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2019-12-18 SC - Audio Recording Speaker Key:

AC Vice President Academic

BA Associate Registrar Badger

BO Councillor Bouwer

CA Councillor Campbell

CH Chair

DR Councillor Drummond

DY Councillor Dykes

EN Functional Analyst Engelberg

EX Vice President External

FO Councillor Forbes

HA Councillor Hassan

HO Governance Advisor Alan Honey

JA Change Management Shawna Jansen

JJ Chief Returning Officer Jed Johns

JO Councillor Johnston

MC Associate Vice President Planning and Analysis McLaughlin

MI Councillor Mirza

NE Councillor Newton

OP Vice President Operations

OU Councillor Ouellette

SL Vice President Student Life

ST Councillor Stewart

SR Councillor Strayer

TE Councillor Tesfay

YA Councillor Yanish

00:00:00

CH Order. Thank you. Item one: Treaty Six land recognition. We would like to acknowledge that this meeting of the Student’s Association of MacEwan University is taking place on the traditional territories of the people of the Treaty Six region in central Alberta.

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00:00:19

The Student’s Association of MacEwan University is situated in the centre of what we call the city of Edmonton, which is Amiskwaciy Waskahikan or Beaver Hill House in Nehiyawewin (Cree). This is the traditional home of the Nehiyaw (Cree) and Michif (Métis), and meeting place for many Indigenous peoples including the Nakawe (Saulteaux), Siksika (Blackfoot), Nakota Sioux (Stoney) and other nations. Item two: approvals. 2.1, we have a motion. Councillor Dykes?

DY I move to approve the agenda for December 18th, 2019.

CH Thank you, Councillor. And a second? Thank you, Councillor Stewart. It has been moved and seconded to approve the agenda for December 18th, 2019. Is there any debate? Question is on the adoption of the motion to approve the agenda for December 18th, 2019. All those in favour? Thank you. And opposed? Motion carries. Item 2.2, we have a motion. Councillor Strayer?

SR We move to approve the minutes of November 20th, 2019.

CH Thank you, Councillor. And a second? Thank you, Vice President Academic. It has been moved and seconded to approve the minutes of November 20th, 2019. Is there any debate? Question is on the adoption of the motion to approve the minutes of November 20th, 2019. All those in favour? Thank you. And opposed? Motion carries. Item three: presentations. 3.1: ERP schedule builder. Who’s introducing our guest? Vice President Academic, over to you.

00:01:45

AC Great, thank you, Chair. So, we have with us today a bunch of people from the Registrar’s Office presenting on the schedule planner that came from SSJOC that Andrea and I were looking at for a while. You may have read in some of our reports. So, I’m happy to introduce to you the Associate Vice President Planning and Analysis Registrar, Dr. David McLaughlin, who’s going to start off the presentation.

MC Sure. So, I have with me a number of my colleagues. So, on my left here, Michelle Badger. Did I get that right?

BA You did.

MC The Associate Registrar. Shawna Jansen, she’s Change Management, Data Governor Coordinator. And Associate Registrar Melissa Merrigan, and Eric Engelberg, who is a Functional Analyst and Key Operator for getting this up and put together. And he’s going to be leading the presentation today. Is that correct?

EN Yes, that’s correct. Michelle’s going to give a little bit of an introduction here.

MC After Michelle. [Unclear].

BA So I just want to give you a little bit of history about this project. The students actually brought this project to SSJOC almost two years ago. They were at a conference in Ontario, and a bunch of students were talking about a product at that time called Visual Schedule Builder, that helped students plan their timetable before the registration process.

00:03:05

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And so, the Council at that time approached me about how we get a project like this considered. We talked about submitting the project to SSJOC. At that time, they did request the implementation of Visual Schedule Builder. That is a product that is owned by a vendor that you purchase, has implementation costs, and then it has annual maintenance costs with it. We were planning to do that, and of course we hit the budget type crisis. And so, we don’t think it’s prudent as a university to purchase a software at this time and lock ourselves into annual maintenance costs. So, we have decided to build it ourselves.

And that is primarily why we want to do this demo for you today, is that it’s not originally what you requested, the students requested. We think it’s a great alternative, and at a very economical price. And so, we’re looking for your support, because we are asking to change your original request to what we think is right for this time and the institution. So, Eric gets to go.

EN Okay. Hi everyone. First off, thanks for having us. We’re really excited about this project that we have to give to you. So just with a quick show of hands, who has ever had the pleasure of making a class schedule in our current system? We’ve all been there, we know the process. It’s long, it’s tedious, it’s involved. It takes a lot of time. So that being said, I’m really hoping this demo will make you feel a bit better about that in this regard.

So just first off, I’ve been working with a really great team of people to hone what students might need, and what would be intuitive to them, and we’re actually really proud of what we’ve produced so far, as an open-source item.

00:04:52

So, it’s very much an in-review piece of work. It’s very agile, and it’s something we’re constantly taking feedback into, and then changing something if it’s possible, so it’s very on-the-go. And just for context here, a lot of the data we’re using for this demo is for next semester, so winter as well as spring, so there’s going to be a lot of weightless classes you’re going to see. That’s just the time of year. So, let’s pretend that they’re open, just for the purpose of this and this example. Okay? So, I’m going to get into the demo. We’re going incognito because it needs to be not saved prior.

So, when you open this page for the first time, it’s going to start. If you’ve never been to this website before, the first thing you run into is a tour. It basically just gives you a brief rundown of how everything works, where to find everything. And we’ve taken a look at what’s been delivered, and we’ve decided that it’s too long, it’s not pointing to the things that we were changing pretty rapidly, and it’s not terribly intuitive, so we really gone through and said, well, what do they have to look at? What’s most important? And what’s going to keep them interested, as opposed to just ending the tour right now, because no one wants to waste time.

So, I’m just going to walk you through the basic steps. This is a one-time showing, so you’re not going to be prompted with this every single time that you come to this page, because that’s annoying. But the first thing it points to is preferences.

00:06:24

We’ll get into that a little bit later. Next is, you can block off time slots, so that’s the next thing it’s pointing to. You can change the term, so for this example, we have 2020

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Winter, and 2020 Spring. You can change your location, so for this planner, you can pick if you’re on campus, or if you just want to look at online classes. It shows where to search for classes, where you can see the course list, where you can add courses, where you can look at specific class sections, where you can make groups of classes, and how to make a class group, and then what the calendar is, when you actually start putting classes into it.

So, we’ll get into this as well, but zero out of zero is the number right now, but once we start playing with it, that’s going to change, so we’ll see that in a moment here. And then we have a few utilities to actually export your schedule once you’ve made it, so that you can save it in a picture, you can copy and paste it. You get a summary where it’s most of just your class numbers, so if you have to put this in your shopping cart, you have all the class numbers right there.

So that’s a defining item we really want to emphasise is ease and transferability into PeopleSoft. So that’s it for the tour. Let’s get to the actual meat of everything. So, as I mentioned, the tour mentions preferences pretty early. So, the intent behind that is that we want students to start there first, because they have a lot of needs, they have a lot of specific times during the day that are available, they might work. So, let’s take a look at that.

00:08:08

So, as you can see, we can like or dislike morning classes, afternoon classes, night classes, and consecutive classes. So, for the demo, I’m just going to pretend that I’m back in my first year as an art student. I’m actually an alumni, and I’m networking here, so this actually really resonated with me. So, I’m going to get your engagement here, and we’re going to make some decisions. So, do we like or dislike morning classes? All right, that seems like a general dislike of morning classes. How about afternoon? All right, that sounds good. How about night classes? So-so? Ok, let’s just leave that in the middle then. And what about consecutive classes? Yes. Okay, good.

