Documents

Agenda

Minutes from March 19

Executive Reports

Board of Governors Meeting Report (with graphs!)

 

Action Item 5.1 is struck from the agenda. Minutes from March 19 approved.

Reports

Me! I went to a university budget consultation and it was mediocre.

JS and Daniel went to their first Board of Governors meeting! They have a full written report that I will add above. The BoG approved a motion to convert five sessional positions to tenure-track appointments. FINALLY. This is a fantastic amazing thing that is long overdue. Capital spending was approved, although the budget won’t be until June. The UKC Teachers’ Association (representing 5 FYP fellows) approved a new agreement with the Board. Interesting report on enrolment from the Registrar’s Office. We’re ahead of last year in applications and offers. FYP Arts enrolment is down again but Science and Journalism are up a lot. This year is the beginning of a four-year retention plan.

Riel: FYP shirt designs were picked and 75 shirts were ordered! There are still shirts left! They cost $9. Some tutors have bought them!

Drew: didn’t do much! Went to the GM. Worked on something about the campus, and maybe Kelly Regan? I zoned out for two seconds and it makes it look like Drew is slacking but SHE ISN’T I’M JUST TIRED SORRY.

Brennan: long report in a big font, Brennan says “Yahoo.” Food services! Chartwell’s won the contract. Food Services committee met 29 times in 9 months, Brennan put together a student and staff survey and made sure that the RFP included students’ concerns. Seriously read this report, it’s really important and Brennan did a buttload of work. By the end of this process Brennan was dissatisfied with the lack of debate. Chartwell’s has threatened the Galley’s independence. The Wardroom is currently the first point of contact for bar service on campus but this is not documented. There is not good precedent at King’s for keeping staff as service providers change. Students are mobilizing to make sure our voices our heard. Minutes after the University made their announcement, students posted their own advisory and began petitioning with four specific demands that address the issues above. The Union’s video has been viewed 5,000 times and the petition already has over 200 signatures.

Went to a Board of Governors meeting and the KSU Spring GM. Exec identified individual and also collective goals. BoG has a Governance committee meeting where Brennan will report on the March 1st town hall (the one that sucked). Brennan will reiterate that what we actually need is open Board meetings. Gina Grattan and Hannah Sparwasser-Soroka have started their work as Orientation Week Coordinators.

I ask Brennan about specific ways in which Chartwell’s has been threatening the Galley.

10:21:08 AM. In camera.

10:35:49 AM. Ex camera.

Lianne: report on sexual assault panel went very very well, tabling and petitioning too. All panelists donated their honoraria to Avalon Sexual Assault Centre. Lianne strongly encourages future Journalism Reps to host similar events. Student appreciation night is coming up. Attended the Racial Justice Symposium which was kicked off with a Black Lives Matter Toronto panel on Friday night. Went to lots of workshops this weekend that were really interesting and valuable. CUBE Coordinator applications are going to remain open until tomorrow night. There will be another Council meeting to approve these hires within approximately a week. Lianne also sits on the Alex Fountain Memorial Lecture committee.

Zoe: spring budget passed at the KSU GM! Zoe held several events to consult with students and get feedback on the budget leading up the GM. These sessions weren’t super well attended but we did get several people coming out. She recommends more direct outreach and tabling in future years. We moved $0.88 out of surplus into contingency. UHPs got a raise finally! Nominations are open for Valedictorian and Honourary Class President. Valedictorian speeches will be tomorrow night in the Wardroom, hosted by Nat Marsh and Josh Feldman, with voting to follow. University’s budget consultation was more of a presentation, we continue to impress upon them the importance of reducing tuition and fees. Free menstrual health products are now available in and outside of the KSU office.

Marie: consent coalition tabling with letter to Kelly Regan has been going well. More tabling will happen this week. International Student Consultation happened last week with CFS-NS. Discussion of issues in Nova Scotia and at King’s especially. AGM was successful. Exec has been working on campaign around the Galley and food services, we are ready to take the necessary measures to protect these spaces!

Cassie: Cassie has been TWAKing and working on the General Meeting! The goal for the next AGM is to have much higher attendance. Bylaw Review Committee was elected at the GM! Send Cassie emails with announcement for the ‘what’s happening this week’ chalkboard in the Wardroom. CRO Search committee also has a recommendation for hiring!

Brennan says this GM had “one of the best snack spreads” that he’s ever seen.

10:50:39 AM. Recess.

10:55:51 AM. We’re back.

 

Action Items

BIRT __________ be hired as the Chair for the 2017/2018 academic year.

Charlotte temporarily transfers the role of Chair to Zoe Brimacombe.

Brennan reports on the work of the Chair Search Committee. They recommend Charlotte Sullivan be hired again. The one blank in the motion is filled with the one name.

Brennan: Charlotte has lots of experience inside and out of the Union with policy and other important relevant stuff.

Drew: Charlotte is the only person I’ve ever heard say she loves Robert’s Rules. (I am DEEPLY offended by this, I also love them.) Motion passes.

BIRT __________ be hired as the Chief Returning Officer for the 2017/2018 academic year.

Cassie reports on the work of the Chief Returning Officer Search Committee. They recommend Gina Grattan be hired as CRO. The one blank in the motion is filled with the one name.

Lianne: Gina has been invaluable to the Union in the past and even still now!

Cassie: Gina has loads of experience with the Union and has been through the elections process before. She answered all our questions perfectly. Motion passes.

BIRT Simon Gillies receive an honorarium of $125 for his work as a CUBE coordinator in the winter term.

Lianne: Simon is great! CUBE has added badminton and ball hockey to their cycle and they were the most attended. They spent most of their budget on badminton supplies, would like more money for floor hockey nets and pads. Had a dodgeball tournament. Suggested partnering with NSCAD for some ~friendly~ competition between schools. Simon has done a fantastic job with CUBE this year.

Brennan: supervised Simon and Itai for most of this year, they were great, we were lucky to have them. Motion passes.

BIRT Itai Kuwodza receive an honorarium of $125 for her as a CUBE coordinator in the winter term.

Lianne: Itai has had a lot of accidents this term but has still been enthusiastic and supportive and come to as many events as she can. She got a bunch of awards at the athletics banquet, has been crucial to running CUBE. Motion passes.

BIRT Margaret Dingwell receive an honorarium of $250 for her work as scribe in the winter term.

Cassie: quick minutes turnaround is super important and Maggie has been great.

JS: Maggie was amazing all year! Motion passes.

BIRT The History of Science and Technology Society receive $19.55 in non-contingent funding to purchase snacks for the HOSTSoc Annual General Meeting on April 7.

Zoe: this was our only request and so finance committee did not meet. This meeting will be in the Wilson Room, will also include a preview of the Tooth & Claw journal. Motion passes.

 

New Business

Brennan: there will be another Council meeting for some last-minute business within the next week.

11:09:30 AM. Adjourned!

Agenda

Executive Reports

Minutes from Feb 12

 

Reports

Lianne: there’s an event coming up, a panel about reporting on sexual assault. There will be journalism profs / journalists and someone from Avalon.

Curran: there was a BoG town hall, it wasn’t great and it wasn’t what students asked for so Curran and others will report this to the Board and see if there’s anything positive that can come out of it.

Me! BRC is doing cool work and we’ll be holding open consultations with students soon. The BoG town hall was terrible, especially when Hugh Wright complained about having to spend half an hour every year thinking about tuition.

FG: nothing to report!

Drew: consent coalition met for the first time this week. This was an online forum which was interesting. There might be a letter-writing campaign coming, and there will also be class talks and tabling.

Cedric: DSS GM will be next Friday, there will be snacks and budgeting! Sugar Moon trip has been postponed to the 18th.

Pilar: nothing to report.

Lucia: signed a cheque for the Symposium dinner, thinking about funding Big Night.

Aidan: congrats to new Exec! Changeover is coming! The referendum passed and Aidan had a chance to talk to lots of students about the Union and gather feedback. This referendum is a vote for the long-term sustainability of the Union. Spoke to a lot of Board members after the consultation meeting to reiterate that this isn’t a replacement for open Board meetings. Students were consistently better-prepared and more articulate than the others in the room. Exec is looking into how to formalize and submit feedback about this event. There is a full Board meeting on March 23.

Dalhousie’s Budget Advisory Committee met and had ‘consultations’ and they were terrible. The recommendations of this committee include an increase in tuition of 3% and a reduction of funding of 1.9% to all faculties (what the fuck????). They were not prepared to talk about a deficit budget or using reserve funds. They proposed a false dichotomy of needing to cut faculty funding unless tuition increased. The whole presentation was “rather condescending.” You can submit feedback to this committee at bac@dal.ca!

This is Aidan’s last Council meeting as President! She thanks everyone and is proud of the work this team has done this year.

Brennan: congrats everyone who was elected! Food services proposals have all been received, committee will be meeting soon to go over these bids. Brennan’s going to stay on the committee as the student rep. Attended a meeting of the Campus Planning Committee this week. A “pretty low-stakes” meeting. There are plans to make Alex Hall more accessible in the next year or so. University has applied for a large grant for accessibility updates. Changeover has started with both Aidan and Lianne and it’s! going! well!

Zoe: congrats to everyone involved with elections! ESPECIALLY HANNAH MACDOUGALL. Zoe is changing over with herself! She’s creating documentation for future changeovers. Budget is being prepared for the Spring General Meeting, and there will be open consultations a couple of weeks beforehand. University Budget Advisory Committee met recently too, discussed auxiliary and ancillary fees. Recommendation for open community consultation on the University’s budget in March. Zoe noted importance of circulating documents in advance, taking minutes, and ensuring other forms of accountability and feedback. It appears that there will be a 3% across-the-board increase to tuition at King’s. Bursar and committee were resistant to the idea of condemning Dal’s increases, which affect ours. Committee was closed to the idea of reducing fees, but there was discussion about freezing some fees this year. Committee recommended freezing residence fees because ‘our residences suck’ (Zoe didn’t say that, I’m paraphrasing). Finance Audit & Risk Committee also met, Zoe’s saying financial things that I don’t have the energy to understand right now but it sounds good.

This week Zoe and Gina met with South House and there will be free menstrual health products in the KSU office starting this week!! Awesome. Zoe agrees that the BoG consultation sucked but students were super eloquent and she’s glad everyone came.

Gina: lobby week happened, met with lots of politicians to talk about student issues. Lobby documents are online on the KSU and CFS websites. Talked about reducing tuition fees and other issues, including eliminating tuition at the NSCC (cool!). There’s a Fight the Fees meeting tomorrow in Classroom 3. Changeover is happening! Congrats Marie!

JS: BRC has prepared a package of recommendations for Bylaw amendments, there is consultation coming, please coming! Changeover with Cassie is happening and it’s exciting! Also with Aidan/Curran/Daniel/Liam for BoG changeover! Last Council as CVP, thank you and goodbye!

Me: thanks Exec! We <3 u!!

 

Recess for 5min.

 

Action Items

BIRT The Contemporary Studies Society receive 20 colour photocopies and $156.00 in non-contingent funding to purchase wine and snacks for a Thesis Speed Dating event on March 16th. Finance Committee recommends approval.

Zoe notes that there are photocopying requests here that might be unnecessary. Also, there is currently $6,907 remaining in society funding. This event is for thesis students and it’s going to be SUPER FUCKING AMAZING AND FUN. Money is for wine and snacks.

