Council Forum — March 18, 2010

“Based on the Gateway poll, I’ll start working out in order to carry people across the bridge.”
— Nick Dehod, on how he plans to get students to attend the march to the Legislature

Marching

Vice President (Student Life) Nick Dehod reminded Council of the march on the Legislature that will be held today at noon and reiterated the importance of getting students out to show that the undergraduate population is concerned with tuition and the proposed $550 mandatory non-instructional fee.

Waiting for an answer

Board of Governors representative Steven Dollansky explained to Council that until the Minister of Advanced Education gets back to the Board of Governors concerning the mandatory non-instructional fee and the market modified tuition, the Board isn't prepared to pass the budget. The next Board of Governors meeting is March 26, and Dollansky expects that there will be a budget presented at that meeting.

Question Period

Vice President (External) Beverly Eastham was asked for her thoughts on the Throne Speech. Eastham reiterated her concern that lower student employment rates have made it harder for students to save for education, and encouraged interested parties to read her thoughts in the March 16 issue of the Gateway.

The Executives in attendance were also asked about their transitions in regards to the newly elected successors. They explained that they were waiting until "March madness is done," to really get into transitioning. Vice President (Academic) Leah Trueblood also noted that her transition was going well, and that she was especially relieved to be able to make a “list of things that are [vice president-elect James Eastham's] problem.”

A concern was raised regarding the ice rink in quad. Eastham fielded this question as well, and explained that the University used to have an ice rink in quad during the winter and it seemed like a good idea when it was cold out to try for this years' Students' Union Centenary. Unfortunately, the weather got much too warm for the rink. Dehod added that they will probably try it again next year.

Trueblood was then asked about the faculty association letters for and against market modifiers. She explained that there were three letters of understanding: Medicine objected to them, Law was neutral and Pharmacy fell somewhere in between. There were also two letters of support, one from the School of Business and one from the Faculty of Engineering.