So that’s going to save, and we’re going to close that. Oh wait, but I work Tuesday, Thursday. So how do we accommodate this? Well as the tour mentioned, we can block the day off completely if we want to, or specific blocks. And what the planner is going to do is it’s going to work around those blocks and provide any available sections around those blocks for you to pick from, which is very nice. So, we should be good to go now. So, we should start picking some classes. And typical first-year class that I can think of off the top of my head would be an English class. So English 102 comes to mind.

With this search bar, it’s actually quite smart, so that’s one thing. So instead of having to go in, pick a term, a subject and the class, we can now just type in what we want. So, I’m going to type in English. Okay, so there’s a whole bunch of options there, but a friend of mine actually told me there’s a really good instructor for English. I should probably take from him. So, I’m going to enter Paul Lumsden. Okay, so he teaches English 103. Hold on, we actually have a prerequisite here. I have to take English 102 first.

00:10:12

So, we have a prerequisite in place. It’s bolded, so it’s right there for you. So instead, oaky, it’s pointing to English 102, so let’s take that. So, I’m going to type in ENGL, and

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we’ll get English 102 here. So, you can see a few things. You have the class number, the section number, and all the regular information you have. The reserve groups are a new addition. It’s something we want to really help students with, so we’re not going to be putting them in sections or recommending sections that they aren’t eligible for.

That’s currently an iterative process as well. We really want to refine that, so the validations process for schedule-making is really easy. So, all we have to do at this point is just click the plus here. Now it’s going to start populating for us. All right, so I’ve picked English, but I’d like three more classes. So, can anyone else give me a subject, please.

EX Business 201.

EN All right, Business 201. There we go, let’s add it. All right, two more.

ST Bio 108.

EN Bio 108. Not offered in winter term.

ST 107.

EN 107, all right. There we go, one more.

DY Stats 151.

EN Stats 151.

00:11:33

BA You’re making the students work.

EN There it is. Okay, so as you can see, there’s a few things to really figure out here. So, it’s given us almost 9000 schedules to pick from. It’s telling us that there’s wait-listed classes, so just to clarify on that point, the wait-listed classes have been made opaque, so they’re very clear. We actually have messaging at the top that tells you that, so you can mouse over them, and it actually says wait list. So solid colours, obviously they’re open, and then opaque would be wait-listed classes.

I also want to highlight at this point, though, if we were to change our mind about our availability for our class schedule, we can actually go back in here. And I just want to point out, try and keep an eye on the schedule in the bottom-right corner. If we change this, start changing that, hopefully when the selections been made, it’s going to change. Okay, well, essentially… Oh no, it did a little bit at the bottom. But it reacts to your choices.

So, it something changes, it’s going to update your schedule, and it’s going to say, well, based on what you have now, here’s your schedule, and here are the available options for your schedule.

00:12:57

MC Eric, I think there’s a question.

EN Oh, sure, yes.

ST It’s okay. Oh, sorry, if you want me to wait for questions.

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EN No, please, go ahead.

ST So, I’m just curious. So originally, we said that we disliked morning classes. There’s still probably that was like if only one of them fit the schedule, originally?

EN Sorry?

BA So she said, if you said you disliked a morning class… So basically, what these preferences do is, you know how you saw 9000 schedules? The first schedules will be what you liked. The last ones will still appear, but they’ll be at the end, so you’ll still see morning classes. So, if you only saw four schedules, your dislikes would be at the very end, because what it’s doing is it’s showing your preferences, your favourites as the first schedules it displays.

Because this does copy Visual Schedule Builder, the product we were looking at, and what they said is, students generally go through the first 12 schedules. Because this is going to show you 12 timetables that meet your needs, and the tendency of students is to only look at the first 12. You can look through all 9000 if you want to, but the tendency is only look through the first 12 and then pick the one that they want.

EN Yes, so it’s got an internal ranking system, and like Michelle’s saying, 15 or 12 is pretty common for what you’re going to look for. No one’s going to look for 200, right? It’s tiresome.

00:14:10

We have actually taken that into consideration. I have talked about that with the developer. If someone really want to vet a good 100 of their options, we’d obviously make it so they wouldn’t have to click all the way back through it again. We want the double-arrow, or an arrow with a line, so you can just click, okay, I’m back to number one.

ST No, I was just commenting because it’s still put the one [unclear] in the morning slot at 8 am, because that’s the only one that works in there too. [Overtalking].

EN Yes, it does its best to accommodate, even if it’s your preference. You have to just keep that in mind.

ST No, I like that.

MC If you didn’t want to go at eight o’clock, you could say no eight o’clocks. And then it would eliminate all of those schedules. But because you didn’t say you couldn’t do it, you just said you disliked it, it’s still an option.

ST Okay, good.

EN So just as an example, again, I’ve blocked off the eight o’clock slot now. All right, it’s just adjusted and updated everything else.

00:15:02

MC And now you’ve lost half of your schedules. [Overtalking].

EN So for the sake of this example, I’m just going to say, okay, this is great. This is everything that I’m looking for. How do we share it? How do we save it? How do we hang on to it so I don’t lose it? Well, there’s a few options. We can save this as a

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picture, so if I want to send this to my friends and say, okay, well here’s my classes, here’s what I’m taking and when. I can just do that, and it looks like this. It’s exactly the same thing. There’s a summary option.

So, again, what’s nice about this is it gives you all the class numbers, so you can just put all of these numbers into your shopping cart, one by one, you don’t have to do this whole thing again. It’s just right there for you. As well, you can just copy it to your clipboard. Let me just open up notepad here, and it just pastes like that, so it’s still kind of the same idea as the summary.

BA I just want to jump in really quickly just because Eric’s alluded to it a couple of times. That is a bit, because what this presentation is about being transparent to you and about your original request versus what we’re planning on delivering. Visual Schedule Builder, the product you originally asked for, is integrated with PeopleSoft, and integrated into your shopping cart. We could not build something, because we only made this decision this fall to not purchase and to build instead.

We had to break the project into two phases, so what we’re delivering for this February is phase one, and it is not integrated into the shopping cart. That is why Eric is showing you class numbers. So, students will, and through our training manuals, Shawna will do, we will indicate that you take the class number. But that is one big difference.

00:16:59

We do hope to have a phase two. Phase two would have to, again, go to the Student Tech Fee for money to do that. To move this into being integrated so that maybe your schedule that you select could automatically be pushed into your shopping cart. It is much more complex of a build, so it is something we’re looking for fall of 2020 to possibly start. Thank you.

EN Yes, that was my next point. Thank you, Michelle. That’s okay. So that being said, we understand that there is a lot of documentation and process that comes with scheduling a schedule, and picking classes, and what classes do I pick based on my program, all that information. And the thing is that this tool by itself, it can’t accommodate all that information. So, what we’ve decided instead is to create a help page. So, the help page, there’s a link right now, it just goes to a blank site, but I have basically a… Let me just show you a rough draft of this.

We have a laundry list of things we want to include, just to facilitate how to use the tool, how to find the right classes, what classes you should be enrolling in, what certain thing mean. So just to go through them, there’s going to be an item on choosing your classes, so if you don’t follow the program of study in the academic calendar, you should be pretty well aware of what to pick.

00:18:19

Just what this icon means: certain classes aren’t always scheduled, or they are a work placement, or something. So, there’s an icon there that says, hey, this can’t be scheduled, but it’s still okay. There’s messaging that’s going to be when you can’t actually find these schedules based on your preferences, so it may just not be able to facilitate what you want at that time, or class combinations don’t work, and so, we just wanted something to explain that.

How online classes don’t show in the calendar, but they are a bar at the top to indicate

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that you have that section, and that it is online. Also wait list classes, I’ve touched on that. So just to reiterate that they’re a bit opaque. Again, the tooltip that is on your calendar, it just references everything that you may need to know about it.