Me: this is a super cool event! It’s open to all thesis students, not just those in CSP. Motion passes.

BIRT The Contemporary Studies Society receive 40 colour photocopies and $1071.05 in non-contingent funding to pay for the printing of the journal Hinge and to purchase wine and snacks for its launch party on March 31st. Finance Committee recommends approval.

Zoe: Hinge is the journal of the Contemporary Studies Society. Most of this funding is for the journal printing, about $850.

Me: yay! This funding is in line with what the journal usually costs. We’re working on editing right now, we’re publishing ten people and it’s going to be rad. Motion passes.

BIRT The Early Modern Studies Society receive $2256.18 in non-contingent funding to put on the Conference of the Early Modern on March 10th and 11th, including the costs of a Saturday morning reception, Sodexo lunch, conference dinner, evening receptions, and a chapel concert. Finance Committee recommends amendment.

Zoe: this funding is for two meals and two receptions. The conference will include a panel and about 30 student presentations.

Zoe moves to amend the amount to $1,856.18 and strike out reference to a Chapel concert, because that isn’t going to happen. Amendment passes.

Zoe notes that this is a larger request than other conferences submitted. SNARC, CSP, and HOST were all in the $400-$600 range. This is usually a larger conference, and this request is also a lot lower than usual, last year was $2,600.

Me: this request covers food for all attendees, not just presenters. Finance Committee talked about amending this down to just presenters.

Zoe: their numbers actually aren’t a lot more than the people presenting and involved, and it’s already been cut by $400 so it’s not as huge anymore.

Aidan: speaking in favour. The request is already a lot lower than usual for this conference, and there’s been a lot of discussion about how to reduce costs with EMSS. This is $800 less than last year and sets a good precedent for a more reasonable amount for a weekend conference. Motion passes.

BIRT Students Advocating for Representative Curricula receive $831.43 to pay for the printing of the journal CANON and to purchase snacks for its launch party on April 7th. Finance Committee recommends approval.

Zoe: “It’s journal season, y’all.” This is the second year that SNARC is publishing CANON. This journal challenges the under- and mis-representation of marginalized voices in academia. Most of this funding is for the printing of this journal. They’re printing 75 copies, printing is about $700. The rest is for the launch part and an honorarium for a student artist to create the cover artwork. Motion passes.

BIRT The Contemporary Studies society receive $145.00 in non-contingent funding to purchase wine for the launch of the CANON journal on April 7th. Finance Committee recommends approval.

Zoe: this is for the same event as the previous motion. SNARC is a Tier 1 society without special designation so they can’t get alcohol funding. CSP can get this funding, so this is a handy workaround—CSP is co-hosting this event in order to provide alcohol funding. Last year this was set up similarly with the EMSP society.

Zoe moves an amendment to make it $156.76 to include non-alcoholic drinks too. Amendment passes.

Aidan is looking forward to SNARC getting special designation next year so that they can get their own alcohol! Motion passes.

 

BIRT ______, ______ and ______ be elected to the 2017 Chair Search Committee.

Aidan: the Union hires lots of students! These search committees meet to receive applications and select people! Time commitment is usually about three hours, happens in one sitting.

FG nominates Robert Dryer and Ghislaine Sinclair. Two FYP students who haven’t been super involved yet but are interested in getting more involved. Robby is one of the founders of the King’s Jewish Book Club.

Zoe nominates Keegan Gardner-Elmer. Second-year student, has been on elections committee.

Pilar adds that Ghislaine is awesome.

Brennan: this committee is chaired by the President (so Brennan) and the outgoing President sits too (Aidan).

Blanks are filled with the three names by unanimous consent. Motion passes.

BIRT ______, ______ and ______ be elected to the 2017 Orientation Week Coordinator Search Committee.

Aidan: this committee picks the people who run frosh week! This is most time-consuming committee, but it’s lots of fun!

Brennan: this committee includes the incoming President and SLVP, the outgoing President, and the previous Orientation Week Coordinators.

Zoe nominates Sadie Cunningham. V passionate about orientation week, comes to Union GMs and is looking to get involved!

Aidan nominates Nika Lennox. Second-year student, sat on this committee last year and was a leader in orientation week and wants more!

FG nominates Caleb Sher. FYP student who was in o-week this year. Actively involved with King’s Jewish Book Club and comes to lots of Union events/meetings.

Blanks are filled with the three names by unanimous consent. Motion passes.

BIRT ______, ______ and ______ be elected to the 2017 CUBE Coordinator Search Committee.

Brennan: CUBE is the Union’s intramural athletics program, they hold weekly events in the gym. Incoming and outgoing SLVP both sit on this committee.

Brennan nominates Jessica Simm, Rachel Colquhoun, Katie MacLean, and Peter Janson.

Jess is passionate about CUBE, plays on the women’s basketball team, sat on this committee last year and would like to again. Rachel also sat on this committee last year, interested in connections between physical health and mental health, loves CUBE. Katie is in second year, plays on the women’s soccer team, very interested in getting more involved. Peter was also on this committee last year, played on King’s men’s badminton team and wants to be involved again.

Voting ensues. The blanks are filled with Jessica Simm, Katie MacLean, and Peter Janson. Motion passes.

BIRT ______, ______ and ______ be elected to the 2017 Sustainability Officer Search Committee.

Gina: this position wasn’t hired this year because $$. They take charge on sustainability initiatives! This committee is to hire someone for next year!

Gina nominates Katharine Thomas and Elina Blomley. Katharine has been on the sustainability committee for four years and has working with several different sustainability officers, and has sat on this committee before. Elina is a second-year sustainability major and would like to get more involved with the Union.

FG nominates Ruth Ballard. Ruth is a FYP student very interested in social justice, has been very involved with KSU societies and events, including the Day of Action.

Blanks are filled with the three names by unanimous consent. Motion passes.

BIRT ______, ______ and ______ be elected to the 2017 External Commissioner (Equity & Advocacy) Search Committee.

Gina: this position also wasn’t hired last year. They deal with issues of equity and could put forward related initiatives.

Gina nominates Levi Clarkson and Mal Thomas. Levi believes they would be an asset to this committee, queer and non-binary student very aware of oppression and also of their own white privilege. Mal would love to get more involved with the Union and equity initiatives are very important to her.

Drew self-nominates. She says “I’m great.” She’s been on Council and knows how this works, involved in the Union’s equity campaigns and would bring an interesting perspective to the committee as a member of the queer community at King’s.

Blanks are filled with the three names by unanimous consent. Motion passes.

BIRT ______, ______ and ______ be elected to the 2017 Chief Returning Officer Search Committee.

JS: this committee includes the incoming and outgoing CVP.

JS nominates Alexandra Buffy Sweny, Emma Sigsworth, and Dorsa Eslami. Buffy has been on elections committee and would like to bring that knowledge into hiring the next CRO. Emma doesn’t have a lot of Union experience but would like to get involved. Dorsa has been getting more involved and attending events and would like to do more in the future.

I self-nominate. I’ve sat on this committee twice, as CVP and outgoing CVP, and I worked with Emma Morris to fix problems with the elections process and Elections Procedure.

Voting ensues. The blanks are filled with Alexandra Buffy Sweny, Dorsa Eslami, and Jacob Baker-Kretzmar. Motion passes.

BIRT ______, ______ and ______ be elected to the 2017 Scribe Search Committee.

JS: this committee also includes the incoming and outgoing CVP.

JS nominates Danna Deutsch. President of Pride society, was a part of the Yes campaign for the referendum, wants to get more involved.

FG nominates Caleb Mendel. FG says “Caleb Mendel is the friggin’ best.” He’s been involved with KJBC and comes to Union events and wants to get more involved.

Drew self-nominates. She is on Council and reads minutes, knows what the Scribe needs to do and what we’re looking for.

Blanks are filled with the three names by unanimous consent. Motion passes.

 

New Business

I ask when the Spring General Meeting will take place. JS says almost certainly on March 30.

Zoe thanks Council for all of their work, she had a great time working with everyone.

Next Council is March 19.

 

11:35:35 AM. Adjourned!

Documents

Agenda

Executive Reports

 

Reports

10:03:37 AM. We’re starting!

Lianne: hasn’t been much going on since last time!

Jacob: I haven’t done a lot either! BRC has a meeting soon, wheee.

FG: had science social thing last week, it was fun and there were a lot of people! FG sits on the council of the Dal science society!

Cedric: his notes this week were written in one of his D&D notebooks, so the title reads “KSU Witch Hunt.” Chill. The DSS has sold over 100 candy grams! Cedric asks students to continue to “spread the love.” They’re also hosting a trip to Sugar Moon farm over reading week. Brennan interrupts this report to shout “YES!!” at this news.

Riel: there is work starting on some FYP t-shirts. Tomorrow at 4:30 there’s a first-year info session on the referendum question.

Lucia: this week there was a Residence Life Committee meeting. There was talk about the Assistant Dean and safer alcohol guidelines.

Drew: has been helping with the Yes campaign for the referendum.

 

10:08:38 AM. Exec reports are above in PDF format!

Aidan: there was a panel in the Wardroom about racism and music. Aidan says she’s glad this discussion happened. She says this is the start of an important conversation. She recognizes JS’s work putting this panel together. There’s a recording of the panel online for those who missed it. She’s happy to have set a precedent for more of these events happening in the future. Aidan is meeting with Wardy staff to talk more about how to apply some of the things the panel discussed, like community guidelines. VP Search committee recommended Peter O’Brien as VP, Board accepted this recommendation on Feb 2. Aidan says “more on this later.” Gina was at national lobby week. KSU council dodgeball team won last week.

10:13:37 AM. Aidan moves us in camera to discuss the results of the Vice-Presidential Search.

10:26:40 AM. We’re back!

Brennan: Residence Life committee had a meeting on Jan 31. This committee makes recommendations about student life and residence life. This was the first committee meeting since last Spring. Assistant Dean currently works 20hrs/week but this isn’t enough. Committee recommended that the Assistant Dean become full time next year. Also talked about alcohol risk guidelines. We need to also talk about mental health and lack of resources on campus. Button materials are back in stock!

I ask Brennan if he sees the Asst. Dean position as an ‘administrator,’ and how he feels about this position becoming full time while our residence population is declining and our faculty continue to be in precarious positions.

Brennan: Asst. Dean is not an admin position, more on-the-ground and working with students. This is a choice about where to put resources and there are lots of places that need resources. Students really value these positions, and Nick has been overworked because of how much he’s on call, this isn’t okay, because students rely on him. This is definitely a win for students because both Nick and the Asst. Dean can support them better now.

Zoe: we have about $7,500 left in society funding, which is about half, which is great! She’s reached out to South House to look into providing free menstrual health products on campus. University is probably bringing forward a June budget, which we don’t like because students aren’t around at this time. Zoe’s been talking to Bonnie, our bursar, about holding student consultations around fees.

Gina: sat on the Dalhousie Student Wellness committee with Nick Hatt, this was interesting. Talked about ways to improve mental health services. There will soon be an on-call psychologist taking same-day intake appointments. She was at lobby week all week. Surprised by how many good meetings she had. Met a lot of MPs, talked about issues important to students and the CFS lobby document with recommendations (eliminate tuition fees, honour treaty commitments to education for indigenous people, increase funding for research). Very excited for KSU elections to happen.

