BREAKING: Council of Students’ doesn’t go in-camera

For the first time in a millennia, the University of Alberta Council of Students’ did not go in-camera.

Council of Students’ is the body charged with oversight of the Students’ Union organization and meets every two weeks. At their December 6 meeting, they decided not to go in-camera. This marked the first time the institution decided to not go in-camera, or initiate private proceedings where guests and The Getaway are not allowed to attend.

It was in the 2018-19 academic year when Council of Students’ decided it would go in-camera at everyone of it’s meetings. The president of the Students’ Union at the time, Kanksha Bhat, said it was to ensure strategizing and advocacy coordination could occur. During that year, Council of Students’ went in-camera at every meeting — an unprecedented amount.

That precedent was further upset in future years when council decided to have multiple in-camera sessions during meetings. Eventually, council decided to host their entire meetings in-camera, except for open forum.

Current Students’ Union president Sandy Bob said council decided to be transparent for once and let both The Getaway and guests see the proceedings.

“We kind of forgot what its like to not be in-camera,” Bob said. “We just always followed the precedent set by everyone else.”

Bob added that council may decide to not go in-camera for the entire duration of their meetings in the future.

“I guess we really lost sight of why we were going in-camera in the first place,” she said. “Hopefully we can move back to a model where we don’t just have open forum as ex-camera proceedings.”