And again, the class number, as well as what these icons mean, your schedule preferences. And then it’s referring to the step-by-step enrolment instructions that we provide students in general, just with how to go about doing all this. So that’s actually pretty much what I have for the demo. Like I said, it’s an iterative process, and we’re taking all feedback and suggestions. And this is the time to hear questions, so please go ahead.

ST A big thing that I’ve faced with trying to build my schedule is labs. So, are you, with this tool, able to select different lab sections, and then rearrange it with the lecture sections, separately?

EN I know that labs are currently paired with lectures. Let’s just take an example, here.

00:20:06

ST Doesn’t Stats have a few?

EN That’s a good point. I’ll just go back to Stats. Okay, so, it’s going to cycle which lecture, and what lab is attached to that lecture. So, if I attach stats…

BA In some situations, a lab and lecture are combined. They’re not always. So, in arts and science, a lot of times they have a lecture, and then you can choose from eight labs. That’s what you’re thinking about.

MC So, on this one here, you have 163 different schedules for Stat 151. We don’t have 151 sections in Stat 151. This is ten sections and 12 labs or something, and then which ones are accessible.

BA Every combination.

MC And then, as you cycle through one, two, three, you’ll see maybe the same course with different labs, or vice-versa.

EN Yes, so it’s giving you an array of when that could happen. Yes?

DY I’m a computer science student, so this concerns me a little bit more than most councillors. There’s actually a website that looks very similar to this called Schedule Storm.

EN Yes.

00:21:21

DY And the interface looks exactly the same, the features are exactly the same. How are we as MacEwan giving those developers recognition, because if you go to the actual Schedule Storm website, those universities are there in that list. And so, their core developers made the website are already recognised for the work they’re doing.

EN That’s a very good point.

BA That’s a great question.

DY What decision was made to make it our own, and why did we not just work with them

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to release that as a software that’s already there?

EN Yes, so, we’ve actually left that information on the page itself in the about. So, we did deliberate about this, and how we were going to actually give the nod to the original developers as a thank you, and we’ve still included it in our interface that we’ve added on to. So, we’ve made sure to link their information, who made it originally, and really just saw, well this isn’t ours, but it’s something that we’ve built on as a result.

BA Though actually, you are right. We did take Schedule Storm, which is open-source, and now we’ve changed it, and added it and we queenside [?] it, and made sure it worked with our scheduling practices. Because that’s the one thing with Schedule Storm, is that, if your timetable was on the web, and so MacEwan was never on Scheduling Storm because we’ve never published our timetable to the website. But if an institution published their timetable, Scheduling Storm picked it up.

But Scheduling Storm couldn’t work with the idiosyncrasies of each institution, so when we pulled Schedule Storm to work with it, we realised, oh, this is different. We need this different; our scheduling practices are different. Because they built it for a standard, and every institution does things slightly different.

00:22:53

DY Can I ask a follow-up question? So, Schedule Storm does allow teacher ratings to be in the scheduling client. Is that something that we’re aiming for as well? Student do care about that.

EN Yes. So, we did see what Schedule Storm had to offer at first glance, and their model is to reference Rate My Prof. That’s something we felt that students do in advance of a schedule anyways. So instead of putting it upfront and integrating it, we’ve just said, well, it’s going to happen anyways. Students are going to look this up regardless of if we put it in or not. So, we’ve thought about it, but it was eventually left out. Yes?

EX Yes, do you foresee the current and future budget cuts as a hinderance to phase two? Or are funds secured for this project?

EN You know what, Michelle, you answer that one.

BA Funds are not secure for phase two yet. I mean, I think that is a question is that every time, before we go to the Student Tech Fee, either the institution can submit a proposal, the students can submit a proposal.

00:24:00

So, if phase two is really important to you, I would recommend that you submit a proposal to the tech fee.

ST By not using Schedule Storm, does this create an easier ability to then do that phase two portion, like integrating with PeopleSoft? Or what have you been able to do that with Schedule Storm?

BA Visual Schedule Builder? That’s another point I do want to… So, phase two, we will bridge off of this. We will work with this and then integrate it. We have a lot of knowledge, and we have some great system analysts, who are our programmers. They’re fairly confident. I mean, it is complex work, but they’re fairly confident they can do an integration. They’ve done a lot of integrations. Apply Alberta’s an integration into

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PeopleSoft. We have a lot of different integrations already into PeopleSoft, so you’re taking an open-source coding, and integrate it.

They’re not overly concerned. It’s just about the complexity, the time and delivery date. We always need to deliver this for February, for when the shopping cart opens. And so, it’s that timing, and we have some other big projects next year, so it’s a combination of money, time, resources.

ST No, I was just meaning, is this why you went with building your own instead of using Schedule Storm interface, because then you could integrate those with PeopleSoft?

00:25:15

BA Oh, okay. So, there are two different products. There’s Visual Schedule Builder…

ST Yes, as you said.

BA Oh, okay, and Schedule Storm does not integrate.

ST Yes, that’s why I was just asking if that’s why you decided to do your own, so then you could use this and put it together.

EN Essentially yes.

ST That’s all.

BA Yes, and I think we wanted the ability to adapt this as it needs as we got feedback. If we stayed with Schedule Storm, we were using somebody else’s, and it didn’t work with the way we schedule. So, I think students were going to have more problems. They would have got some wins, but they would have had more problems. We’re hoping that all of those little idiosyncrasies are worked out when delivering something really good to you guys. Yes.

SR Ruan had his hand up first.

BO So, just to compare to the original product that you were planning on buying to what this is, including phase two, what are some of the differences? Because I think the only thing you mentioned that was missing, so to speak, was the phase two stuff, which seemed like it will be coming in due time.

00:26:23

Is there any other feature that we’re missing between the two? Could you elaborate on that?

BA Yes. We are missing quite a few features. So, one is the integration. Another one is a feature that would really benefit both the university and students: for canned programs like nursing, you could push out your cohorts. So right now, in nursing, they have to take all of the A sections together, and they have to do this communication on the B sections. You can do that in Visual Schedule Builder, so basically you can set up every single program where it’s a smorgasbord, students can go pick anything they want, or a student must take the mandatory courses and then pick the electives.

Visual Schedule Builder lets you do that. Our phase two probably won’t have that, it’s a fairly complex build. And another piece that they had is they’ve actually integrated with academic advisement. I don’t know whether we’ll deliver that for phase two. So,

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phase two, right now, is about delivering an integration, that it goes into your shopping cart. Not necessarily that it’s tied with academic advisement, or that we can really build out the programs.

The IT Department said that buying Visual Schedule Builder is not off forever. Maybe this might be the tool we use for two, three, four years, and then things will change and we’ll have some money, and maybe the right time will be to buy Visual Schedule Builder. It’s not no, it’s just no right now, or we just don’t think that’s a good decision right now.

00:27:53

BO Awesome, thank you.

EN Point of information. Can I just note from the Chair or from any who’s keeping track how much time we have left for questions?

CH Seven minutes.

EN Cool, thank you.

SR So you mentioned phase two is reliant on the information and technology fee. Could you tell me a little more about that?

BA So right now, every student is charged a tech fee with their registration, and then we go to the Student Tech Fee. There’s a committee which a few of your people sit on, Andrea sits on. You sit on it? So, proposals come to them, and you vote on how you would like your tech fee money spent. And so, the university brings proposals, students bring proposals for that.

SR So that number isn’t, as it currently sits, at risk of increasing, is it?

BA The current number? No.

SR Yes, due to this program?

BA No, because we have not approved any finance resources to phase two. Right?