JS: panel this week in the Wardy, went really really well. Elections things and speeches are happening this week! Speeches are Monday night, snow date is Tuesday night.

10:43:33 AM. Recess for 5min.

 

Actions Items

Aidan moves to suspend the rules. She wants to move to reconsider a motion from our last Council meeting, the one about the Loaded Ladle referendum. We need to suspend the rules because usually motions to reconsider can only happen on the same day as the original motion is passed. Aidan wants to reconsider the motion about the Loaded Ladle, because they want to withdraw their referendum question. Motion to suspend the rules passes.

Aidan: we got a request from the Ladle to remove this question. One of the King’s students on the Ladle board is not in Halifax, this whole campaign has been run by one person and this is too much work. They’re concerned that it might not pass, and want to do due process and make sure students are well-informed. Procedurally, we need to go back and vote down the motion we approved to have this question on the ballot. Aidan’s in favour of doing this, it’s a complicated process and has been a learning experience for everyone, we should respect the Ladle’s wishes.

Aidan moves to reconsider a motion previously adopted, Item 6.2 adopted on January 22:

BIRT the following referendum question appear on the ballot during the spring 2017 King’s Students’ Union elections:
Whereas the Loaded Ladle is a non-profit cooperative dedicated to providing affordable, diverse, fresh, and nutritious food to as many people as possible; and
Whereas a levy of $4.50 per full time student per semester and $2.25 per part time student per semester would allow the Loaded Ladle to expand their weekly serving days from three days to five days;
Do you support the creation of a levy at King’s for the Loaded Ladle consisting of $4.50 per full time student per semester and $2.25 per part time student per semester?

Motion to reconsider passes. Debate is now on the motion above.

Me: can we just approve the referendum…. referenda are loads of work for our CRO and I think it would pass anyway. We might as well just try, so that we haven’t wasted all this time.

Brennan: there a lot of students who don’t know a lot about the Ladle, none of us can say for sure if this would pass. Given these concerns, and work we have to do around referendum procedure, we should vote the motion down.

Cedric: if we run the referendum and it fails, can they run it again? Charlotte: yes.

Gina: we should respect the Ladle, they don’t have capacity and this is what they want to do.

Aidan: they want to run the referendum in the Fall at the same time as councillor elections, which will be pretty efficient.

Motion fails.

10:58:59 AM.

BIRT The King’s History of Science and Technology Society receive $240 in non-contingent funding to cover the costs of the History of Science and Technology Conference on March 5th. Finance Committee recommends approval.

Zoe: this is exciting! They want to get food for their presenters and panelists. Motion passes.

BIRT The King’s Feminist Collective receive $49.22 in contingent funding to purchase the film Tangerine, drinks, and snacks for a FemCol Movie Night on February 15th. Finance Committee recommends approval.

Zoe: this is a really good film, they want to create a dialogue on campus. Discussion at Finance Committee was around cost of buying the movie. Zoe talked to FemCol exec and in fact the movie is on Netflix so they don’t need to buy it! Zoe moves to amend to $29.23. Amendment passes. Zoe moves another amendment to take out the part of the motion that says that they’re buying the film. Amendment passes. Motion passes.

BIRT The King’s Foreign Film Society receive $46 in contingent funding to purchase baguettes and cheese for a KFFS and Pride Movie Night during Pride Week. Finance Committee recommends approval.

Zoe: KFFS is screening a film with an LGTBQ focus during Pride Week, which is neat! They’re asking for more money than usual because they expect higher turnout. This is a great society collab. Motion passes.

BIRT The King’s Foreign Film Society receive $35 in contingent funding to purchase baguettes and cheese for a film screening on February 16th. Finance Committee recommends approval.

Zoe: this is similar to their other requests, for a regularly scheduled movie night with snacks! Motion passes.

BIRT The King’s PRIDE Society receive $125 in contingent funding to fund a poetry night, movie night, queer mental health panel, and queeraoke over the course of Pride Week, February 27th to March 3rd. Finance Committee recommends approval.

Zoe: this is all the funding for all the events over Pride Week, which is a lot of events. The health event will be hosted by Venus Envy, and queeraoke is the Broadway edition. In discussions we realized that the cost of the Venus Envy panel wasn’t factored in. Zoe moves to amend the amount to $325. Several councillors express how impressive it is that they’re doing so much on such a small budget, and also that these events are getting bigger and the society is expanding! Amendment passes. Motion passes.

 

New Business

Next Council will be on Sunday March 5 (that’s in three weeks!) in the Boardroom at 10am, or maybe 9am! Stay tuned!

Aidan reminds everyone to get people out to vote!!!!

11:11:23 AM. Adjourned!

Documents

Agenda

Executive Reports

 

Introduction

8:36:37 PM. Hello members! JBK here, preparing the night before as always. This is a BIG meeting so follow along! Also check out the Watch’s live tweets they are always great.

 

10:23:33 AM. Sorry we’re getting started a little late because Pam Hazel doesn’t tell anyone about the room bookings we make with her!! What the heck!?!?

Reports

10:25:51 AM. Aidan is adding a motion to the agenda: BIRT the third party tasked with receiving nominations for the committee tasked with creating a sexual assault policy recommend names to the Executive Committee. Motion passes.

The minutes from Council on January 15 were deleted by accident, the document we’re passing is a compilation of notes and my live blog etc.

10:29:07 AM. Lianne: Chronicle Herald rally went very well.

10:29:52 AM. My turn! I’m reporting about the referendum, I’ve written this out beforehand so that I can copy and paste it in. I’ve been speaking to a lot of members about the referendum, trying to engage with them and talk to them about why it’s important and also to get a feel for what they think and try to answer their questions. By and large members support the referendum and have at least a vague understanding of what’s at stake and why it’s important. That being said, a lot of people that I’ve spoken to feel alienated by the Union’s messaging about the referendum. Members that I spoke to feel like they haven’t been being provided with enough information to make their own decision (for example, although it’s too late for this now, they would have liked all the materials from the town hall to be available online beforehand so that they could read them and arrive prepared). In particular, people felt somewhat patronized and pressured, like they were being told to vote yes because we ‘know what’s best for them’ and they wouldn’t understand enough to decide on their own.

To be clear, I support the referendum, I’m going to vote yes, and I think that everyone should vote yes. However I think in the next two weeks we really need to make an effort to talk to people one-on-one as much as we can and to listen to their questions and concerns honestly. If people have specific questions I think we need to make sure to answer those questions, rather than reassuring them that there is an answer to their question or telling them that the answer doesn’t matter and they should just vote yes. I’m glad to talk to anyone about the referendum and answer any questions that I can, whenever!

10:32:45 AM. FG is having a social hour for science students this week! Thursday 4:30-5:30 in the Manning Room!

Cedric: talking to Nick Hatt about a say student hostel, res rooms for day students to stay in for a night if they need to. This week a bunch of people are all going to a Moosehead’s hockey game! As in the DSS is paying for them all to go!! There are sign up sheets at Alex Hall front desk and in the Wardroom.

10:35:17 AM. Riel has been doing FYP announcements and is working to inform first years about the referendum, he says a lot of them still don’t know a lot about it.

Drew: went to first DASSS meeting of the year (me too!), passed a motion to support the DSU’s boycott of Halifax Pride. Drew didn’t vote on this motion because she wasn’t sure what the KSU’s stance on this is, she’s been speaking to lots of queer students and they all agree that something has to be done about this. Drew can’t go to DASSS meetings any more because she has a class at that time!!!! :”””'(

Aidan: clarifying about the boycott of Pride. Other Union’s with formal ties to Halifax Pride have taken a stand about this, if King’s students wanted to pass a solidarity motion about this that could happen, we didn’t because historically we haven’t been formally associated with Pride.

10:38:54 AM. Curran: Vice-Presidential search committee had a meeting last week that he and Aidan were at. The committee has made its choice, this will become public after the next Board meeting.

Liam is catching up and getting back into the swing of things!

Exec reports now, I’ll type out highlights but the full reports are above!!

10:40:42 AM. Aidan: good attendance at referendum town hall, 30-40 students there at the most. Gave presentation and had extensive question period. The Watch live streamed this on facebook and I took a live blog! Aidan has met with a lot of students about this, some who are concerned, she is available to do more of this. The next two weeks will be focused on making sure all members have the information they need to make a decision. Aidan asks that if people have specific questions and councillors don’t know the answer that they refer them to her or Zoe. VP search committee has made a recommendation to the Board. Board of Governors community forum has been rescheduled to Feb 8 at 7PM, but this conflicts with the Union’s panel on music and racism.

Nominations for spring elections open tomorrow! Michaela Sam (our SCC) is in Hong Kong. The office will hopefully still be open 10-4 Monday to Thursday.

Aidan addressing the motion she put forward about the Sexual Assault Policy committee. Last weekend we deferred this motion to today’s Council meeting, to extend the deadline and get more nominations. Aidan doesn’t think that work was done because it was a busy week. There are now enough candidates to fill the positions, she doesn’t think we’ve done the extension justice. We have a couple of options. Aidan hesitates to continue to have this come through Council, she proposes that the third party who is accepting nominations make a recommendation to the Executive rather than to Council and that they approve it themselves.

10:47:36 AM. Brennan: another society fair happened and it was great! Also elections Q+A with the KSU Executive in the Wardy happened. “A few” students came to this (I heard it was 4). It’s a busy time of year, Brennan will continue to make himself available over the nominations period so people can get all the info they need.

South House, one of our levied societies, had a meeting with Brennan to see how they can better serve King’s students and be more present on campus. There’s a survey about this that will be circulated this week. Brennan’s been talking to athletics to make sure our athletes know about all the big things happening on campus like the referendum and Sexual Assault Policy.

It has recently come to the Union’s attention that a lot of societies want to use the button maker but we are out of materials, so Brennan will be looking into ordering more! Also A MAIL SLOT WAS INSTALLED IN THE OFFICE DOOR this week—finally!!

10:52:00 AM. Zoe attended the CFS-NS GM last weekend, congrats to Gina being elected women’s rep and Aidan being elected chairperson! Town hall this week, Zoe also met with Council, Galley and Wardy staff, and Finance Committee. There’s info on the KSU website and people are welcome to contact her too. She attended the Exec Q+A.

We received the Union’s 2015 unaudited financial statements!!!!!! Yay. She’s also working with the CFS to host a tax clinic in the next few weeks. Budget Advisory Committee met on Jan 19. University admin is proposing a multi-year budget plan to have a balanced budget in 3 years. Feb 2 is the next meeting and they’ll discuss residence fees and tuition/ancillary fees. Zoe will push to eliminate the technology fee (which was suspended two years ago but is returning now) and to reduce other fees and make sure consultation happens.

The technology fee was created to install wifi about four years ago (it’s $100/year), now that wifi is installed we wanted to get rid of it but the university only suspended it.

10:56:33 AM. Gina: there was a non-dudes in student politics workshop this week, small but good. BIPOC students in politics workshop is this Tuesday. Attended elections Q+A. Tomorrow will sit on Dal health and wellness body. Met with Kelsey Keddy of the DSU to go over info for this. She wants to bring up Dalhousie Counselling Services and students’ “displeasure” with these services (understatement of the year!!!!!). She’s going to Ottawa for the CFS’s national lobby week soon

10:59:29 AM. JS has been working on the music and racism panel. Exec met with Wardroom staff to talk about logistics and desired outcomes, this was productive. Attended rally for Chronicle Herald workers. Nominations for spring elections open tomorrow and close on Friday Feb 3!

