Once the land acknowledgement was read, President Fletcher spoke about how in school, she did not learn about the indigenous geography, and she has since learned much more and finds it interesting.  Calling for attendance, it was noted that Vice President External and Indigenous Circle Representative Trishtina Godoy-Contois, and Councillor Amber McDuffe were absent from the meeting.

Vice President of Finance and Administration Dur-E-NajafSyed (VPFA) motioned to amend the agenda to add the AUSU investment guidelines.  President Fletcher suggested it be added prior to the annual report.  This amendment passed unanimously.

During the approval of the meeting minutes, President Fletcher noted that they were approving a corrected version.  Councillor Allie Wojtaszek abstained, and the motion carried.

Since the last meeting, the Council has arranged a workshop to work on the AUSU bylaws and developed the terms of reference for a policy committee which will come to the Council on April 20th. ED Campbell has scheduled a meeting in April with Alberta Blue Cross to discuss options for the health and dental packages and the possibility of options for Athabasca University (AU) students.

Executive Work Plan

VPFA Syed detailed the two most substantive changes to the Executive Work Plan policy.  In previous years, councillors were assigned to projects and goals informally, but they have chosen to change the policy to specify which councillors will be responsible for each project and goal within the executive work plan.  The other change was the removal of the “SMART” (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely) goals in the work plan; the reasoning behind this is that not everything they work toward can be measured effectively.  Karen gave an example “How do we measure ‘advocate to make sure online university is included at the provincial advocacy organization’? We are not going to be like, ‘Karen must bring this up once at a meeting,’ right? So it’s just hard to measure.”

Though Councillor McDuffe was not present at this meeting, she had left comments to be discussed within the workplan section discussing elections and timelines.  Considering how elections are said to occur during the fourth quarter, Amber wondered if this should be changed to signify that EC elections happen after new members are voted in.  Governance Advisor Duncan Wojtaszek noted he believed the policy as it stands makes it clear that it is only incoming councillors who vote; this policy is the guide for the ED on when elections happen.  This makes it clear that elections happen in February, March, and April.  President Fletcher pointed out that, with council terms being two years, the 4th quarter is actually the last 6th month period, so Karen suggests they amend the clause to state that both council and Executive Council elections are conducted between Feb and April, after the new members are elected in a general election.

Getting back to the most significant change to the work plan policy, President Fletcher explained that before she was on council, each council member would create their own individual work plan, but it was hard to see how they all fit together, so now instead of having multiple work plans, we have one work plan so everyone can see how the pieces work together but still assign responsibilities for each part.

Ratification of the email vote on the AUSU EDI Audit

Council voted via email on March 7th, 2023, to approve the AUSU EDI audit, which cost $2400.  As Council must make all decisions in public, they were required to ratify the vote at this council meeting.  The ratification of the vote passed unanimously.

VPFA Syed had made changes to the new investment guidelines, the most substantive changes being allowing councils to use Environmental and Social Guideline practices within their investing; it calls for the investment manager to be signatories of the UN’s principles for responsible investing.  VPFA Syed proposed a motion to approve this change; President Fletcher seconded it.  VPFA Syed also noted that this passed through the finance committee.  The motion passed.

Reports

ED Campbell explained that the annual report is presented after the financial audit, which is why it is well after the end of the fiscal year.  This document is on the website for any members to view.  President Fletcher commented that AUSU is better at gathering this information from students than AU is, so they often share it with AU because there is great feedback within it.

The meeting concluded with reports and recognitions, which proceeded quite quickly without much in the way of discussion.  President Fletcher recognized Councillor Blake Collett, who has been assisting students in finding alternatives to ProcterU for exam invigilation, which she hopes will put pressure on AU to provide better options for exam invigilation.

If you would like to join council meetings to see for yourself what AUSU is up to, they occur on the third Thursday of each month; reach out to governance@ausu.org for more information.  Also, there will be a town hall meeting for the adjusted AUSU Bylaws that will happen this Monday, April 24th, at 5:00-6:00pm. Find out more on the AUSU Event page for this meeting.

With land acknowledgments read and both agenda and previous meeting minutes adopted, Executive Director Campbell moved into action items.  Coordinator Wojtaszek is currently organizing sessions for workshopping the bylaws which were sent back for additional adjustments at the last meeting.  Vice President of Finance and Administration (VPFA) Dur-E-Najaf Syed updated Council on her work for a policy committee “We are currently looking into the best way to renew how AUSU does our policies.  We are going to begin to release them weeks before to Council to allow for better consultation on policies; this way, we can get everyone’s opinions.”

Policies

Vice President of Community and Wellness (VPCW) Natalia Iwanek has been working on revising the EDI (Equity, Diversity and Inclusion) committee’s terms of reference, the policy that sets out how the very EDI is organized and operates.  As this is a committee that was only formed two terms ago, they are still working through what works, and these changes are based on conversations with Council as well as with the EDI committee.  The most substantive change is to remove the co-chair role.  It was initially put in place to bring more voices to the table but has changed direction, and instead of having a co-chair role, they will expand all roles on the committee and increase meeting frequency.

Council also moved to add an Accessibility and Accommodations policy to AUSU’s Position Policy Manual.  This policy, that VP Iwanek has been working on, shifts the focus of Accessibility and Accommodations from internal governance matters to advocacy for students.  Both proposed motions passed.