00:28:50

MC They’re independent. Essentially, the tech fee is a determination of the institution, the Student Union would have a discussion about what would be the appropriate level for that. That would then populate a fund. That fund, then, is where you source out and determine what your priorities are. So, at some point, there’s a certain amount of money, I think it’s around a quarter of a million right now, per year, that’s available to support these tech-type projects. If there was a larger fee, there would be more money available to do more things, if it was a smaller fee, there’d be less money to do that same. So, it’s a question about prioritising, for both university and for the students. Is that…

SR Oh yes, perfect answer to that question. What I do appreciate is you guys don’t necessarily take the easy and more expensive route. You did it this way for the sake of fiscal responsibility. As a student, I appreciate that.

BA Yes?

DR The first question is when will this be available to students? And the second question

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is how will it be available to them? Where can they find it?

BA You guys ask great questions. I just want to tell you that. So, we’re hoping for February 3rd, but truly, we think we’re fitting February 13th to the 20th. Our goal is: we are going live before the shopping cart. So, February 20th is four or five days before the shopping cart opens; give them a little bit of time to figure out their timetable. That’s absolutely essential. So, sometime in then. Access point, we are about to go live with a new interface, so my student system is going to look very different in February.

00:30:32

We call it the Fluid Interface. It adapts to your phones, and we’ll be able to get rid of the mobile app, if anybody doesn’t quite know that yet. But we’re be able to get rid of it, because what we’re going to build is better. We want this to be… There’s a tile, that’s called My Classes, and it’s where you go to enrol. We want this to be one of the links there. We might also have it somewhere else on the student portal. That’s under debate, whether we have it in two locations, make it super-easy for students to find. I want it to be part of Fluid.

EN And the good part is, you don’t need to authentication to get to the site.

SR ESM?

EN That’s right. And you’re there.

MC If you’re already on.

EN Yes?

ST Will there some sort of announcement? I know that can be sometimes hard, done over emails and stuff, but would there be [overtalking] related to it?

BA So this is a new position that my unit got, and it’s Change Management and Data Governance, and it’s something that I feel that… It came along not too long after Waitlist/Watchlist, which is another student project. We realised some of our earlier projects, we hadn’t necessarily done the best job on Change Management and Communication.

00:31:34

With Waitlist/Watchlist, I assigned two functional analysts to the project, and Shawna ended up taking on Change. She cones from the academic advisement world, so she took on Change Management and Communication, and it was probably the best implemented project that I’ve ever had since I arrived here. So, we then converted her position of Functional Analyst into Change Management, and it is of vital importance to for every ARP project. And so, yes, you’ll be getting that. You want to talk about it at all?

JA Well, I think you may have noticed some of the television screens are giving you little hints about what that’s going to be. There’s also going to be updates on the website. We don’t generally email students directly as one mass email, as you know, so a lot of it will be given to the programs, and there’ll be demonstrations given to the faculty and staff before it’s actually implemented, so you’ll have people you can go to with questions.

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The really nice thing about the new interface is that it is going to be really intuitive. You’ll be able to use it on your phones; you’re just going to do a few tasks. Things are going to look pretty much the same once you get to the end page. But getting there is going to be a lot easier. So, a lot of it will be quite intuitive, but we will have supporting documentation with the programs as well as the website.

ST Once last question, if that’s okay? I’m not sure our VP Academic, Sean, might be able to deal with this, but I’ve heard there be talks of a degree planner. Is that something that would go along with this class schedule, or is that a separate project?

00:32:58

BA That project is approved, and this is actually the first phase of that project. So, we have an academic advisement that’s going live in August: Degree Planner. And we implemented Fluid and this as part of it, a part of that project, and so we’re delivering these pieces early, because we need them for registration. But by August, you’ll have your degree planner.

ST That’s amazing.

BA Approved and going well, going very well. I love my job.

ST Thank you.

MC But not integrated at this point.

BA Not integrated with this product, but you are getting that tool, and that’ll be part of Fluid.

ST Thank you.

BA And I can’t wait to show you at all.

CH Councillors, one more question.

00:33:41

BA Because they wanted something else, should we be asking that they endorse? I don’t know. Endorse this, or that they’re okay with the solution? Or this is enough?

EN Well, I guess that’s up to you.

BA I would love your endorsement. We decided to build our own tool, and this is satisfying the need for the time, right now. I would love that. [Overtalking].

CH We’ve got some nodding heads, maybe. Yes, I suppose.

AC I’ll make a motion?

CH I don’t know that we need a motion. Okay, councillors, I think that… Honestly, I don’t know. I mean, does anyone vehemently disagree with what’s going on?

AC That’s a good way to do it, yes. Any objections?

CH There you go.

SR No, I think it’s great. I appreciate the transparency, that you come to us explaining the original project, and what it’s turned into. I think that’s great, and it does everything it

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needs to do, so I’m happy.

MC Whole-hearted endorsement by show of applause?

EN Thank you very much.

BA Thank you. [Overtalking].

00:35:44

CH Okay, order. Thank you. Item Four: For Information. 4.1: Reports. Item 4.1.1 evidently is not in your package. 4.1.2: Vice President Academic, any oral supplements?

AC I have none at this time. Thank you, Chair.

CH Thank you. 4.1.3: Vice President External, any oral supplements?

EX Yes, thank you, Chair. I drafted, in tandem with the rest of VC, a memorandum understanding. As for folk who read my agenda package, there was a lack of meaningful consultation which we would like to mitigate that in future [unclear], so I will briefly sum it up. The intent of this memorandum understanding, or MOU if you will, is to write ongoing consultation and conversation regardless of regulation changes. Because there was an order in council which, essentially, amended the PSLA Tuition MP’s regulation to remove the annual cap on MNAF increases and reduce the power of student associations in approving exceptional tuition increases.

So, I’m working heavily with MacEwan administration to ensure our voice is genuinely at the table, and not tokenised. Further to that, there’s an LRC opportunity, which came forward which I’d like to share with you all. It’s called Board Leadership 2020, it’s on April 4th. Board Leadership Edmonton invites you to a day long program engaging in informative workshops focused on board members of voluntary and not-for-profit organisations.

00:37:15

This is an excellent opportunity to further your board understandings. So, save that date: April 4th. We do have funds for folks to go, so this is an excellent opportunity. I’d like to bring a horde. Further to that, I’ve had two CAUS meetings: that’s the Council Alberta University Students meetings, it’s a provincial advocacy group. I had a meeting with Councillor Campbell and the Director of Programs and Services, and I also had a National Advocacy Committee meeting. Thank you, Chair.

CH Thank you. 4.1.4: Vice President Operations and Finance, any oral supplements.

OP Yes, thank you, Chair. Since my last report, I attended a Procedures Subcommittee. Also touched base with our Finance Department about discussing for EC per day January, that we hold every year for potential candidates to come and hand out with the ECs on a scheduled time, and find out more about their portfolios. And because, as of right now, there is no president present, we’re going to touch base with a couple former presidents and see if they would like to come out for the day and collect compensation of some kind for them to come and discuss the portfolios.

And then, I hope everyone received this, we discovered at a recent meeting this morning with ECs from our Director of Building Operations regarding that our building will be open and operational, and programs and services and the common areas and

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the furniture will all be accessible to the students. The only thing is, due to construction and… Please read the message as well, it goes into more detail, and I don’t want to take up everyone’s time. I feel it sums it up very well. That our bedrooms will not be opening until Fall 2020, but the rest of the building will be. So that’s about it.

00:39:09

CH Thank you, Vice President. 4.1.5: Vice President Student Life, any oral supplements?

SL Yes, thank you, Chair. Just a quick update on Appointment Advisory Committee, we did recommend, I believe, seven people for appointment, and those appointments to committees went through today. Additionally, another update: unfortunately, due to the VSU situation in Ontario, the company that runs the SAMU hub software is going out of business, and so we will not be able to continue using their program. The Student Groups Department is working really closely with Marketing right now to get all of those forms onto the website.