 

Action Items

11:01:16 AM.  BIRT the following referendum question appear on the ballot during the spring 2017 King’s Students’ Union elections:
Whereas the Dalhousie Bike Centre currently provides education, maintenance, and bike loans to students at Dalhousie; and
Whereas a levy of $1.00 from full-time students and $0.50 from part-time students at King’s
would allow them access to the bike loan system;
Do you support a levy for the Dalhousie Bike Centre of $1.00 per semester for full-time students
and $0.50 per semester for part-time students?
Moved by Matthew Apostolides

Matthew is here to talk about this. Currently Dal students pay $0.50 (full-time) and $0.25 (part-time) right now, but there’s a referendum there too to increase this to the King’s amounts ($1.00 and $0.50).

Cedric: if the motion at Dal doesn’t pass will this be changed to match it?

Matthew: maybe, not sure how this would happen procedurally. Speaking on behalf of the president, who couldn’t make it. King’s students have been accessing the bike centre since it opened in 2009, without ever paying a levy.

Aidan: last time we talked about this you mentioned that King’s students have been turned away, can you talk about how much this has happened?

Regine: this has happened to me a few times.

Matthew: I personally turned away about 10-15 this fall. Luke Franklin, King’s don, hasn’t been able to use a bike this year which he usually does. He benefits from this a lot. A fair amount. Last year a disproportionately high number of King’s students were accessing this services compared to Dal students.

Brennan: speaking in favour of this motion, King’s students use this service a lot and the KSU has taken a stance on sustainability which the bike centre encourages.

Aidan: is there King’s representation on the Board of the bike centre?

Matthew: right now there are two.

Aidan: are there reserved spots specifically for King’s students?

Matthew isn’t sure.

JS: what’s the structure of the Board?

Matthew: President, Treasurer, Secretary, members at large, community members (non-students).

Aidan: on other levied societies there are student positions specifically for King’s students so that we’re represented.

Me: I think these questions have to be worded with “Be It Resolved That,” not “Do you support”? Right?

Aidan: no, this isn’t necessary.

Motion passes.

11:14:59 AM.  BIRT the following referendum question appear on the ballot during the spring 2017 King’s Students’ Union elections:
Whereas the Loaded Ladle is a non-profit cooperative dedicated to providing affordable, diverse, fresh, and nutritious food to as many people as possible; and
Whereas a levy of $4.50 per full time student per semester and $2.25 per part time student per semester would allow the Loaded Ladle to expand their weekly serving days from three days to five days;
Do you support the creation of a levy at King’s for the Loaded Ladle consisting of $4.50 per full time student per semester and $2.25 per part time student per semester? Y/N
Moved by Ally Lord

Brennan: King’s rep on the Ladle is Hayley Zacks, Ally Lord who moved this motion couldn’t come today. The Ladle is a society at King’s and they do lots of work about food justice and also serve free vegan meals! King’s students access these services a lot but don’t pay for them right now.

Cedric speaks in favour of this motion.

Aidan: is the Loaded Ladle also running a levy increase at Dal? Brennan: yes. Aidan: so if it only passes for King’s, will they still be able to increase serving days?

Brennan: ooh, not sure. Probably a combination of both levies will allow them to increase it by one or two days. We’re going to find out!

Recess for 5min.

11:25:38 AM. We’re back! Brennan spoke with Ally Lord. She said that if the King’s levy passes and the Dal one doesn’t they will aim for 5 days but can’t guarantee it. Brennan moves to amend the motion to strike out “would allow the Loaded Ladle to expand their weekly serving days from three days to five days,” and insert “would allow the Loaded Ladle to increase their serving capacity and offer more workshops and solidarity servings on King’s campus.” Amendment passes.

Curran asks about the “Y/N” in the question. This is struck out as an error. Brennan confirms that Ally Lord is a King’s student.

Aidan moves to amend by striking out “created” and replacing it with “introduced.” Amendment passes. Motion passes as amended.

11:30:33 AM.  BIRT the following referendum question appear on the ballot during the spring 2017 King’s Students’ Union elections:
Do you support increasing King’s Students’ Union dues by $22.38 per semester for full-time students to a total of $166.52 per year and $11.19 per semester for part-time students to a total of $83.26 per year and adjust annually by the Consumer Price Index (CPI)?
Moved by Aidan McNally

Cedric: the first number here is based on the term but the total is based on the year, he suggests that we make them both the same to be more transparent. He moves to amend to strike out $22.38 and $11.19 and insert $44.76 and $22.38.

Gina isn’t sure if it’s more transparent to put the whole year because we collect it on a per-semester basis so maybe we should add that info instead.

Cedric: sure, but either option should be consistent.

Zoe: also thinks it would be more helpful to go per semester, for example in case a student is only here for one semester. Also we’ve been talking about these numbers so far and we shouldn’t change it now.

Aidan: in general, levies are proposed on a semester basis, and including the yearly total was an attempt to be more transparent. Speaking against the amendment.

Riel speaks against as well, would rather have them all by semester. Amendment fails.

Rules suspended to allow more that two amendments to the main motion.

Curran: can we have both numbers being per semester and then add a sentence about the yearly totals? He moves an amendment to this end.

I add that the last referendum question didn’t include any of this info, it just had the amount.

Gina: the motion is fine as it is, students are smart and they get it.

Aidan would support changing both to per semester but this would make it super wordy.

I agree with Gina, it’s fine as it is students will get it.

Me: is the CPI phrase necessary? This just happens.

Aidan: yeah this does happen, but it’s not written down anywhere. We submit this amount to the University every year so it’s good to include formally until this can go into the Bylaws.

I moved an amendment to word the question with “Be it resolved that” instead of “Do you support” for several reasons, it better reflects what we’re actually asking the membership to do, voting not just giving their opinion, it begs the ‘yes’ answer because of the ‘support’ wording, and also it matches our last referendum.

Lots of discussion that I can’t keep up with, people generally ok with this but want it to be phrased as a question rather than a statement.

Riel points out that then the referenda will be worded differently.

Aidan is also concerned that the question will look different from the other two.

Zoe: good points for both sides, doesn’t see it being a huge issue being worded as a question.

Me: yeah ok it’s more important that all the questions look the same, I take back the Be it resolved part and just fix the grammar in the last clause about CPI.

Cedric: the CPI part sounds like a change but this already happens.

Zoe: yeah I agree. If people voted No would we have to stop doing this? BRC can put this into the Bylaws.

I change my amendment to just strike out the whole CPI clause, “and adjust annually by the Consumer Price Index.” Amendment passes.

I confirm that the answers on the ballot will be “Yes” and “No,” Charlotte says yeah that’s right.

Motion passes.

 

Recess for 2min.

 

12:09:18 PM.  BIRT The King’s Wordsmiths receive $50 in contingent funding to contribute towards prizes for a Fanfiction Contest being co-hosted with the Dalhousie English Society and the Dalhousie Classics Society that will be distributed at the Fanfiction Contest Closing Party on February 10th.

Motion passes.

12:09:48 PM.  BIRT The Contemporary Studies Society receive $449.30 in non-contingent funding to purchase breakfast, lunch, and gifts for the Conference of the Contemporary on February 10th and 11th.

Zoe: this is the first CSP conference in recent memory! Very similar to SNARC conference funding.

I explain this further, the conference is going to be rad!! Come!!! Motion passes.

12:12:24 PM.  BIRT Students Advocating Representative Curricula receive $51.47 in contingent funding to purchase pizza and pop for a CANON Journal editorial meeting on February 6th.

Zoe: this is from SNARC re: their journal, CANON. This event is for the six editors to meet and work on editing the journal. This was a convo at Finance Committee, editors aren’t compensated and food is nice but also this is a very small, closed meeting.

Riel: doesn’t support giving society funding to a closed event.

Me: is there precedent for this either way?

Zoe: thinks yes and it passed then, maybe for EMSP.

JS: this is a lot of money for a closed event, she’s in support of funding this but not that much.

Gina: a bit weird that they’re ordering it to their house (paying for delivery).

Brennan: what is the amendment that Finance Committee recommends? How does two pizzas and pop cost $50? Brennan says “I buy pizza!”

Zoe: like maybe $25?

Curran: moves to amend to $25, this is more reasonable.

Zoe: also can we say ‘snacks’ instead of pizza etc. Amendment passes.

Riel: still against this motion, it’s off campus and closed to the public.

JS: echoes this, doesn’t like providing money for an off-campus house event, this isn’t what society funding is for.

Cedric: same.

Pilar: launch party will have snacks and that’s open, so we’re not shutting them out completely.

Me: idk about this! So much work goes into conferences and it’s good to support that, but also yeah it is closed and far away and that’s not rly what we do.

Aidan: agree $25 is not a lot, but usually we fund the culmination of projects like these, e.g. we don’t buy food for KTS rehearsals etc. We will be approving food and probably wine for the release. Not sure about the precedent this sets.

Gina: something about a Smash Bros. society?? I didn’t hear the rest I got too excited about a SMASH BROS. SOCIETY!!??!!

Motion fails.

12:24:46 PM.  BIRT Le Salon receive $108 in contingent funding to purchase bread and cheese for nine weekly meetings over the course of the winter term.

Zoe: this is simple and great! Motion passes.

12:26:09 PM.  BIRT The King’s Foreign Film Society receive $35 in contingent funding to purchase baguettes and cheese for a film screening on February 2nd.

Zoe: this is standard for them, not sure what the film is yet. Motion passes.

12:26:45 PM.  BIRT The King’s PRIDE Society $10 in contingent funding to purchase two boxes of herbal tea for regular PRIDE meetings over the course of the winter term.

JS: strongly in favour of this, the herbal tea is a hit and this funding request is “pure.”

Zoe: this might be the smallest funding request I have ever seen. Motion passes.

12:27:43 PM.  BIRT the King’s Jewish Book Club be ratified as a Tier I society for the 2016/2017 academic year.

Brennan: this is super fun! This package is from students who want to create a space for all faiths to come together and learn about the strong Jewish literary tradition. Society exec emphasizes that it is open to all students of all faiths. They want to book rooms, and if they seek funding it will be for Kosher snacks.

Zoe: “this seems cool.”

Lucia: the people doing this are cool. Motion passes.

HOLY COW—I just looked at this society’s ratification package and they have a VP Literary Research. They’re now the coolest society on campus hands down. LITERARY RESEARCH. Wow.

12:29:33 PM.  Whereas greenhouse gas emissions contribute to pollution and climate change; and
Whereas cities across Canada should be working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to the levels required to end the climate crisis; and
Whereas the iMatter Now Youth Climate Report Card is a science-based tool used to measure the extent that a city is taking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; and
Whereas the grades given by the report card are based upon real data, the city’s concrete actions, and the presence of climate programs; and
Whereas climate change issues are student issues;
Be it resolved that the King’s Students’ Union endorse the iMatter Now Youth Climate Report Card.
Moved by Gina Grattan

Gina: this came up at a Sustainability Committee meeting. Halifax gets a C+. Endorsing them would involve filling out a form and sharing their event on Facebook. This shines a light on climate issues in Halifax.

