Notes from Council: CRO hiring update, executive reports
The CRO selection will be ratified at the August 27 council meeting, speaker says.
Amanda Sparks“Notes from Council” is The Gateway’s ongoing series of recaps of noteworthy items from Students’ Council meetings.
At the August 13 meeting of the University of Alberta Students’ Union (UASU) Students’ Council, Speaker Tahmid Al Hafiz provided an update on the hiring of a chief returning officer (CRO). The CRO reports to Students’ Council and is responsible for UASU elections and referenda. The incumbent CRO resigned, Al Hafiz said.
Al Hafiz said the plan is to ratify the new CRO at the August 27 meeting, so that the CRO has time to settle in before the fall by-election.
Executive reports
During executive reports, Vice-president (student life) Renson Alva encouraged council to promote and participate in Campus Clash. Students who buy a ticket to the Edmonton Elks game on September 21 get entered into a prize draw for an all-paid trip to Amsterdam during the 2025 Formula 1 Heineken Dutch Grand Prix. Alva said $2 from each U of A ticket sale will go towards the Campus Food Bank (CFB).
President Lisa Glock encouraged councillors to look at the “UAlberta Policy Compliance and the May 2024 Encampment” document in the order papers. The department of research and advocacy prepared the document. It questions the university’s actions towards the Palestine solidarity encampment, which the Edmonton Police Service (EPS) took down on May 11 at the university’s request. The report examines if the university “complied with policies and procedures that have not been areas of focus.”
According to the report, the research is meant to “support the executives’ engagement with the independent third-party review” into the encampment removal. The review, led by Court of King’s Bench of Alberta Justice Adèle Kent, accepted information from the public until August 15.
Board of Governors (BoG) Representative Adrien Lam said the website for her anonymous survey platform launched. Lam campaigned on the platform during the UASU elections. Lam previously said that feedback from the surveys would be shared at BoG.
Additionally, Lam met with U of A President and Vice-chancellor Bill Flanagan on August 12 to express students’ concerns about the independent third-party review.
After, Vice-president (external) Abdul Abbasi said he gave an interview to CityNews Edmonton about rent increases and their impact on students. He said he participated in various advocacy meetings, and continued work on the U-Pass agreement.
Vice-president (operations and finance) Levi Flaman said that another bubble tea vendor will replace the closed Teapsy in the Students’ Union Building (SUB). However, because of equipment delays, he said the opening could be postponed to mid-September.
Vice-president (academic) Layla Alhussainy said Election Task Force committee has begun meeting.
Open forum and question period: independent review, anonymous survey website
During open forum, student Nathan Perez asked Glock if the UASU will encourage students to submit to the independent review on social media.
Glock replied said the executives mentioned the review during council previously. She said the policy compliance document is now publicly available. She added that The Gateway reports on council, and the university has sent out emails to all students with information about the review.
“Those are some of the steps already taken for transparency’s sake. We will take your suggestion into consideration,” Glock said. “But it has been communicated elsewhere as well.” Glock later added that she asked Kent to extend the deadline for submissions.
During question period, arts councillor Angelina Raina asked Lam what she plans to do with the website after her term. Lam replied that it would be passed to her successor “if that’s something they’re interested in.”
Council then discussed the council charter for the upcoming year.
CORRECTION: At 7:26 p.m., this article was updated to reflect that Abbasi spoke to CityNews about rent increases and their impact on students, not tuition increases. The Gateway regrets this error.