And the Student Groups Department will not be taking submissions of forms from now until January 6th, when folks are back, at which point everything will be live again and hopefully running pretty well. Student Group executives will need to pop by the new Student Association Building to retrieve their constitutions and member lists in the new year. Other than that, hopefully won’t have too large of an impact. Student Groups Department is also available in person or by email to help folks along with the process. Thank you, Chair.

00:40:12

CH Thank you. 4.1.6: Leadership and Engagement Committee is in your package for your information, as is 4.1.7, the Chief Returning Officer report. 4.1.8 through 4.1.13: The Executive Committee, Audit Committee, Bylaws and Policy Committee, Budget and Finance Committee, Appointment Advisory Committee, and Leadership and Review Committee workplans are in your package for your information.

4.2: Executive Committee minutes. The minutes of November 6th, 27th, and December 5th, 2019, are provided in your package for your information. Item 5: Question Period. 5.1: written questions. None this week. 5.2: oral questions. We’ll take questions now. Councillor Hassan?

HA Question for the VP External: I’m wondering if you can talk about, sorry, you just very briefly mentioned a conference. I wrote down the date, I just wanted to confirm: is the right day April 4th? And can you just tell us more about what’s happening?

CH Thank you, Councillor. Vice President?

EX Thank you, Chair. Yes, so I will read the description. So, Board Leadership 2020 is essentially a day-long program. It’s a bunch of engaging and informative workshops, focused around board members interacting at the board level. So, this is for voluntary and not-for-profit organisations. The conference provides a variety of sessions and networking opportunities, fun, addressing not-for-profit board fundamentals and new trends. So, this is really beneficial for folks who are on a board. A lot of first-time folks on board.

00:41:44

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So, just providing insight as to proper etiquette, what to do, what to know, and further to that, just really good information, really great learning opportunity, and a great way to further engage with your student’s council with more know. So, we will be sending an email out later, with more information. I encourage you all to look into it. I’ve heard this conference has been promoted in the past, but not many have actually participated in it, from my understanding. Which is a shame, because I think this is a great opportunity and we have the funds for it. So, yes, that’s all I’ve got to say. Thank you, Chair.

CH Thank you, Vice President. Councillor Hassan, I can say from experience that it’s very useful. You may laugh at the networking opportunity, but that is also very useful, if you’re interested in non-profit boards. And being a board member myself, I would highly encourage members of council to attend. Councillor Hassan, any other questions?

HA No, thank you, Chair.

CH Thank you. Other questions? Councillor Campbell.

CA This is a question for VP Student Life. I was just wondering if you could elaborate on the meeting with SAMU staff and ECs about better conveying the SAMU brand message. Could you mention anything?

00:42:57

CH Sorry, Vice President. Thank you, Councillor. Vice President?

SL Thank you, Chair. We just had Red Media Agency, which is a marketing firm, in to talk about how to better build SAMU’s brand, because it has been identified that, while we do really well in marketing our programs and services, we do lack a more cohesive SAMU brand, in itself. So, we just did some pre-meeting consultation on that. Had some great conversations, and I’m excited to see what it goes.

CH Thank you, Vice President. Councillor Campbell, anything further?

CA [Inaudible].

CH Thank you. Other questions? Councillor Stewart?

ST Thank you, Chair. I do have a few questions. I apologise for not sending in written questions, [overtalking] so it was a little challenging for me to [unclear]. But my first question will be for the Vice President Academic. In their report, it was mentioned about a study abroad policy that was rescinded. I was wondering what that was, and how that will impact students?

CH Thank you, Councillor. Vice President?

AC Thank you, Chair. Yes, this was discussed the last student council meeting, so I would encourage members to look at the transcript of the minutes, because it should all be captured in there. But basically, there are two policies that take the place of study abroad. This was fresh in my mind at the time, so the details are all in the transcript, but inter-institution transferability and the student travel policy do everything that study abroad would have done. And the thing is, travel policy is brand-new.

00:44:37

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So, when this travel policy came in, and you couple that with the inter-institutional transferability policy that’s been there forever, those two have now taken up so much of the space of the study abroad policy that it doesn’t need to exist anymore. So, it was rescinded when the travel policy was brought in. Thanks, that’s all.

CH Thank you, Vice President. Councillor Stewart? Your second question.

ST Yes, please. And just again, for the Vice President Academic, they mentioned that they brought forward our feedback around a waitlist purge day. I was wondering if there are any results around that, or if they came to any conclusions yet.

CH Thank you, Councillor. Vice-President?

AC Thank you, Chair. This is a great question, because the timing of it worked out really well. The majority of respondents agreed with what I had initially thought, which was to move the purge day earlier. Move it further away from that add drop deadline at the end of the week. I thought that was great feedback.

People had really good reasons for that, the main reason being that, if your purge days is on Thursday, and you add drop day is on Friday, then you’re out of luck for testing out the courses that you’ve just been added to, potentially. So, it’s better to get that full week of course testing, so you know whether you need to spend money on that course, and commit to that course, before the drop deadline.

00:45:59

So, the following week was an SSJOC meeting, the same people who do this, that we just saw in the presentation section, are discussing this issue. And we saw a lot of support for the same position that the students took, and I got to raise all of your comments at that meeting. And so, it’s not completed yet, but they’re heavily leaning towards moving the purge day earlier.

But I believe that decision will be made at the January meeting, because some people around the table still had some comments, so want to go back to their teams to talk about it. So, it’s very likely that we’ll be moving it to earlier, as a lot of your feedback suggested when you emailed. Thanks.

CH Thank you, Vice President. Councillor Stewart, third question?

ST Yes, please. So again, for the Vice President Academic, just quickly, have you found an outcome that the Alberta government could use for funding. This may also be directed to the VP External.

CH Thank you, Councillor. Vice President?

AC I’m going to have to defer that to the VP External, because I don’t know enough about the Ministry.

CH Sure. Vice President?

00:47:06

EX Thank you, Chair. So, we’re currently evaluating what that looks like for us. I’ve asked various folks at MacEwan administration. It seems to be that an ideal metric for MacEwan specifically is FLE, so what that means is full load equivalent. So MacEwan actually is quite good for our costs. If you’re taking a full five-course load, our costs for

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that full load is comparably low compared to other institutions. So, a good metric for MacEwan.

Also good for students, because it would keep tuition lower… Well, it would presumably keep tuition lower than other institutions, just because it’s low, but full load equivalent would be the metric that we’re leaning towards sending in to the government. But that being said, we’re also working heavily with CAUS, the Council of Alberta University Students, our provincial advocacy group, to determine some provincial strategy on a recommendation. But that’s something that I’m working on quite closely. Thank you, Chair.

CH Thank you, Vice President. Councillor Stewart, any further questions?

ST Yes. Do we have a limit on how many I [unclear] for the CRO as well?

CH No. Feel free.

ST Thank you. I have a quick question for the Vice President Operations and Finance. We just recently got an email in regards to the date around the SAMU building, and the vendors. Is this now public knowledge? Can we share this information? I noticed it was not confidential, I just want to make sure, unless Marketing has a strategy, but, yes.

00:48:36

CH Thank you, Councillor. Vice President?

OP Yes. Because it was just brought to our attention, Chair, that an SC had requested that, since we know information, we pass it on to SC. So, the director just ordered to us that we’ll have to strategise with Marketing at this time. This is just fresh. Thank you, Chair.

CH Thank you, Vice President. Councillor Stewart… Oh, sorry, Vice President External, did you have something else to say?

EX I would just like to add, we did talk to Daryl, the building director.

AC Operations. Director of Building Operations.