Brennan: can you speak to other groups who have endorsed this?

Gina: CFS-NS endorsed this campaign.

Aidan: this came directly from our students who are involved with this!

Motion passes.

IMPORTANT.

 

12:34:37 PM.  BIRT the third party tasked with receiving nominations for the Committee to create Sexual Assault Policy recommend three names to the Executive Committee.

Amendment to: BIRT the Executive Committee appoint three students to the University’s Committee to Develop Sexual Assault Prevention, Awareness, and Response Policy, based on the recommendations of the third party tasked with receiving nominations. Amendment passes.

Motion passes.

 

New Business

Lucia: there are new dishes and pots and pans in the Alex Hall kitchen!

JS: next Council is Feb 12!

 

12:41:39 PM.  Adjourned!

Referendum Town Hall

Here’s the pamphlet that’s being handed out to people here at the town hall.

The Watch is livestreaming this town hall on facebook! Thanks, The Watch!

 

Aidan’s starting us off. The KSU has been facing financial difficulty over the years, this Exec has taken the year to gather information and work out solutions. The Exec is bringing forward a recommendation but it’s up to students if dues increase.

Zoe: current dues are $60.88/term for full time students (half for part time students). Proposed increase is $22.38/term.

Aidan: referendum is a vote taken by the entire student body, there’s a yes or no question about whether you want to raise dues and everyone gets to vote. If it passes, the due increase would take effect next academic year.

Zoe: this number allows the Union to balance our budget even in a worst-case scenario.

Aidan: Decreased Enrolment and Revenue.

Zoe: Revenue has dropped significantly (over 200 students) in the last three years. Union’s operating budget has therefore shrunk about $19,000 during that time. This year we ran a deficit budget and had no savings.

Aidan: Union has no long-term savings. We used to, but they were invested in the Bookstore and the Galley when they opened.

Zoe: without the referendum, even if we cut funding from campaigns and services and spent nothing on events, we would still be unable to pay honoraria and keep the office running next year.

Aidan: Full Time Hospitalities Coordinator. The KSU owns and operates the Wardroom and Galley. The Hospitalities Coordinator (HC) manages both business and all their staff. Union pays this manager, businesses pay their own costs and employees. Businesses are mandated to provide cheap and local stuff. Only way this is possible is that the Union takes overhead management costs off the businesses. Any revenue goes back into the businesses.

Zoe: The HC position has evolved. Used to be a student before the Galley opened, then one staff person, then a part-time manager, now the HC (full-time during the year, part-time in the summer). Several approaches, none have worked. It needs to be full-time year-round.

Aidan: increasing HC hours would allow HC to support staff in both businesses. This is an investment in the businesses. We can’t keep assigning so much work to this person, which would mean a conversation about reducing their workload, which means a conversation about closing one of the businesses.

Zoe: we consistently underpay the people we hire.

Aidan: we have a HC and a Services and Campaigns Coordinator (SCC). Their job descriptions are up on the projector, I can’t type fast enough to get it all down! Sry. Both our staff people do a lot of work that maybe all students aren’t aware of. The SCC works full-time in the KSU office doing a number of things. Reception, keeping office open, helping societies, managing the health plan, supporting councillors and the Executive, etc.

Zoe: number we’ve presented would allow us to raise salaries for both employees from $36,000 (SCC) and $32,000 (HC) to $45,000 each (25% increase, more for HC). This would bring them in line with comparable positions. Raising these now would be crucial in a hiring process. We need to be able to attract candidates with the skills we need, if we aren’t offering a wage at this level, other places are. Paying this rate will ensure that we can attract and keep these people.

Aidan: Union Hired Positions are other students we hire to work on things, also very underpaid, referendum would allow us to increase each position’s honorarium by $100 and reinstate two cut positions. These positions make from around $300 to $700 now (for a one-year term).

Aidan: Campaign, Services, and Accessibility. Declining revenue has led to budget cuts, but many of our operations are fixed costs, like insurance. Significant cuts have had to be made to student services and campaigns, like committees, awards, events, sustainability, grad week, study snacks, etc.

Zoe: these lines were reduced from total $16.5k three years ago to total $5.5k now. We have also streamlined and learned to budget better and make our Union run on less. This section of the budget is directed by members’ interests each year.

Aidan: Executive honoraria. Currently each executive member makes $4,400 each year. This is something we need to think about in terms of accessibility, who can afford to run to be on the exec. Proposed increase is to $4,900. Full time executive positions are not feasible for the Union. This would be like rent and a bit more. By increasing them, we’re asserting that these positions should be accessible to students from all backgrounds and we’re trying to lighten the load on students who need to work while attending school.

 

Time for questions!!

Q: If sustainability commissioner reinstated, would there be money for sust initiatives on campus? Zoe: maybe, that’s what happens in the last section of the budget that students choose every year.

Q: Salary numbers are different from budget, why? Aidan: budget numbers are actual amounts, not necessarily the exact amount in the contract.

Q: Referendum question itself refers to increase in dues, not allocation of funds, budget itself created later and voted on at Spring General Meeting? Zoe: yes. Ballot is just a yes or no to the increase. Budgeting and further conversations happen after. We’ve prepared recommendations because we’ve been in these positions for a while.

Q: Two businesses, this wasn’t always the case, have people seriously thought about not having the Galley anymore? Aidan: that’s our worst-case scenario, we want to increase HC salary so that we can keep these businesses open.

Q: Do the Wardy and Galley currently break even or are they in a deficit? Jenn: both businesses break even and are sustainable, they are autonomous and don’t contribute to the operating budget of the Union.

Q: Are you planning to allocate any money for savings next year? Zoe: it’s been a problem having budgets without contingency funds, these lines become savings at the end of the year, we’re going to put $3,000 in contingency next year.

Q: Who pays Galley and Wardy employees? Zoe: the Wardy and Galley pay these people themselves.

The room is very quiet!!

Q: Considering how much King’s students are already paying, how will you justify students paying more to the Union? Aidan: yeah, King’s students pay very high fees and a key pillar of the Union is advocating for accessible education. How is this different from King’s hiking up tuition: all our students vote on whether dues increase or not. Also KSU provides a platform for advocacy on behalf of students which is very important work that results in material differences for students.

Q: Would proposed increase fully cover everything you want to do next year or would we have to restructure more? Zoe: we got this number from a worst-case-scenario regarding enrolment. This number would balance the budget.

Q: How can you ensure that your suggestions for how to allocate this money are followed by the next executive who create that budget? Aidan: we saw this referendum as a responsibility so that the next Exec has a structure to do the work that they campaigned on. They’ll be responsible for the allocation of these funds, but we wanted to present a solution. Whoever makes that final call is yet to be elected though.

Q: What is the enrolment worst-case scenario? Aidan: down 30 from this year, to 903, which is lower than what the University is expecting.

Q: If it gets worse, won’t we need another referendum in a year or two? Aidan: the goal of this referendum is that we’ll be ok for the next number of years. Everyone here is crossing their fingers for a turn up in enrolment but that’s not something we’re going to budget on. We would have enough flexibility next year to handle worse situations. Zoe: there are larger problems than enrolment, we’re setting ourselves up for a better structure in the future.

Q: Have you asked the administration about contributing to the salaries of the HC and other positions, considering how much the University uses these services and benefit from them? Aidan: no, what’s great about our businesses is that they’re autonomous. If the University wanted to give us free money we would talk about it, but we don’t think they do.

Q: Re: institutional memory, student union fees are already very high, how frequently have these due increases happened? Aidan: this enrolment crisis has been going on for three years. In terms of the KSU history, there was a referendum to raise dues three years ago, in 2014. This was a very different conversation. All the funds from that increase basically disappeared the next year when enrolment dropped.

Q: Lots of conversation around campus about us leaving the CFS, which would save the Union $16k, has this been something you’ve talked about? Zoe: this fee is actually levied, it’s separate from the Union dues so if we left the CFS we wouldn’t get that money.

Q: Concerned that the University is running itself into the ground, is there a plan at the admin level to increase enrolment? Aidan: this is their number one convo right now. They’re making a lot of changes and focusing on recruitment in different ways. There are some positive changes being made to attract students.

Q: What’s the Union going to do to inform students not at this town hall about the referendum and what’s at stake? Aidan: hopefully people are watching the live stream! Goal was to create a pamphlet and that will be circulated, we’ll also be in discussion with students over the next several weeks about what it would mean to vote yes or no.

Ella: comments and questions about the Galley can also be brought to me, I’m always around and our staff has been talking about this a lot because we employ students and also eat here. Encourage everyone to come and speak with us.

Q: Has the Exec thought about the wording of the referendum question? Aidan: it will be put forward at Council, something like ‘Be It Resolved That Union dues increase by $22.38 per term effective next year,’ also to increase with inflation, etc. -Q: Yeah this was unclear before, we don’t know how much we’re paying. Aidan: ok we’ll work on this.

Q: Why is the KSU fee so much higher than these numbers in our actual tuition statements? Zoe: there are other levies and fees that we pay that the Union just collects and remits, they’ve been approved separately, they’re not Union operating costs and we don’t control that money.

Q: HC manages Wardy and Galley, proposed increase is to $45k, what’s the salary for a similar position at the DSU? Aidan: Grawood manager makes $60-$70k. Q: Where did this number come from? Aidan: the DSU told us.

Adam: echoing Ella earlier, please come talk to us! These student manager positions aren’t accessible either and there’s a lot of burnout.

Aidan: can you talk about how having a full-time HC would support you better?

Hunter: this year is my second/third year managing Wardy staff, it would be untenable for a student to hold the HC position. This full-time position will be really important.

Ella: a tangible thing that could happen at the Galley if the HC was full-time is new products in the Fall that they found over the summer.

Q: How much to the student managers of the businesses make? Jenn: Hunter is paid $15/hour and Adam is paid $13/hour. Ella is paid $14/hour. Everyone else on staff is at minimum wage, with a $0.25 raise every year they work there.

Q: Applications for FYP next year are up according to sources inside the registrar’s office, thoughts? Aidan: we should be cautious, also recruitment has been restructured and the timing is different, so projections work differently and they aren’t actually sure how it compares to past years.

Q: How many hours per week do the student managers work, and would this decrease with a full-time HC? Hunter: I work 10-15 hours, change wouldn’t affect hours but it would change the kind of work they do and improve what they’re able to do.

Q: Salary raises are usually slow and incremental over many years, why are you suggesting we raise these salaries by 25% or more all at once, how will this be sustained, what will happen the following years? Aidan: we’ve been recognizing areas where we haven’t been able to allocate funds even though there’s an understanding that they need to go up. There’s been a chronic underfunding of these positions, this proposal would allow us to offer a wage that’s comparable to other student unions. This isn’t a one-time increase, we’re fundamentally changing the way we pay our staff people. Further increases will be another conversation. This will allow their pay to be comparable to other student unions.

Q: Exec honoraria, do those include summer? Aidan: no, just for during the year.

Q: “Comparable to other unions,” we’re tiny, how do you do this and figure it out? Aidan: this is a large conversation, we have a part-time exec that are also students, this isn’t the same for other unions who expect their exec to work full-time. These honoraria are comparably low by comparison. Compared to other unions of our size, it’s relatively on par. Me: NSCAD exec make about $9k I think? Zoe: they’re paid hourly, it’s a different system.

