Advisory Board: After months of waiting for candidates to be found, Council was finally able to fill the vacancies on the Advisory Board, the body meant to provide advice and recommendations on long-term goals for the AMS.
Other Appointments: Council also filled vacancies on its Advocacy Committee, naming two brand new Councillors to sit on it: Anne Khong from Social Work and Rashika Svrivastava from Journalism. Another relatively new Councillor, Danny Liu, was named to a seat on the ad hoc Council Governance Committee. And Nicholas Harterre from Economics was named chair of Advocacy.
Executives away: Because of the snow day, UBC Senate moved its meeting to the same time as Council, so President Chris Hakim and the VP Academic & University Affairs, Julia Burnham, were at Senate, and VP Finance Lucia Liang was at a conference, meaning VP External Cristina Ilnitchi reported for all of them (and herself), noting that:
Clubhouse: VP Administration Cole Evans announced that with Clubhouse gone, club applications and other club-related information has been moved to the main AMS website. A replacement for Clubhouse is being sought. Meanwhile Clubs Days is underway.
Nest Experience Survey: The survey is out, and VP Evans reported that there are already over 2,000 responses.
Clubs Resource Centre: The CRC is going really well, said the VP Admin. There was a grand opening, and a report on metrics has been presented.
Speakeasy: Student Services Manager Ian Stone reported that the Speakeasy peer support service had visited the Engineering Student Centre and could visit other buildings on campus to reach students who don’t come to the Nest.
He added that there was a lot of interest in the Speakeasy service at a services conference he just attended in New Orleans: peer support is a big thing now, and we’ve had a service of this sort since the 1970’s.
Block Party: Managing Director Keith Hester said Block Party has launched and already 2,500 tickets have been sold.
New ticketing system: Councillor Nicholas Harterre asked about high service fees on ticket purchases, and the Managing Director said a new ticketing system is being looked into that would address that issue among others.
Student Governance Transition: Proxy Andy Wu, on behalf of Riley Ty, the chair of the HR Committee, said the committee is looking into revising the way transitioning is done, and may be sending out a survey.
Expulsion Policy: VP Admin Cole Evans said the revised policy on expulsion of people from AMS buildings is going forward; it is now being looked at by AMS legal counsel.
Bookings Policy: VP Evans said changes are being made to create clearer guidelines for booking rooms in the Nest. These may involve quotas so that no group can book an excessive amount of hours. The idea is to make sure people get what they need.
Student Life: VP Evans, as chair of the Student Life Committee, said he is looking into changes to the committee: it may not continue as a standing committee.
Code changes: Council approved changes to expand the Managing Director’s signing authority, to update the duties of the VP Administration, and to reduce the meetings of the Presidents Council to once a term from once a month.
U-Pass: Council ratified the new five-year contract, setting the new price for U-Passes: they will rise 2% a year. VP External Cristina Ilnitchi said this was the best rate possible, and it involved convincing TransLink that the program is not supposed to be revenue-generating or even cost-recovery, but instead is providing a service to students while also potentially converting them into future transit users.
Academic Freedom: Council heard that the Senate meeting was running long, in part because of a discussion of academic freedom.
Next meeting: The next regular Council meeting will be at 6 pm on Wednesday, February 5, 2020 in the Michael Kingsmill Forum on the fourth floor of the Nest.
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