EX Thank you. Director of Building Operations. I apologise. And because I asked if this needed to be a camera, he said no. And because this is public, I’d say this is public knowledge now.

CH Thank you, Vice President. Councillor Stewart? Other questions?

ST Yes, please, just for the Vice President Operations and Finance again. Just, there was mention for Operational Committee that there would be four SAMU members along with four MacEwan members. I was just wondering if any of these SAMU members would be execs, or councillors, or something at large. How will students be involved?

CH Thank you, Councillor. Vice President?

OP Sorry, I couldn’t quite hear. Could I have the question repeated? Thank you, Chair.

00:49:49

CH Sure, Vice President. Councillor Stewart, can you repeat the question?

ST Sorry, in regards to the Operational Committee that was mentioned in your report,

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there are four SAMU members a part of it. Is that staff, or is that included with executives at all?

CH Thank you, Councillor. Vice President?

OP Thank you, Chair. There is the Co-Chair Director of Building Operations, with the CFO on the MacEwan side. And then, to make up the SAMU side, it is Director of Building Operations, our general manager, and myself, and it was the President, so we will have to fulfil that role. And most likely, at this time, I would say [unclear] external. Thank you, Chair.

CH Thank you, Vice President. Councillor Stewart, any further questions?

ST Yes, thank you, Chair. I have a question for the CRO, in regards to their report. So, this is kind of a combined question, I guess. So, first, any recommendations for increasing voter turnout? By adding an extra day, we did see an increase by 1.5% of adding an extra day of voting.

00:50:52

But I was wondering if there were any extra costs associated with adding that extra day, and if it would be worth it to continue having that extra day of voting, or not, overall.

CH Thank you, Councillor. So, I should have introduced our guest, Jed Johns. Very famously from SAMU and MacEwan, right? Before I direct the question to him, though, I should say that the question about cost might be difficult for the CRO to answer, and perhaps that’s better for an executive to take back and to analyse. I will say as well that the recommendations from the CRO are in his report, but I will give you the floor, Mr. Johns, to address the question however you wish.

JJ Thank you, Mr Chair. [Non-English]. Thank you, Council. It’s great to be here. Thank you for the question, councillor. In regards to just cost about increasing to a full day, I did consult with the DRO, who’s the Governance Advisor, Mr Honey, as well about that, and I think he would have the details on that.

But from the initial recommendation that I put forward during the planning of the election to go forward with an extra day, I believe we thought the cost would be quite minimal. Especially since, I think we were looking at recalibrating where the polling clerks would be and their days. There was really, I think, minimal cost, if any, about adding an extra day electronically, but I would defer that to the Governance Advisor to give the specifics on that.

CH Sure. Thank you. Alan, did you have anything to add?

HO Not right now.

CH Thank you. Councillor Stewart, any other questions?

00:52:45

ST One last one, please, or at least, I think. Please and thank you. It was mentioned as one of the recommendations to look over the potential around first investigation or until made about the decision that the CRO makes during the election period. And I was just curious if, potentially, something that we can look at for Bylaws and Policy

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Committee.

Interest to that appeal timing is a potential solution, that an individual be remained on the ballot for the election, or that was considered. Or if it was the decision of the person in question, in this example, sorry, if they just resigned or rescinded their application, or if that was decided that they would be not included in the race? Sorry, does that make sense?

CH Thank you, Councillor. Mr Johns?

JJ Thank you, Mr Chair. If I understand the councillor correctly, regarding recommendation number 4, that Student’s Council review the committee’s policy, appendix c, regarding the GIC, my recommendation was that they ensure robust appeal process is in place, and there be clear perfect timelines for GIC decisions. And that came out of my view, is that the current policy was crafted in a way that was to deal with appeals that came after the election period.

00:54:19

And I think that became very apparent when we received an appeal during an active election. I think my report makes it very clear that, if there was to be a disqualification, which there was, during the election, that if that person… That if the GIC had, of course, reinstated the candidate, it would have created a conundrum for us going forward, because we wouldn’t…

The GIC would have had, I think, an immense task to then decide, does this mean we have a by-election? But how do you have a by-election when all the seats were filled within that election already? Do you call a new election? Really, there was limited options for myself and the GIC that this had happened. That this decision and this appeal, the process was so long, and that the decision came after the actual election. It created some problems for us.

And so, that’s what I really wanted to highlight for council, and for if council does decide to review that policy through their Bylaws and Policy Committee, I would advise and I would recommend that they take special care to figure out a better system if that was to happen again. Whether that means shortening timelines, whether that means more preparation on the front end, I think that’s something that should be hopefully even in place, I would recommend, before the Executive Committee election, because there’s always high potential that something like this could happen again.

00:55:53

CH Thank you, Mr Johns. Councillor Stewart, anything further?

ST Just elaborating on that, I guess my question was more on if we do, or when we do hopefully, re-look at this policy or this procedure, could it be taken into consideration that an individual appeal is made, or a disqualification that, and this just throwing it out there, they could still complete the election? And then if they were just not elected, they weren’t elected.

But then if they did come out that then they are later had to be disqualified, then they would just had termination, or had to, for lack of a better term, kick people out for not following enough trading or whatever the case might have been. And then you just have an appointment or other proceeding.

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CH Councillor, I think I can answer that question. I think that’s the job of the Bylaws and Policy Committee, pardon me, to think through those scenarios, and to provide some policy advice, follow the policy development cycle, and work through those situations. And so, I think that the recommendation by the CRO is robust. If the Bylaw and Policy Committee wishes to engage the CRO in their deliberations, I would encourage them to do so, if he can make the time. And perhaps we’ll just leave it there, okay?

ST Yes, no worries.

CH Thank you. Any other questions, Councillor Stewart?

ST No, thank you.

00:57:24

CH Thank you. Other questions? Okay. Thank you, Mr Johns.

JJ Thank you, Mr Chair.

CH We’ll relieve you. You’re welcome to stay.

JJ No problem. I think you’re going into an item that I have to leave for, anyhow.

CH Except for the next item. You can enjoy a coffee, if you wish. Go ahead.

JJ Yes, well, thank you, Council.

CH Councillor Strayer?

SR Sorry, Chair, I’m going to throw in one last question. We just learned about the hub being eliminated due to VSU. A: I don’t know what VSU stands for.

CH Sorry, Vice President. Thank you, Councillor. Vice President?

SL VSU stands for Voluntary Student Union, since just the situation in Ontario the company is based out of.

CH Thank you. Councillor Strayer, anything further?

SR Thank you, Chair. I was gone, now [unclear] is an Ontario company being propped up by all the student unions. This is seemingly a problem for the clubs. Is there solutions for the future?

00:58:30

CH Sorry, Vice President. Thank you, Councillor. Vice President?

SL Yes, as I mentioned, all of the forms will be put back up on the SAMU website by January 6th, and there shouldn’t be that much [inaudible].

CH Thank you, Vice President. Councillor Strayer, anything further?

SR Yes, thank you, Chair. Did we lose any funding, or anything, that went to the company that owned hub?

CH Thank you. Vice President?

SL I’m not 100% clear on the financial details of it. I assume we would have lost the cost of the program, but there was nothing we could do about that. There was no way we

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could have seen this coming. Thank you.

CH Thank you, Vice President. Councillor Strayer, anything further?

SR Happy guy. Thanks, Chair.

CH Thank you. Okay, we’ll move on. Item six: In-camera period. We need a motion. Vice President?

AC Thank you, Chair. I move to move into an in-camera period.

CH Thank you. And a second? Councillor Campbell. It has been moved and seconded to move in-camera. Is there any debate? Councillor Strayer?

00:59:35

SR Is there a possibility that we can keep Jed in the room? As he has a certain amount of precedent with the institution losing a president.