Jon: Also interested in how little the Exec are paid, staff work very hard but there is a huge disparity in pay between staff and Executive, wants to recognize that even with structure Exec are very underpaid for their work.

Aidan: that’s part of the discussions we’re having, it’s at a different level from 4 years ago. This conversation is worth having. What’s been proposed is something that’s been arrived at through discussion.

Gina: adding to this, increase to Exec honoraria is important. This referendum is important.

Q: What discussion are you referring to in arriving at these numbers? Aidan: discussions within our Executive and last year’s. Q: so not students in general, just within your Exec? Aidan: yes.

Q: When we’re talking about increasing fees we need to talk about enrolment and retention of local student populations, NS students who don’t live in residence are the most likely to drop out of FYP, how will the KSU work to keep local day students enrolled? Zoe: this has been a conversation and should continue to be, how to make our events accessible to day students.

Aside: there are about thirty people here, we peaked at 40 about an hour ago. (It’s now 8:45.)

We’re done!! Thanks so much for reading along! Video of the whole town hall is on the Watch’s facebook page!

Documents

Agenda

1:22:21 PM. We’re in the Frazee! It’s just me and Charlotte so far because we are ON the ball. Listen along with us!

1:32:08 PM. We’re starting! No written reports this week.

 

Executive Reports

Brennan: Winter society fair went well! Thanks to FG especially. There’ll be lots of election-themed events in the coming weeks, including an Exec+BOG rep Q&A in the Wardroom this Wednesday at 7pm. Link.

Zoe: Budget Advisory Committee meetings are starting to happen! They’re talking about fees and residence and other things, Zoe is making sure that student consultation happens. The Union got our 2015 financial statements finally!

Gina: This weekend was the CFS-NS general meeting. Gina was elected Women’s Representative and Aidan was elected Chairperson (!!!!!). Tomorrow there’s a rally for the HTU, starting at 12:15 in front of the Chronicle Herald building, we’re meeting here at King’s at 11:30. Two election-related workshops coming up, tomorrow is the non-dudes in student politics event, and then on Tuesday there’s another one for BIPOC people.

JS: This past week JS has been coordinating events. Also met with Advancement about the Alex Fountain Memorial Lecture, and also with BRC about some upcoming bylaw changes including a racialized students’ rep! KSU elections are opening soon (Jan 30) and so she’s been preparing for elections.

Aidan: This week there was a Wardroom Board of Management meeting. She thanks everyone for coming to this meeting so that we can elect these committees. Aidan moves to go in camera for an HR report.

In camera means off-the-record, this is a confidential session so we don’t take minutes and I’m going to pause here! 1:40:11 PM ~~ 1:52:36 PM. And we’re back!

 

Action Items

BIRT _______________ and ________________ be elected for a one year term to the University’s Equity Committee.

This committee does work around equity issues, for example gender-neutral washroom signage. Aidan nominates Hannah MacDougall and Charlotte Sullivan.

I ask if there were any other nominations, Aidan so no just those two.

Aidan motivates for Hannah MacDougall. She has worked on campus for residence (missed the exact position sry), believes she’d be good for this committee, wants to work in HR / equity after school, also interested in this as a learning opportunity.

Aidan motivates for Charlotte Sullivan. She is our current KSU chair! She’s in a practicum placement with the Nova Scotia Barrister’s Society working on access to justice for marginalized groups, very passionate about issues related to equity, has also been KSU grad week coordinator and scribe.

The two blanks in the motion are filled with the two names! The other people on this committee are yet to be selected but it’s chaired by Dorota Glowacka, Catherine Martin from the BoG, two other faculty, at least one staff seat, two students, the Vice-President of the University, and possibly the Equity Officer non-voting.

Motion passes.

1:59:19 PM. BIRT _______________, __________________, and ________________ be elected to the Committee to Develop Sexual Assault Awareness, Prevention and Response Policy.

Aidan moves to table this motion until our next Council meeting. She says we have gotten some interest but it would be beneficial to extend nominations for one more week.

I ask how many nominations we have so far, Aidan says 2. Motion to table passes, we’ll take it up at our next Council meeting on Jan 29.

 

New Business

Next Council will be Jan 29 in the Boardroom.

 

2:01:49 PM. Adjourned. Councillors are sticking around with “snackage” in the Red Room to discuss the upcoming referendum to increase Union dues. This is for councillors only, I’m just letting you know. There will be a town hall this coming Thursday to publicly discuss the referendum.

Documents

Agenda

Minutes from December 4

Executive Reports

 

Happy New Year

Welcome back everyone!! COUNCIL, am I right! Woohoo!!

1:34:31 PM. We’re about to begin!

Agenda adopted, minutes approved!

 

Reports

1:36:29 PM. Lianne: Chronicle Herald rally is next Monday, Jan. 23. She’s doing class talks and also everyone come to this rally!!

I have nothing to report!

FG is going to host a science student social night so upper years and first years can mingle and learn from each other! This will be Feb 2 probably.

Curran! VP search interviews happened over the last few weeks (reminder: the candidates for Vice-President are Kyle Fraser and Peter O’Brien).

Riel. Cue cards and cocoa went well back in 2016! He’s planning an event! (OOOOOHHHHH SECRETIVE)

Drew has nothing to report. She has been sleeping.

 

1:39:32 PM

Exec reports (PDFS ABOVE!!)!! Aidan says “happy 2017.”

The Board of Governors is hosting a community forum on Jan 24 at 7pm in Alumni Hall to discuss their work. This is open to the public.

The University is striking a committee to create a sexual assault policy. (Note there’s a typo in Aidan’s report—it should say Committee tasked to create Sexual Assault Policy.) Students interested in sitting on this committee should email Charlotte Kiddell at chairperson@cfs-ns.ca.

VP search is happening. The candidates are Peter O’Brien and Kyle Fraser. This is an internal appointment so the VP has to be chosen from within King’s faculty. They’re coming in to this meeting in a bit!

1:47:41 PM. Brennan!

Uni has posted a RFP for food service!

Society fair round 2 this wednesday 6:30-8 in the Wilson Room!

1:51:23 PM. Zoe!

Special (University) Finance Committee meetings happening about long term planning.

Budget Advisory Committee meeting all term to work out the University’s budget.

Union is bringing forward a referendum question to raise dues, lots of work will happen around that this term. Wording of this question, with an exact amount, will come to the next Council meeting (Jan 29).

1:54:41 PM. Gina!

Gina is holding a letter-writing event on Wed Jan 25 from 1-4pm in the Wardy to try to get Andy Filmore to oppose Kinder Morgan!

CFS-NS Annual General Meeting is happening Jan 21-22.

1:56:28 PM. JS!

JS welcomes us all back. She had a good break!

JS is working on elections this term because her term is ending!

She’s compiled minutes from last year too. This is awesome! I LOVE record-keeping.

Wardroom panel about race and music! This will be in early February.

 

1:58:22 PM. Michaela, our Services and Campaigns Coordinator, is here to report! I’ll put up a PDF very soon!

Michaela has been in the office working on organizational systems for the Union, inventory, answering health plan questions, helping the Executive with reports, etc. Michaela does a lot of things so go check out her written report when I upload it!

 

2:16:44 PM. Jen’s turn! I’m going to upload her report too! When I get it!

Renovations are done but also some things are still messed up like lighting! We switched payroll companies. Debit/credit services are amazing. New local liquor is amazing. Tea is amazing.

The Galley’s 4th birthday is coming up in February! AWESOME! There’s going to be a huge party!

 

Action Items

2:24:23 PM. There’s one funding request, $60 for HOST for a coffee house!

 

2:27:26 PM. And we’re adjourned! We’ll take a break and then I’ll keep live blogging when Kyle Fraser and Peter O’Brien come in!

 

Vice-President Candidates

3:28:55 PM. First up: Kyle Fraser!

Kyle’s introducing himself. He’s been at King’s since 1998 and has been Director of FYP twice. Both times he oversaw unit reviews of FYP and also saw a lot of administrative changes in the program. He’s good at assessment, which is the VP’s role, kind of like a Dean. VP speaks for the President in some cases, and is responsible to the President. Key part of this position is being “in between”—answer to the President but are a member of faculty and have an obligation to them and the academic mission of the College.

VP ensures that the College stays true to its academic mission and the values that follow from that mission. King’s has a feeling of itself as a College, self-governing. This feeling has eroded in the last several years. Students’ concerns about transparency in recent years are shared by faculty—how are decisions being made, what’s going on “at the top”? VP mediates between students and the President/Board, helps to make sure we live up to this collegial ideal.

His interest in the role—which he says is one of service, and may or may not adversely affect his happiness—is to see long-term projects really get going and to repair lines of communication that have broken down. He has a sense of an overall goodwill, but there’s a failure to understand each other and a disconnect about what best practices are. There’s a lack of clarity, this leads to frustration and a sense of alienation.

Zoe asks if he has a stance on open Board meetings. Kyle says he hasn’t thought a lot about it, and he’s not sure how much sway the VP can have in that area. He hasn’t been a member of the Board yet. If there’s nothing to hide, he doesn’t see a reason why it shouldn’t be open.

Riel asks what ideas he has for curricular/academic changes in order to increase enrolment. Kyle says any changes that do happen have to happen in a way that preserves its strengths. FYP is a Eurocentric program, he think it has been honest about this in recent years and this is a strength of the program. In recent years more diversity has been included, other cultures, women authors, etc. These are perennial questions that deserve attention. In FYP, we can only go so far outside of the trajectory of the European tradition without completely changing the program. We can look at other programs, e.g. Simon Kow’s East-West classes. There are misconceptions at Dal about King’s’ place in the larger community, and our relationship with FASS needs to be repaired.

JS asks about diversity, this is relevant in programming but also in terms of people—equity work, etc., she asks what he plans to do to increase racial diversity on campus. Kyle says he understands that the Equity Officer reports to the VP. This is partly a matter of adapting recruitment strategies. We have ties to a lot of Ontario schools, these are profitable for the College. Always been a concern about the proportion of local students to Ontario students. Not enough was done in the heyday of enrolment to take diversity seriously. More has to be done at the level of recruitment. This is a “tricky business”—in terms of the curriculum we offer in FYP, there’s only “so much” we can do to make it more appealing to a diverse student body. Maybe we need to a better job of explaining why this program is good for everyone, even those not from European culture. What does the Eurocentrism in FYP mean? Is it meant to be exclusive or is it productive for something? In CSP there’s a look back and a critical reckoning with FYP’s Eurocentrism, we can do more to foster this move and to emphasize it in recruitment. We’re not doing indoctrination into a European worldview, we’re learning about how we got here.

Brennan asks about tenure-track appointments, some of the best work being done here is being done by those in precarious positions, what will he do about faculty renewal. Kyle says the present reliance on sessionals has been a problem for a long time, there’s a fundamental unfairness here. This comes from a lack of foresight—year to year we’re struggling to meet teaching demands and keep programs afloat. We need a very long-term look at these issues. The current sessional appointments have to be made permanent, in his view. (NICE.) This has to be fixed, he says this might be in the works. Moving forward, we need to start replenishing our tenure-track appointments. This is a matter of getting the money. Our bursary program also needs to be repaired, infrastructure is crumbling, etc. Another possibility is more creative use of the Carnegie appointments. He says there are currently 8 vacant spots here. (!!??) We should convince Dal that we should pursue new joint initiatives with joint staffing. For example, a Carnegie appointment that works half-and-half rather than mostly at Dal.

