Good morning everyone! Welcome to today’s council meeting.
10:04: Meeting called to order, land acknowledgment.
10:09: Agenda adopted.
10:10: Meeting minutes from last meeting adopted (with minor corrections).
10:10: Oral reports of the councillors.
Victor: Working on refurbishing pool tables, hoping to plan a Valentine’s event, planning increased DSS visibility this semester.
Sara: Nothing to report. Looking forward to getting back to campus next week!
Tessa: Participating in Academic Accessibility Working group, otherwise nothing to report.
Daniel: Meeting with residence staff on January 17th to discuss concerns. Informal ukings2026 Instagram account has been established for incoming students.
Julian: Nothing to report. Suggests that therapy should be more accessible to students at King’s.
Victoria: Notes Dal’s same-day counselling services.
Nick: KSU health plan does cover therapy/social workers. Wait times at Dal are high.
Aideen: Mental health supports at King’s are lacking. Dal Health can be difficult to access and there is a lack of therapists in Halifax generally. Isa Wright (or Jordan or Rhema) can be resources to help find care.
10:24: Oral reports of the executive.
Nick’s report (President): Student businesses (Wardy and Galley) will likely reopen about two weeks into February due to logistics of COVID policies.
Residence issues have been brought forward. Assistant Dean of Residence position has had a lot of turnover, making the problem worse. Restructuring is happening, to make two positions (one for student support and one for programming/functional organization). Don positions will be structured differently, a different group will do patrol work.
COVID policies: required 3-ply masks and boosters now available. Permanent pass/fail option for courses will be implemented. Working on further built-in supports for students to not be academically left behind when they get sick.
International student tuition committee is hoping to have lower international student fees than Dalhousie. Hoping to hire someone to help international students specifically.
Aideen: Offers to create a survey to get an idea of student’s comfort level being on campus.
Nick: Most classes are not returning to in-person yet because the decision has been shifted to individual faculties.
Daniel: FYP will be returning in-person, though tutorials are online or in-person.
Nick: Lectures are probably going to be posted as well.
Sara: That has not been well-communicated.
Nick: I will ask.
Julian: The option to stay online should stay open to students.
Nick: No decision can make everyone happy, but they should keep both options available for students.
Victoria: Profs don’t necessarily know how to facilitate a hybrid model and don’t have support to do so.
Daniel: Looking forward to residence changes, as it sounds like a positive impact will be made.
Kaitlyn’s report (SLVP): Executive meetings, office hours, meeting with residence staff on January 17th with Danial, advertising CKDU survey.
Victoria’s report (FVP): Budget Advisory Committee meetings, specifically regarding residence for next year; lots in discussion but no decisions made as of yet.
Daniel: Suggests video tours of all types of rooms to give incoming students a better idea of their accommodations.
Victoria: That conversation is being had, many people have brought up similar concerns.
Aideen’s report (EVP): Meeting with Julian about the Residence Representative role. Meeting with Non-Academic Accessibility working group. Nominations for the Executive Committee and Board of Governors open January 28th.
Sam’s report (CVP): TWAK last week, will go out again tomorrow. Preparing to advertise TWAK in-person upon return to campus.
10:55: Reports finished.
10:56: Discussion of ratification of the King’s Wellness Society.
11:00: BIRT the King’s Wellness Society be ratified
Put forward by Kaitlyn.
Seconded.
PASSES.
11:01: Motion to adjourn
Put forward by Nick.
Seconded by Victoria.
Meeting ends. Thanks everyone!