The Students’ Representative Council (SRC) is a council composed of a body of students elected by their peers, who are in charge of running the Acadia Students’ Union. The Council meets bi-weekly on Tuesdays at 5:15 PM in the Beveridge Forum which is located off of the Michener Lounge in the old Students’ Union Building (SUB). Every meeting is open to the public and students are encouraged to attend the meetings to learn more about the decisions being made on their behalf.
On March 26th the council met in order to vote on the budget for the 2019-20 fiscal year. During the meeting, a project proposal was received and George Philp, President, presented three notice of motions to the council. The council spent the majority of the meeting discussing the proposed Kings Transit UPass Agreement.
Budget
Jared Craig, VP Finance and Operations, presented the budget for the 2019-20 fiscal year at the council’s last meeting on March 19th. The meeting was primarily called today in order to vote upon the budget, which needs to be passed before April 1st. The council had no comments or questions for Craig and the budget was passed unanimously.
Notice of Motions
There were several notices of motions that were presented to the council by President George Philp, in preparation for next week. Philp first presented Operating Procedure #3: Policy Development, which underwent minor changes. Chairperson was added under the responsibility of policies and the language was cleaned up and made more direct regarding policy ratification. The changes additionally clarified that if a policy is ratified then it is in action for 5 years and after that period, the Policy will be deemed inactive.
The Student Organization Registration Procedure was also presented by Philp at this meeting. Philp noted to the council that there were slight issues earlier this year regarding the registration procedures for student organizations and the procedure document lays out any and all procedures clearly for any student organizations in the future. Philp encouraged council to read over the procedure document before the vote next week.
Lastly, Philp presented the Student Organization Funding and Services Procedure which details how student clubs apply for funding and who qualifies for that funding. The document outlines and clarifies what student organization events the ASU is capable and willing to give money towards and what student organization events it isn’t.
Project Proposal
A Pop-up Shop was proposed to the council during this meeting. The purpose of the pop-up shop is to promote healthy and safe, sex education by offering students resources that may not be otherwise available to them. Acadia Women’s Health Center will be partnering with the ASU to execute this pop-up shop which will be hosted somewhere in the Student Union Building (SUB). Details regarding the time and date of the event are not yet confirmed.
Kings Transit University Bus Pass
There were multiple audience members, including Meg Hodges, an elected Councillor for the Municipality of Kings and Board Chair for King’s Transit Authority, who showed up in anticipation of the SRC voting on the Kings Transit UPass Agreement that was proposed to the council last week. As the agreement was opened up to a discussion, multiple council members expressed concern from students that the UPass is to be ‘mandatory’ and noted that multiple students whom they have discussed the UPass with, would rather buy into the service for a higher price than have to pay a mandatory fee. Hodges responded to these concerns by assuring the council that if the student body does not want the UPass than it will not be voted in by the students in the fall.
“I ask that you please have open minds and open hearts” Hodges urged the council, going on to explain that if the agreement gets shut down in this room by the council, students will not even have the opportunity to share their opinions by voting on the matter themselves.
Philp suggested the council focus on the MOU on the table and the specifics of the agreement. It was also made clear that resources will be made available for the student body to become accurately informed of all the facts if the Upass makes it to a student election.
A large discussion took place as council debated the matter at hand and it concluded with any changes or approval of the MOU being deferred to the next meeting due to the low number of council members who were able to attend today’s meeting. This decision was made so missing council members can also voice their opinions and concerns regarding the UPass.
Rylie Moscato is a first year English student and Columnist for The Athenaeum
One of the main issues I Have with the U-Pass is that instead of it being a result of a group of like-minded students getting together to improve students’ lives, it has been created by and is being heavily campaigned for by Kings’ Transit istelf. The main person who has been campaigning for this all year is literally the chairperson of the Kings Transit board!
This proposal would not only greatly increase Kings Transits’ revenues, it would also basically guarantee them a certain amount of revenue each year (depending on enrollment). Seeing as the only people campaigning for this are members of Kings Transit themselves, I can see why many of us students are skeptical of it and view it as a cash grab.
This is even disregarding the whole part where people who own a car, live on res or otherwise rarely use the bus will be forced to pay an extra $180 for basically nothing.