Zoe points out that we’re in a very difficult financial position, decreasing enrolment, she asks what ways he sees for King’s to work towards financial sustainability in the long term, and if we need to make cuts again in the coming years what are his priorities. Kyle says this is the questions. He says it will not be done through increasing tuition. That’s his personal position. One of the factors of decreasing enrolment is increasing tuition. This is a paradox, this doesn’t work. Faculty were also very happy that the BoG decided not to reset tuition, they were very opposed to this. Faculty in general are of the view that increasing tuition is not the way forward. But he says we are not getting more money from the government, and can’t draw on the endowment very much. He says we need to find efficiencies, create new initiatives, or rethink the way that we are teaching/structuring our programs. Some of our programs have very low enrolments. There are upsides to small classes but they are difficult to maintain in the face of enrolment pressures, we may need to rethink these targets. We may need to reconsider our assumptions about class sizes, students need to have input here. Example: in HOST they are rethinking structure, he’s proposed a new model that gets rid of the core classes. These will be brought out for student consultation. Right now the core classes have less than 10 people in them—this is enjoyable, but not the most efficient use of professors’ time. We need to cautiously rethink things like this, we don’t want huge classes but we need to use our time better.

Pilar asks about retention, what we’ll do to keep students at King’s after FYP? Kyle says this question is tied to creating new opportunities for upper-year students. In FYP sometimes, upper year profs come in and talk about upper year programs and ‘pitch’ them. How far do we want to go thinking of FYP as a ‘feeder’ program to funnel people into upper-year programs? We want FYP to be able to stand alone. Maybe we can do more here though to make the upper-year programs more visible to our first-year students. At the end of the day we can only do “so much” here. We can always do more to consult with students and ask what they want to study.

Gina asks where he sees the role of the administration in advocating for students in government meetings. Kyle says this is mainly the President’s job but the VP can play a role. The VP is sort of the like the conscience of the College, keeping everyone grounded. The VP has a strong role in concert with the President in considering the state of education in the province. They should be strongly advocating for more accessible education. Personally, he thinks education should be more accessible. How this will come about in policy he says is a very complicated very long-term problem. University administrations have a responsibility to start this conversation though.

Drew asks how he views mental health issues on campus in the face of possible upcoming cuts to student services. Kyle says he was also the Associate Director of FYP, dealt directly with students and knows that these concerns are important. In his view there should be no cuts in these areas, he would be surprised and disappointed if that happened. He knows that scheduling at Dal Counselling is ridiculous, he wants to talk to people to work on this. VP needs to look at this whole picture very carefully and make sure that we’re providing services that are necessary. He takes this very seriously.

Kyle’s email is kyle.fraser@ukings.ca, he invites further conversation! As VP he would be very accessible and his door would always be open.

 

4:07:12 PM. P! O! B! (Peter O’Brien)

Peter begins with some words about himself. He spends a lot of time in the FYP classroom. He’s an alumnus of King’s and started out as a Day Student in 1986 in FYP, was later a Don on campus in the early 90s. Went to Boston for hid PhD and taught high school for a while and then got a job at Dal teaching in Classics, then became a Carnegie prof, now joint faculty member of King’s/Dal. He said this was a great opportunity for him, to come back to Halifax and work at King’s. His experience as a joint faculty member conditions his understanding of the role of VP. The way he sees the job is essentially one of mediation and liaison between constituencies at the College. One of the splendours at King’s is the degree of independence it enjoys, which he attributes to the “collegial life” here of students, profs, and admin all interacting together. He foresees a lot of challenges in this role but also opportunities arising out of these. There is a national, continental, global crisis in liberal arts and social sciences education. He can make King’s needs known in FASS and at Dal, and vice versa. We need mutually beneficial and mutually sustaining solutions to these problems. King’s and Dal really need each other right now.

Riel asks about enrolment, whether he sees our academics changing to accommodate this. Peter says he does see these changes happening, and these questions are being asked a lot and must be dealt with. Questions about the placement of our honours programs and the school of journalism (re: Dal senate report on Dal/King’s relationship). These questions must be dealt with head on. He’s not in favour of any one solution but definitely wants to discuss them and work out the best solution for everyone.

Peter notes that the position of VP as it’s most recently described is an evolved one, a much more explicitly academic role than it has been in the past. It’s been rationalized a bit so that it can reasonably be done by one person during their term. There’s no explicit scope of student interaction in this new mandate, but he says if it’s mostly academic then it needs to be mostly about students! Student voices must be a part of the mix.

Riel asks if he’s satisfied with the diversity of curricula here. Peter says we have to be aware, in the context of our larger campus, that we can’t do everything. If there are opportunities to develop curricula in directions that will help us in our situations of challenge, those should be put on the table. In terms of the curricula he’s most in touch with (FYP) he’s always been rather “stayed” in his position in terms of where curricula should go, especially in Section 1. He says we have a responsibility to present a “strong, edgy, and workable” curriculum that students can later “blow apart.” He admits he was a “Sappho sceptic” but she was taught very well this year by Eli Diamond and she is probably “here to stay” as a result.

Brennan asks about faculty renewal and tenure-track appointments. Peter says there hasn’t been faculty renewal in Classics in a while either. Hiring contract faculty is cheaper but inherently exploitative. (TRUE.) We have to do what we can to recognize, honour, and provide sustainable employment for these faculty. King’s is in a unique situation because of our collegial nature, faculty get drawn in to participation in this culture and contribute massively. We all know who these people are and what they’ve done. It’s a priority to recognize this and protect these people. It’s also a matter of the bottom line. If there’s no financial room to do this then it’s not likely to happen except on a very limited level. This cannot be forgotten about.

JS asks about people diversity in the faculty and student population, what should King’s be doing to increase racial diversity. Peter says we have to approach this sensitively, proactively, and realistically. There’s been a long-standing desire to improve the ‘look’ of King’s in this regard. We also need to make sure our offerings are attractive to a diverse population. Diversity has to take a special place in this effort. He doesn’t have specific answers but it does need to be talked about.

Gina asks about increasing tuition as a means of revenue, and also the role of the admin advocating for students with the government. Peter says no one wants to see tuition going up. Administrations are stuck in the middle on this, the government’s approach has amounted to a cut. Advocacy has to be part of our communication with the government. At this stage it has to be done in a considered and lively way. We haven’t gained anything by “stamping feet” and this shouldn’t necessarily be the administration’s way of going about this.

Zoe asks about the College’s financial situation, in a deficit, what are King’s’ priorities in relation to budget cuts, how will we maintain our mission, also do you see any long-term solutions. Peter says re: possible solutions, increased enrolment will do it but this is fraught. We are undertaking a capital campaign, this is an opportunity for fundraising. This is also bound up with identity and presentation, we’re presenting the College as something donors should want to invest in. We should tailor this message to present the essence of what we do and the dire need that we have, this might relieve the pressure. In terms of priorities, the academic mission is the priority, we don’t exist if we don’t teach students. (Good point POB.) That’s the first priority. Also, there’s only so long we can defer maintenance, we don’t have a lot of resources. There’s been discussion about the library collections (i.e. selling them), these are really difficult questions. He hopes that just saying that academics are his priority is a beginning for us. We look for efficiencies in our joint operations with Dal, maybe there’s room for restructuring here. The reciprocal financial relationship here has been of concern for a while. There is no single silver bullet here.

Pilar asks about retention beyond FYP. Peter says he was fully planning to FYP-n-dip and then he got sucked in by King’s’ charm. We need to sell the four-year experience in a way that’s attractive. For example we need to bring students here from Ontario and keep them here. He’s from Nova Scotia and was a day student, and we need to exploit this more too, make King’s “enticing,” find a way of selling the academic excellence in a way that doesn’t make it look unattainable to students from the Maritimes. This legwork has already started, lots of it is student-driven, partnerships with students are key to resolving these problems.

Zoe asks if he supports open Board meetings. Peter says it’s a question of dialogue with the Board. He was on the Board once ten years ago and it is very different now. He says it’s a question worth putting on the table. He doesn’t know how vigorously it’s been put on the table in recent years. He doesn’t know whether fully open Board meetings are the solution. We need to create a space where work gets done and decisions get made, this means robust representation. In terms of self-governance, sometimes things can get done behind closed doors that can’t get done with open doors. But he’s willing to engage in the conversation for sure.

Drew asks about mental health, how will he prioritize this, how does he see this issue. Peter says he knows this is an area where services have been completely channelled over to Dal. Inasmuch as this is effective he’s all for it. He says there is more demand for this, there are more services, he’s not sure if it’s adequate or perceived as adequate (HINT: IT’S NOT.) In terms of overall well-being, mental, emotional, spiritual, we have things that bigger institutions don’t. He sees this as an opportunity for us all to “watch each other’s back.” This is no replacement for professional services, but it helps.

 

That’s all! Thanks for reading! Email Pamela Hazel at pamela.hazel@ukings.ca by January 20 with any feedback about the candidates!

Agenda

Executive Reports

Minutes from November 20

 

Housekeeping

10:28:25 PM. Council is about to begin!

10:03:42 AM. Here we go! Jk we’re waiting for someone’s computer stuff, there are edits to the agenda coming up.

Zoe is amending the agenda to add honoraria motions for Simon Gillies, Itai Kuwodza, Margaret Dingwell. Motion passes (agenda amended).

Agenda adopted.

Minutes approved.

 

Councillor Reports

10:07:29 AM. Lianne is reporting. Journo study snacks are happening tomorrow. She went to a Watch BoP meeting as a student.

I don’t have much to report—I was going to talk about the Watch Board of Publishers meeting but Brennan asked that Zoe, as the KSU representative on that Board, be the only one to report about that meeting.

10:08:10 AM. FG reports, she sat on academic committee (so did Lianne and I!) and she’s also on a Dal committee whose name I missed sorry.

10:09:22 AM. Curran! There was a Board of Governors meeting on Dec 1. University is in a transition period right now, deficit budget, new President. Not a lot of decisions made affecting students, but a lot of discussion about the situation of the University right now. Rare books collection at the library recently appraised for insurance purposes (hundreds of thousands of dollars, I’ll get back to you with an exact number). There might be a discussion in the future about selling these. President Bill Lahey has been working on a draft mandate (for his position). He’s been having a lot of external meetings. Lots of discussion about where the University is cutting back, recruitment and retention, revenue, etc.

Preliminary discussion about changing the location of HOST from King’s to Dalhousie. This is just a conversation between administrators right now, and they can’t change anything without Dal’s approval, but it’s something they’re talking about.

10:15:42 AM. Cedric: the DSS bought a tree for the Wardroom. First-year day students’ study snacks with Neil Robertson in the Wilson Room tomorrow, and that’s about it for the DSS for this term!

Gina adds that the bake sale they held on Friday was great.

10:16:46 AM. Lucia: the kitch sitch (kitchen sitchen) went very well, Lucia spoke to about a dozen students and there will be good changes to the AH kitchen next term. Students wanted more kitchen utensils, pots and pans, etc.

10:17:37 AM. Riel: he’s been planning a study snacks type of event, Cue Cards and Cocoa.

