aziz said the DSU would focus on making election turnout a strong priority this year, with promotion of elections beginning in November.

The DSU have not once so far promoted anything to do with their upcoming elections.

Jesse Ward
Jesse Ward
Jesse, editor-in-chief of the Gazette, is a fifth-year student of journalism at Dalhousie and the University of King’s College. He started university with three years of experience writing for Teens Now Talk magazine, where he is now copy editor. Before writing a story Jesse likes to think about how his metal detector could finally be useful in researching this one, but there is never a way it could be. Jesse has produced writing and interactive features for Globalnews.ca and The Chronicle Herald. He may be followed on Twitter, @RealJesseWard, or from the Gazette office on Mondays around 8 p.m. to his home in West End Halifax. Email Jesse at editor@dalgazette.com.
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