Hey everyone! Sorry for the lack of updates from your Councillors over the past two issues, however with the Election Fever hitting FedS for most of January and February, not too much was happening besides day-to-day operations. This update will cover things from the recent meeting on Sunday March 6.
First off, the March General Meeting (MGM) of the Federation of Students will be on Wednesday, March 23 at noon. At this meeting, every student in attendance will have a vote, and the most major issues facing the Federation will be dealt with. Some of these things will included electing Directors to the Board of Directors for the 2011-2012 year, any proposed changes to the By-Laws, approving lifetime members of the Federation, and improving specific fee increases that may be brought forward. The full agenda for the meeting will be released by the time this issue comes out. Check out the FedS bulletin boards or online at feds.ca.
A presentation was given by President Moggach highlighting a proposal to re-introduce a fifth executive to the Federation. The position would be titled VP Student Affairs and would be similar to the current VP Internal, however would see a large amount of cross-campus duties given to them. Their focus would be on event and programming, as well as see duties related to CECS transferred here. The rationale for this is that the current executive portfolios are unmanageable and typically require 50-60 hour work weeks. This is limiting their ability to interact with students which is never good. From my experience dealing with the current exec, I can attest to the fact that they work long, hard days. This would require a change to the bylaws to pass and may be brought up at the MGM. If passed, the position would first be elected for the 2012-2013 operating year.
As anyone on campus for fall 2009 will remember, the proposal for a new Student Building was defeated in a referendum. The building was meant to act similarly to the SLC, but would see a large number of student support services centralized to better support students, in addition to student study and lounge space. Despite being defeated, student feedback still shows there is significant demand for more student space, but in a more central location. As a result, the Federation has been working on a revised proposal that would see a new, smaller building built in the RCH, Physics, and Grad House Green wedge. The building would see more space for clubs, services, and students, as well as likely house the new Student Success Office, in order to be more central to where students are, as opposed to being stuck somewhere like Needles Hall. The major sticking-point for the proposed student fee not going to referendum already is that the Federation wants the University to fund at least $10million of the project as they would be a significant tenant, and should not burden students to fund the building alone. The expected funding would ideally come from Alumni Fundraising which the university has been successful with in the past (name one part of E5 that isn’t named after a company or person). I’ll keep you updated with news on this one.
Finally, the annual Federation of Review. Every undergraduate student should receive an e-mail within the next two weeks with a link to the survey. The survey is meant to act as a tool to received student feedback on certain issues pressing to students, on issues pertaining to Clubs/Services, FedS Businesses, and Programming/Events. Make sure to fill it out as you’ll be entered to win an iPad or one of three $100 gift cards to the Bookstore.
That’s it for major updates. I’ll have more information at the upcoming EngSoc meeting. If you have any feedback , questions or concerns for me, feel free to stop me in the halls or send an e-mail to t.ek.jenkins[-a-t-]gmail.com. Have a good March!
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