10:18:01 AM. Drew also attended academic committee and a DASSS meeting. DASSS’s and academic committee’s goals align, Drew is hoping to get DASSS in contact with SNARC. She’s also been doing email newsletters, and will be sending these out every other Monday from now on.

 

Executive Reports

10:19:29 AM. Aidan is recapping what we’ve done so far this year. So far we have allocated $6,762.90 in society funding and ratified 36 societies. JS has written 20 TWAKs!

There will (probably?) be a referendum to increase Union dues in the Winter term.

Aidan encourages everyone to ask questions if there are things happening around the University that they don’t understand. There was a discussion at the BoG meeting about Fall Reading Week and student mental health and the events that the KSU has been running. The College’s financial situation (still) sucks, and increasing enrolment might not cut it to fix this. There’s also been talk about internal restructuring and our relationship with Dalhousie. With decreased government funding, Aidan is worried that King’s will come to rely on external funding and that there will be serious decisions to be made that will affect students.

Vice-Presidential Search Committee is starting to meet, which Aidan is on.

The Executive is putting forward a referendum question next term to increase Union dues. Zoe will report on this more, and Aidan elaborates on it in her written report. It’s important to note that these dues are always set by referendum (every single student votes on this question). They don’t have a number yet. Expect the wording of the question to come to Council, a town hall discussion, and then the referendum would happen at the same time as the Spring Executive Elections.

10:31:57 AM. I asked what the University’s external funding issues and ‘serious decisions’ are. Aidan says a lot of this conversation itself was really vague. External funding might involve an increased focus on fundraising from alumni and other donors. Re: serious decisions, the University just can’t keep operating on a 1.6 million $ deficit and there will need to be serious cuts to our expenses. Right now the 1.6 million $ is being covered through debt financing.

10:34:22 AM. Brennan! Attended Property Grounds & Safety Committee meeting. University if working with Siemens to create a plan for a campus-wide energy retrofit. Also discussion about the physical accessibility of this campus. University is receiving a $30k accessibility grant, which will likely be used to fix small issues like making sure the wheelchair buttons work on the NAB doors! Wardroom updates continue to happen.

Brennan chaired Academic Committee and this meeting was awesome. Most of the meeting was about representative curricula, we also talked about making sure students know their accommodation rights. We will meet twice next semester because we all liked it so much!

JS is beside me looking up words that rhyme with “airline.” Hmm.

10:40:01 AM. Zoe reports! Zoe attended the Canadian Federation of Students National General Meeting two weeks ago and it was great.

There is lots of society funding left. SOCIETY EXECS: submit receipts by Tuesday if you want to get paid this term!

Zoe attended a meeting of the Watch Board of Publishers on Friday. Passed their budget, elected Fred Vallance-Jones and Aidan Lee to the Board. Also passed a motion to hold a public post-mortem on the November 2016 issue in the Wardroom in January.

Wardroom Board of Management met.

Union has been behind on our financial statements but we are about to be up to date!!!!!!!!!!! This is super duper exciting.

Re: referendum on Union dues, lots of thought and work has gone into this. Right now Zoe is preparing financial documents so that everyone can be well-informed in making this decision.

I add that the Watch and Union are independent organizations and this is important to keep in mind.

10:51:19 AM. Gina is reporting! She hosted/attended the Day of Action debriefs and these went well. CFS-NS gave out exam care packages with info and fun things. She hosted the Hunting Ground screening and there was good discussion about sexual assault and sexual assault policy on campus.

Tomorrow we are making posters and then leaving King’s at 2:30 to get downtown for a rally to support teachers. High school students are also organizing their own rally downtown from 9am to pretty much all day long!

There are some solidarity motions coming forward today. This is a way that the Union can use its voice to show support for important issues.

10:54:21 AM. J! S! JS has been working on a panel on racism, music, and accessible spaces. This is going to happen in the second week of January. Speakers will be El Jones, Chike Jeffers, and Cory Bowles.

9 Days of ISIC happening this week. Tell yo friends!!

The King’s Feminist Collective is holding a vigil tonight in remembrance of the Ecole Polytechnique shootings. There will be more vigils on Tuesday as well.

 

Action Items

10:57:16 AM. BIRT The King’s Wordsmiths receive $34.72 in contingent funding to purchase snacks and hot chocolate for their final meeting of the year on December 7th.

Wordsmiths want to hold a meeting about ‘fluff’ and other non-professional writing. Motion passes.

10:58:22 AM. Whereas Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet recently approved the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain and Line 3 tar sands pipelines; and
Whereas the Kinder Morgan pipeline project received opposition from 81 of 120 Indigenous
communities consulted; and
Whereas the pipeline will be built on unceded land of the Tslei-Waututh Nation who actively oppose the project; and
Whereas the existing Kinder Morgan pipeline has had 82 spills since 1961 and spills pose as a threat to ecologically sensitive areas and the economy; and
Whereas the creation of these pipelines and continued investment into fossil fuels will make it impossible for Canada to reach its global climate change commitments as outline in the Paris agreement; and
Whereas Indigenous issues and climate change issues are student issues; therefore

BIRT that the King’s Students’ Union opposes the Kinder Morgan pipeline and joins the efforts of coalition partners to oppose the pipeline; and
BIFRT that members of the King’s Students’ Union write a letter to Member of Parliament Andy Filmore condemning the government’s decision; and
BIFRT the KSU organize opportunities for members to write similar letters.

Gina: this motion is comprehensive. There are lots of other people doing this work too on campus, we’d be joining with them.

Cedric: is King’s directly invested in the tar sands? Gina: when this comes up in King’s meetings they make the excuse that they are tied to Dal. Aidan: there is no student representative on the King’s Investment Committee. A lot of our investments have been transferred to Dalhousie. There hasn’t been a lot of divestment organizing at King’s—yet.

Aidan speaks in favour of this motion! Passing this motion mandates the Union to continue working on this and advocating for it.

Several people are talking about the various ecological and economic impacts of pipelines and why they suck so much. Also basically everyone in BC is opposed to these projects. Motion passes.

11:08:19 AM.  Whereas Nova Scotia teachers have reported that working conditions in Nova Scotia schools have deteriorated, negatively impacting students’ learning conditions; and
Whereas the Nova Scotia Teachers Union (NSTU) has rejected two tentative agreements from
the Government; and
Whereas the NSTU is seeking fair working conditions including class caps for all grade levels, compensation for planning time and prep time, fair wages, and other measures to improve learning conditions; and
Whereas the NSTU announced on November 28 2016 that teachers and all other educational
support people would strike in the form of work-to-rule; and
Whereas Education and Early Childhood Development Minister Karen Casey announced on December 3 2016 that on December 5 2016, schools would be closed province-wide and that an emergency sitting of the legislature would begin in order to impose a contract on the teachers; therefore

BIRT the King’s Students’ Union support the efforts of the Nova Scotia Teachers Union to fight for and reach a fair collective agreement; and
BIFRT the King’s Students’ Union write a letter to the Nova Scotia Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development Karen Casey in support of the Nova Scotia Teachers Union; and
BIFRT the KSU condemns the Nova Scotia government’s lockout, which is a clear attack on collective bargaining and democracy.

Brennan speaks strongly in favour of this motion. He notes that when teachers announced their plan to work to rule, and the province responded by deeming these conditions “unsafe,” this confirms the NSTU’s assertion that their working conditions and contract are unfair.

Brennan and Pilar both speak to the negative effects on students that this government’s actions have, and how pressured and overworked teachers are. Pilar calls the NS government’s actions “deplorable,” they effect everyone—teachers, parents, students, etc.

Pilar is friends with the organizers of the student walkout and they are just as passionate about this.

I’m also super super in support of this motion. I’m proposing an amendment to explicitly add our support for Nova Scotia high school students. Here’s the wording:

“and Whereas the King’s Students’ Union affirms its solidarity with all students, and supports high school students in their actions to support their teachers and express their views. […]
BIFRT the King’s Students’ Union stand with Nova Scotia high school students as they participate in political discussions and direct actions to support their teachers.”

11:23:46 AM. Aidan, Zoe, and Brennan voice their support for this amendment. Brennan also adds that there will be lots of students rallying throughout the day tomorrow. Amendment passes.

Gina moves to amend the motion so that it’s clear that the KSU Executive will write a letter on behalf of the Union. Amendment passes.

Charlotte (our Chair) is re-reading this motion for like the third time and I LOVE IT. This motion bears repeating. Teachers freaking rule. Motion passes.

11:28:34 AM. Now we have some honoraria motions for the CUBE Coordinators Simon and Itai, the amounts are $125 each which is half of their honoraria for the year. Sorry there’s no wording for these in front of me! Motions pass.

And an honorarium motion for our Scribe Maggie, the amount is $250 which is half of her honorarium for the year. Motion passes.

11:32:15 AM. Recessing for 10 minutes! Brennan says the teacher motion is “the best motion we’ve ever passed.” I agree.

~

11:42:06 AM. We’re back, and moving on to Mystery Moose. JS gave me a bite of her pasta (she momentarily thought I was vegetarian and I’m offended???????) and it was deLICIOUS!

Brennan is handing out Mystery Moose gifts (it’s like secret santa but called something else idk why).

We haven’t even opened them yet and FG is already laughing so hard she’s crying.

We’re going to open them and then reveal gift givers all at the end.

Charlotte’s going first. She was given Love in the time of Cholera, a Dalhousie-approved stress ball, a wallet, spicy fava beans, and Kleenex. There’s also a card but she’s not reading it bcs it was accidentally signed.

Aidan’s going next. She was given a Body Shop Vanilla Chai gift package thing with cream I think idk.

Lianne received a cryptic card and a beautiful succulent plant.

I was given a beautiful handmade notebook with a crow on the front! Thanks Mystery Moose!

JS was given an orange-flavoured bar of dark chocolate.

Brennan received a card that says “for when you need to hit the sauce,” and a jar of cranberry sauce!

FG got a card that is “the funniest thing” she’s ever seen. She was crying earlier no joke. It’s basically a little zine. FG says “hashtag I Love My Moose #ILoveMyMoose”. Also a tupperware full of homemade cookies, and a syringe… She’s crying again I think.

Curran got something wrapped in a photocopy of Marx. It’s a book called Education in the New Age. There’s a note too!

Cedric’s is wrapped in the Coast. They remembered the accent in his name! (Sorry Cedric it slows me down :/ ). He got minty tea!

Pilar received a Deadpool hat, paper cranes, tea, and a card! And a stress ball! The paper cranes are made out of pages of the KSU handbook—classic.

Lucia was given a sunflower in a cube, and also the farmer’s almanac—which Gina called the “best piece of literature of all time.”

Riel’s is from a “secret admirer.” It’s Kafka’s Metamorphosis!

Drew got an incredibly flattering card, and also a lavender arugula plant, and also a photo of her and her Mystery Moose skydiving together, and also Oreos, and other candy!!

Gina got Pete’s Gluten Free granola but it says Pete’s Gluten Free EVP on it!

Zoe was given a bunch of lace, and a jar of candy canes, and miniature bottles of [REDACTED].

Maggie got a nice card and a mug and mug-cake ingredients.

That’s everyone!

 

12:15:35 PM. New Business? Nope! P.S. this is the last week of Councillor and Executive office hours. Our next Council meeting will be on January 15th.

12:16:39 PM. Adjourned! Have a good break!