Council Summary – July 10, 2019

Collective Bargaining: A member of the student staff from the AMS Sexual Assault Support Centre (SASC) asked Council to ensure that contracting out is restricted in the labour union agreement currently being negotiated in order to ensure employment stability.

In response, Councillors expressed their support for the work SASC does and later discussed the negotiations in an in camera session.

 

Norm Theatre: Council approved a $16,000 expenditure from the Contingency Fund to pay for safety improvements to the Norm Theatre, which has been closed since the AMS left the Old SUB in 2015.  The hope is that the theatre can reopen in the fall and begin showing movies again.

 

Services: Student Services Manager Ian Stone told Council about plans for the Student Services (Food Bank, Safewalk, Speakeasy, Tutoring, Vice, e-Hub, and the Advocacy Office).  He wants to gather data, lower barriers to access, and improve promotion.

 

Strategic Planning: AMS President Chris Hakim said discussions are underway to develop a framework for an AMS Strategic Plan.

 

UCRU: VP External Cristina Ilnitchi reported that UCRU, the coalition of Undergraduates at Canadian Research-intensive Universities, is gearing up for the federal election.  She also announced that she is now the UCRU chair.

 

A Seat for the AMS: The VP Academic & University Affairs, Julia Burnham, reported that lobbying has produced a seat for the AMS on the University’s committee reviewing Policy 131 (on sexual misconduct).  She will be the one filling the seat.

 

CERT: VP Burnham also said things are looking good for the proposed campus emergency response service.  There has been a meeting between the Campus Emergency Response Team (CERT), the AMS, and the VP Students Office.

 

Clubs Resource Centre: VP Administration Cole Evans submitted a report on metrics for judging the success of the renovations.  There was a lot of math.

 

The Art is Still There: VP Evans said the Hatch Art Gallery has done an inventory, and nothing is missing.

 

More Fun: Kevin Zhang, the chair of the Student Life Committee, said the committee is looking into how to make the AMS more fun.

 

More Clubs, and Less: The Operations Committee has constituted five new clubs and deconstituted about 30.

 

Advisory Board: HR Committee Chair Riley Ty said the committee is still looking for someone to fill the vacancy on the Advisory Board.

 

Document Confidentiality: In response to a question about going to referendum again to bring in a bylaw change about confidential documents, Governance Committee Chair Katherine Westerlund said the committee may want to seek bylaw changes in a referendum or at a general meeting.  In the meantime, it is working on an Internal Policy on the issue.

 

Something Brewing?  Brewery Committee Chair Matthias Leuprecht said he is confident UBC is committed to working towards a brewery, but first there needs to be an MoU with the Musqueam Indian Band over UBC Farm (the proposed location for the brewery).

 

Video Surveillance Policy: Council approved an updated version of the AMS Video Surveillance Policy.

 

Internal Policies: Council passed a motion distributing responsibility for a number of older internal policies, sending them to various committees.

 

Next meeting: The next regular Council meeting will be at 6 pm on Wednesday, July 31, 2019 in the Michael Kingsmill Forum on the fourth floor of the Nest. 

Back to news