CH That’s a big ask, Councillor. Is there anyone… Well, first of all, Mr Johns, are you actually interested in staying?

JJ I’m willing to do [inaudible].

CH Thank you. Is anyone opposed to Mr Johns staying? Vice President?

EX Yes, it’s nothing against you, Jed. I don’t think there is a precedent for it. My opinion. Thank you.

CH Thank you. So, Councillor, the way that we’ll handle this. Mister, you’re welcome to… We’re debating moving into camera, so that’s fine. Councillor Strayer, perhaps we can amend the motion to suggest that we add the words, and allow Mr Johns to remain in the room. Would you care to make that motion?

SR I would like to… How do I do this?

CH Move to amend the motion to add and allow Mr Johns to stay in the room.

SR I would like to move to amend the…

CH Motion.

SR Motion to allow Jed Johns to stay in the room.

CH Correct. And do we have a second? Thank you, Councillor Yannish. It has been moved and seconded to amend the motion to add the words, and allow Mr Johns to stay in the room. Is there any debate? Vice President Student Life. We’ll give you the floor first.

01:01:07

SL I would just like to remind council that what we’re discussing in this in-camera period, it is classified as an HR matter, which is confidential. Thank you.

CH Thank you. Other debate? Vice President?

EX Yes, I would like to reiterate it is an HR matter, and as much as we love the CRO, it does stay within this room, and it would limit our discussion that we would be able to have, having our CRO in this room. And I would really like to have a complete and

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fulsome discussion around the topic at hand.

CH Thank you. Other debate? Councillor Strayer?

SR While I very much respect you guy’s opinion in this, our CRO has signed an NDA to which he is bound by. I don’t think he would really limit our discussion at all. He’s bound by the non-disclosure agreement.

CH Thank you, Councillor. Vice President?

SL Am I able to ask a question of Councillor Strayer?

CH Sure.

01:02:05

SL What do you see as being the benefit of having the CRO remain in camera session?

CH Thank you. Sorry Councillor. Thank you, Vice President. Councillor Strayer?

SR I’m curious about his opinion, quite honestly, about the best way to move forward. I think the work plan that has been developed is comprehensive, and very complete, and I have full trust in the executive. I think it’s prudent for us to get his opinion nonetheless, as he has experience with our organisation losing a president in prior instances.

CH Council, you can put your cards down. I’ll recognise you at the right time. So perhaps I’ll address this right now. So, we have a motion in front of us which is to distribute the work of the President. I will note to council that the bylaws state that we have to fill that position, and that that job is of the Appointment Advisory Committee’s responsibility, and so that work will take place. And so, I think that that’s important to note, and considering your stated reason for having the individual stay in the room. So, we’ll continue debate. Other debate? Go ahead, Councillor.

ST Does the same confidentiality apply to our CRO? So, we won’t have limited time discussion, or will we?

CH Councillor, I would expect any individual in this room that that is here during the in-camera period to hold whatever is said in confidence. I can’t comment on the non-disclosure agreement that the CRO signed in his duties in that regard, because I’m not familiar with the contract. But I will say that it is highly unusual in my experience to have guest that are not members of council or in support of council participate in in-camera periods. Other debate? Councillor Dykes?

01:04:13

DY I would like to point out that a governance advisor was present at the time this all occurred. I’m neither for or against, really, the CRO staying in the room, I would just like to make council aware of that.

CH Thank you. Other debate? Councillor Hassan.

HA I think we can all agree that what we’re trying to do is to engage in [unclear], and should reform or consultation be required by someone that does have further experience, I think that’s something that is up to our staff members and our HR to take part in that. I think what we’re trying to achieve in this in-camera period is a discussion

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among the SC, and for that reason, I don’t think be an additional guest.

CH Thank you. Other debate? Seeing none, councillors, the question is on the adoption of the motion to amend the main motion to add the words, and include Jed Johns, or something to that effect. We all know the idea. So, we’re voting on the amendment only. Okay? If you’re in favour of the amendment, then you’re in favour of Mr Johns remaining in the room. If you’re opposed to the motion, you are not in favour. Okay? Just to be clear. All those…

AC [Overtalking] information.

01:05:23

CH Go ahead, Vice President.

AC Thank you, sorry for the timing. I’m curious whether I forgot this fact, but are we allow to abstain on votes in council, or do we have to vote yes or no?

CH You can abstain, right? You can abstain.

AC Thank you, Chair.

OU Request for information.

CH Go ahead, Councillor Ouellette.

OU Would the CRO be able to participate, or just observe in this?

CH Councillor, the only participants in any discussion in council are councillors around the table. And so, unless called upon, only you around the table would be participating in the discussion.

OU Thank you.

CH You’re welcome. Okay, we’ll call the vote. All those in favour of amending the motion, raise your cards. Thank you. And opposed? Thank you. And abstain, I guess? Thank you. The motion is defeated. We’re back to the main motion, which is to move in-camera. Is there any debate? The question is on the adoption of the motion to move in-camera. All those in favour? Thank you. And opposed? Motion carries. We’ll wave good-bye to our guest. Thank you.

01:06:43

EX Several tables. I love tables. So, the first one being the redistribution plan to be approved by SC. So those are the things within our bylaw and policy which are specific to our president which we are redistributing. The rest of this, we wanted to provide to you, full transparency, to show you what we will be doing. So, the other tables for, such as, just the redistribution plan includes the things to be approved by SC, and also includes all the committees.

I would like to draw your attention to the Student Tech Fee Committee, which actually was discussed prior to this: that tech fee that everyone pays into. We have an open spot, and within the TOR, a Student’s Council member is allowed to be on that. Basically, if you’d like more information, please contact me afterwards.

I would also like to draw your attention to an application for the Canadian Alliance of Students Associations. It’s our federal advocacy group, so folks have the opportunity

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to apply, to go to Ottawa, and take part in our AGM, as well as Students Take the Hill. So that would involve you coming with me, participating in AGM, which includes really intense training on how to do advocacy, and I would also train you in advocacy prior to us going.

And then, following that, going to Parliament Hill, talking to MPs and advocating on behalf of our students on the federal scale. Applications are due on January 2nd, I believe. January 2nd, 2020 at 4:30. CASA has just released the dates. It is the third last week in February. We get back on the 23rd, I believe.

01:08:26

It would be from the 15th to the 23rd. So that’s over our reading week. I would like to note: folks who are planning on running for EC, I would recommend not running. Reason being why? From experience, you will be busy during that time. And so, if someone’s dabbling with the idea of running, maybe not this year, but the year afterwards, this would be an excellent opportunity to become more engaged with what we do at the EC level. And that’s all. Thanks, Chair.

CH Thank you, Vice President. Is there any additional debate? Vice President?

AC Thank you, Chair. I’d just like to draw attention to the second page, the second table. Under Presidential Search Committee, where it says VPA, that has since been amended, in light of recent news, that I believe, because I already sit on the Decanal Search Committee for Faculty of Arts and Science, I can’t sit on two hiring committees.

And secondly, and even more importantly, we’ve been encouraged to have one of our Student Board members be on the Presidential Search Committee, because at a certain stage, the Presidential Search Committee, when they’re down to a short list, stops being in charge the hiring and the Board of Governors takes it over from that point on. So, for that continuity from the committee to the board, we’d like to have the same student on both. So that line is now going to be different than it says in your package. Thanks.

CH Thank you. Vice President?

EX That being said, that is supplementary information, that is not something you have to vote on. That is something that we can decide as EC. Probably be Andrea, our VP Operations and Finance. But if you would like to know, you can come see us. That is not included in what SC needs to vote on today. Thank you, Chair.

01:10:06

CH Thank you. Any additional debate? Councillor Strayer?

