Christina VarvisStudent councillors with poor attendance will be removed from their positions starting this 2017-18 academic year.
Councillors with less than 50 per cent attendance for the Spring and Summer term, the Fall term, or the Winter term will be automatically removed — meaning councillors can miss approximately three of seven meetings per trimester. Seats of removed councillors can be filled by students via a vacancy petition obtained from Discover Governance.
Councillors will be able to appeal their removal to D.I.E Board if their attendance was poor due to medical, emotional, mental, family emergencies, or “other circumstances deemed reasonable.”
The regulations will provide prospective councillors with expectations for the role, Vice-President (Academic) Marina Banister said. Currently there are no consequences for councillors who miss meetings.
“Attendance is only one metric of engagement, but it’s an important one,” Banister said.
Though first readings of the regulations passed with 19 councillors in favour, five members still voted against the regulations.
Nursing councillor Ryan Scott was concerned the attendance policy would punish councillors in labour-intensive programs. Proxies and using Skype to attend Students’ Council are appropriate solutions for some faculties, but many students in faculties such as Nursing have similar schedules as councillors, which makes finding a proxy difficult, Scott said.
“(Some schedules expect students) to start before 6 a.m.,” Scott said. “I can say with great certainty that it will be difficult to find someone who will want to come to (Students’ Council), which can go to close to 10 p.m … I’m also curious how I’m going to Skype in from a hospital.
Based on past attendance, Scott said that the attendance bylaw will unfairly punish Nursing, and perhaps other professional faculties.
Arts councillor proxy Cody Bondarchuk voiced support for the attendance bylaw, as faculties with poor attendance are already losing their voices — if they were removed, there would be no “extra damage.”
“The councillor in question has to be held accountable,” he said. “It’s not a punishment, it’s a consequence for not meeting your expectations (in a volunteer position).”
Students’ Council meets every second Tuesday in the Council Chambers of University Hall at 6 p.m. Council meetings are open to all students. The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, August 23, where free food will be provided to attendees.
