The Students’ Representative Council (SRC) is the independent organizational body that represents the students of Acadia. More than 50 years old, the SRC provides representation and communication for students at Acadia and manages the ASU. There are many positions involved in the SRC, even some that need feeling! Attendance at the meeting this week was the executive, made up of the President, VP Academic and External, VP Finance, VP Events and Promotions and VP Student Life (Robbie Holmes). Also in attendance were the Faculty Senators, the Diversity and Inclusion Representative, and Chairperson, who ran the meeting.
The SRC met online for their weekly meeting this Wednesday; after approving the meeting’s agenda and confirming no conflicts of interest, the meeting begun. Chairperson Molly Anderson reviewed the minutes of the previous meeting and declared that there were no presentations, tables of matters, reports to council, committee reports, and no notices of motion to be had.
ASU By-Election
The next topic of conversation was the ASU By-Election. Carried over from last week, Anderson noted that the nominations started the next day (October 14) so information needed to go out to the students. As previously mentioned, there are some positions open to students: Councillors, Community Relations Representative and First Year Representative. Anderson stressed the importance of ensuring this information gets out to first-year students as they can be harder to reach. Anderson also mentioned the importance of filling those seats on Council as Councillors help a lot with things like general planning and programming. Robbie Holmes, VP Student Life, then explained that Polly Leonard, the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Officer of the university, had suggested to him that this information be sent out through the Wong Centre as well as through the ASU. She reasoned that this would be a more effective way to reach Acadia’s international students. She also encouraged the SRC to be mindful that the language it uses is always inclusive.
To run for the SRC positions, you must get 25 signatures from Union Members and send that information to Danish Mohammed ([email protected]). For further information, visit @acadiastudents on Instagram or email Danish through the email given above.
Referendum Questions
Finishing up with the elections, the council moved on the talked about the yes/no referendum questions that were created in last week’s meeting which needed to be put to motion (I.e. decided whether or not to pass them). No member had any questions or concerns, so the first question was read: Do you support an amendment to the section of ASU constitution that reads, “A quorum, for a general meeting of the union, shall be 2% of the membership of the union or 100 members of the union, whichever is larger”? The motion was passed, and this question will be added to the ballot of the by-election this fall. The SRC will need to approval of two-thirds of the voter must turn out to pass this motion.
The Hiring Board is Hiring
It was announced that the hiring board has vacant seats for council members. Anderson explained that although the SRC had planned to wait until their new Councillors had been elected to fill those seats, there has been interest in those positions so and a hiring process will have to run before then. A non-executive member of the council will need to fill the hiring position (not to be confused with the positions on the hiring board), at least temporarily, so that interviews for those positions can be held. Lara Hartman, Faculty of Arts Senator, volunteered to fill that position for the time being and the council approved that motion.
Announcements
MacNeil began by announcing that he had invited Polly Leonard to present to and hopefully give a sort of workshop to the SRC. MacNeil thinks that this would be a good way to ensure that as student representatives, SRC is fulfilling their jobs equitably and with effective representation. Hartman suggested MacNeil to Leonard about doing a panel during this training, similar to the training that the Residence Assistants received, to allow not only Leonard, but also other groups to share their own voices. MacNeil went on the explain that this training will be between 30 minutes- 1 hour and will be recorded so it can also be viewed by societies and clubs during their training. MacNeil proceeded to make a second announcement regarding the Co-Op Program: there will be a presentation by the VP of the alumni association and a co-op student researcher to discuss work they have completed on a career services centre at Acadia. This presentation is the outcome of an ongoing mission between the ASU and the Alumni Association to investigate and add recommendations to the “abominable” lack of career services and support that Acadia gives to its students. The biggest recommendation was to form a more effective Career Services Centre at Acadia which gives students more resources and support so they can successfully enter into careers.
Wrapping up the meeting, President Brendan MacNeil encouraged his fellow council members to have a “safe and responsible” homecoming and advised them and their peers to “consume safely and responsibly”.
Happy Homecoming!