SR I’d like to speak in favour in this motion. It’s important, for the previous reasons that Executives talked to us about. I think it’s important to all of us as an institution that we all come together, and work together to make this successful. This isn’t just with the executive, but this required every single one of us to make this happen.

I was excited to hear about Leadership Review Committee’s new sign-up spreadsheet for doing different activities, and I’d highly like to reinforce that. We all need to work hard to fill the vacuum that our president, at least in body, provided us. That’s it. Thanks, Chair.

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SH Thank you. Other debate? The question is on the adoption of the motion that’s on your screen. All those in favour? Thank you. And opposed? Motion carries. Item Eight: Consultation. 8.1: request for team-building event suggestions. Councillor Johnston, over to you.

JO Yes. Right. So, the Leadership and Review Committee [unclear] is to organise options for team building throughout the year, some of the events which members of council participate in. And so, in the interest of, basically, planning events which people want to attend and benefit from, I’d just like to open the floor for suggestions on events, what you’d like to see us working on.

01:12:03

CH Thank you, Councillor. Vice President?

OP This is kind of random, but have you heard of a place called Crankpots? There’s little pottery stuff, and you go and you paint it, and you can chat while you paint. And it’s a really great time. Anyway, that’s my suggestion. Thank you.

CH Thank you, Vice President. Others? Councillor Campbell, sorry.

CA I’d like to support a [unclear] has put on some events. I participated in one a couple months ago where they were in towers, and they did some paintings. And so, I’m really interested to reach out, to see if they’re party to doing events. Thank you, Chair.

CH Thank you, Councillor. Others? Vice President?

AC This is going to be polarising, for sure, but if it’s not, then great, we can go out and do it. I love karaoke. It’s my favourite thing for that kind of thing. But of course, if a lot of people aren’t comfortable doing that, then we won’t do that, because I want everyone to be included on a team building thing. So, it’s only fun if everyone wants to, but that’s just my suggestion. Thanks.

CH Thank you. Vice President?

EX Thank you, Chair. An equally polarising opinion. Your girl loves laser tag. But of course, accessibility is always in issue to keep in mind, so if there is an accessibility issue, I totally understand. I would love to go laser tagging with you all. Thank you, Chair.

01:13:32

CH Thank you. Vice President?

SL They both had some ideas that I had, but one thing I always loved was getting large toboggans and in teams, we go down the hill and race each other. I don’t know if there’s enough snow, but that was just an idea, and that would be super fun. We just keep going up and down. Thanks, Chair.

CH Thank you. Councillor Drummond?

AC Councillor Drummond?

DR Thank you, Chair. My suggestion is to [unclear] summer, so maybe even in a day trip to probably Sylvan Lake. Then you could upgrade folks or something like that. No overnight talks or anything, we’re just [unclear] centre. Or you could go to the beach with me, which would be pretty sweet, so, thank you, Chair.

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CH Thank you, Councillor. Others? Councillor Stewart?

ST Thank you, Chair. I think that would be a good idea that Councillor Drummond proposed, and some of the others today as well. I would be partial to a little day retreat to Gull Lake Park or something. That would be cool, and it would also be pretty low cost.

01:14:42

Just require us to get there, and maybe a picnic. And I also bring the idea we had: ask LEC about the potential barbeque over the summer, so you could even just find one of the Victoria Park lots, or find cheaper spaces. And then we bring games, and outdoor games, and we have weenie roasts and stuff like that. Just getting people together around food, and having opportunity to really talk to one another, I think is really great.

As much as I would love to have a high thing, like laser tag or something, I would also like there to be a side of it where we can also just talk and kind of debrief and have that time as well. One thing I wanted to mention is the opportunity doing training session, or keeping that in mind as well. I know that’s an EC thing, but remember last year during their training, we had time during our lunch to do icebreakers and did some team-building games. Just fun little ones that you might do at corporate events, but they were still fun, and we would have memories from that afterwards. At least, I did.

Another thing I’d want to mention, I know it’s not as much team-bonding or team-building, but it’s really important, I think, for the school community that we are engaging the students in going to their games, potentially, and going to their shows, and showing up for these things. I know this doesn’t provide us the time to chat and talk, but I think that’s super important, and something I’d like to see us doing more, even if it’s just on our own time. Arranging with other councillors to meet up, go to that volleyball game, go to the hockey game. Our teams are really great.

01:16:16

Or going to see the shows, students put so much effort, especially in Allard Hall, where they don’t get as much attention sometimes in the school, and might not feel as represented. It’s important that we show up and do those kinds of things as well. And that’s all I have to say about that. Thank you.

CH Thank you, Councillor. Councillor Strayer?

SR Might I reiterate my support for sports teams, and concerts, and play, and stuff like that. I think that’s cool. And I frigging love tobogganing, so that’s also sweet. And everyone likes to hear me sing, so… The biggest point, I think, is we’re all together, right after council meetings. I mean, I think that’s a great opportunity for us to hang out immediately after. It’s good timing. We’re all together, we’re obligated to be here, might as well obligate us to hang out after. Thank you, Chair.

CH Thank you. Councillor Hassan?

HA Just going to say, I think there’s a really good opportunity to partner with a local charity, as well. I know that they’re always doing really great events, and not only does it positively reflect SAMU’s image, I think it speaks volumes to our students who are now seeing us make an impact beyond the school as well. So, I think we can definitely partner with a local charity, especially around winter. What kind of impact they’re

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making, and how can we represent SAMU as willing to help out in that mission?

01:17:35

CH Thank you, Councillor. Others? Vice President? Oh, sorry, Vice President External, policy states that each member only has one speaking term. So, unfortunately, you can’t talk. Other councillors who have not spoken yet? I think, Councillor Johnston, you’ve been adequately consulted. Moving on. Item nine: evaluation. You got to check your emails; I’ve been told. Sorry, Vice President, I didn’t mean to, well, I did mean to shut you down, but it wasn’t personal.

EX It’s okay. I hate you.

CH It’s in the cloud, now. [Overtalking]. The Oilers are just getting hounded, but they’re only losing one-nothing. The shots are 26 to 16, second period. And it’s 7.5 minutes left. They’re on pace for 50 shots. [Overtalking]. [Silence]. Anyone still filling out the form? I can never tell if you’re still filling out the form, or surfing the latest edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica online. It’s tough. Item ten: recognition. Councillor Dykes?

DY I would like to recognise all of the executive for their hard work. I think this has probably been a really mentally enduring month for them. Not only with, I know that they’re all individually busy in their own portfolios, then with the President’s resignation, and then also everything that encompasses that. So, I think they deserve to be recognised, and I hope the rest of the year treats them better.

CH Other recognition? Vice President?

01:22:51

AC Thanks, Chair. I would like to recognise Student’s Council, as a whole, for the quality of conversation that we had earlier. I thought that it was a really mature approach, and the questions that we heard and the conversation was well on-topic, and kept at a very professional and on-topic level. So, thank you for that. I appreciate it.

CH Councillor Stewart?

ST Thank you, Chair. I’d also like to recognise the hard work of the executive. I also wanted to give a shout-out to the success of the My Wellness tool. If you noticed in the Vice President Operations report that it’s been doing really well, and getting a lot of response from students, so that’s really awesome. I’d also like to recognise Jed Johns and our presenters earlier for doing a great job, and I endorse their schedule builder. Thank you.

CH Others? Council, long meeting today. Well done. You know, I think we ploughed through some meaty topics in good time. So, let’s move on. Item 11: Adjournment. Councillor Dykes?

DY I move to adjourn.

CH Thank you. This motion requires only one mover and is not debatable. The question is on the adoption of the motion to adjourn. All those in favour? Thank you. And opposed? Motion carries, this meeting is adjourned.

01:24:42