Growing the Indigenous Circle

Vice President External and Indigenous Circle Representative Trishtina Godoy-Contois has been working to appoint more members to the Indigenous Circle (IC) and asked Council to vote in favour of the appointment of Juanita Powder, Amanda Leeman, Jennifer Nabess, Kate Hamshere, Rylee Feschuk, Janis Guillion, Joni Roy, Sasha Chiefbody, and Sonya Stuffco-McGee.  She spoke about how all these candidates are very active and engaged.  VP Godoy-Contois also spoke on some of the work IC is doing “We are taking back a couple of things to work on ourselves, which is kind of creating a bit of work plan, figuring out how to make sure that the Indigenous Circle isn’t performative but also has room within AUSU to engage with everyone that’s involved.” The motion passed, which brought the IC membership up to 13 members.

Survey Results

Executive Director Campbell presented his report on the survey results sent out in November.  Most survey respondents were program students in Alberta in 1st or 2nd year, though there were students from every province and territory.  A wide range of topics was covered in this survey; the top concerns among students were increased access to student financial aid, lowering education costs and increasing quality of education, with over 80% looking for media components to courses and many students expressing frustration.

Unsatisfied numbers remain low, but it was noted that there are still many who don’t know about AUSU services or are confused about how AUSU is separate from AU.  The big question they asked this year: Why AU? The answer was as expected; many students chose AU for its flexibility and accessibility.

Health Plan Budget Expenditure Overage

The next item up for discussion is a rate increase coming in 2023 for the benefits package with Alberta Blue Cross, which will create an $8,280 overage.  It was supposed to take place immediately, but AUSU negotiated a delay until March 1st, 2023, as it must be approved by Council.

Councillor Amber McDuffe questioned whether we could explore changing to a Canada-wide plan to include students, as this is something students are asking for, as indicated in the survey.  McDuffe proposed an opt-in model where students would pay for their own plan at a discounted group rate.  Executive Director Campbell explained that an issue with students all across Canada and the ebb and flow nature of enrollment makes this difficult, but he will liaise with Alberta Blue Cross to see if this model could work. With Councillor McDuffe opposed; the motion passed.

EDI Recommendations & Audit

VPCW Iwanek presented the EDI 2022-2023 report, which includes recommendations to set EDI goals, many of which are based on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action.  Executive Director Campbell acknowledged the great work the EDI committee is doing and that much of the work is setting the bar for AU.  The motion passed unanimously.  The EDI audit was not presented this time as they were still looking for more information.

With the reports, VPCW Iwanek spoke about some of the projects in the works; the EDI committee recorded a podcast, January was full of advocacy events for student financial aid, and Black History Month events, including one event that was recorded and will be released as a podcast as well.  Executive Director Campbell updated Council that they were successful in obtaining the $2 discount on the Student Price Card (SPC) for AU students, and a Point-Of-Sale website is currently in development on SPC’s end.

If you are interested in observing council meetings, join AUSU every third Thursday of the month or visit www.ausu.org to see what Council is up to.

Financial Audit

President Fletcher introduced Chad Knippel and Natalia Toth from Kingston Ross Pasnak (KRP), who completed the 2021-2022 financial audit.  As the representatives from KRP may only like to attend part of the meeting, Vice President of Finance and Administration (VPFA) Dur-E-Najaf Syed proposed their presentation be moved to the next item, which was passed unanimously.

Chad and Natalia presented their audit, explaining any adjustments and noting that they received full cooperation from Athabasca University Student Union (AUSU).  KRP completed the audit last year and had comments related to prepaid expenses that were booked incorrectly, and concerns with vacation kept accumulating; however, this year, these have greatly been improved.  Overall, they declared that there were no significant issues with AUSU’s accounting procedures.

Councillor Amber McDuffe had some questions including why does AUSU’s budget still have a Leaseholds Improvement Reserve Fund when AUSU is virtual and staff work from home? Executive Director Jodi Campbell explained that at one point, AUSU was looking at moving into a building on Athabasca University (AU) campus.  Since AU moved to a virtual environment and reduced campus, this could be eliminated.  President Fletcher agreed but noted there is a process, and it is likely a decision for the finance committee.  An action item was made to look into this.

Following the presentation, the previous meeting’s minutes were adopted, and President Fletcher reviewed the action items.  An action item she had completed was to restructure retreats for accessibility, efficacy and cost; she explained they had selected two dates.  Council’s retreat will be held in the same location as the Executive Council (EC) retreat, which will occur the days following, and this is also in the same location as a CAUS conference which some of the EC will have to attend.  By grouping these retreats and conferences, AUSU can save on costs.

Policies

Many policies were apparently discussed at the informal session, which occurs before the council meeting, to improve efficiency and manage time.  The results were that, in the meeting, two policy changes were voted on and passed unanimously: Changes to the Alternate Dispute Resolution policy, which was discussed in the last meeting, and a policy regarding awards, which was updated so that applicants must be members on the date of the application unless the award specified otherwise.  The last policy change was to simplify the expenditure policy; the new process states expenditures overages, regardless of whether they are budgeted or not, up to $1500 approved by EC, over $1500 approved by Council.  Councillor Cilhane Ahmed objected; the motion passed.

SPC Update

Exec Director Campbell discussed passing on the $2 to AU students as a discount with Student Price Card (SPC), they are still working on the logistics of this, but they seemed optimistic.  Council agreed that this would be an excellent win for AUSU, and if they can achieve this, Council would be in favour of moving forward with the agreement, “If we are able to get this locked down, look at us, we are going to be leading the way, we’re not going to be looking to other organizations to see what they are doing, we are going to be raising the bar and setting the standard and being like we got this discount for our students, instead of pocketing the money we are passing it on directly to the students and I think that is amazing, thank you for doing the work on this, Jodi, and I am all for this if we can get this worked out” Councillor Amber McDuffe stated.  President Fletcher suggested the following amendment: AUSU council approves the SPC student discount card as a new service at AUSU, provided that we can secure the $2 per student discount.  The motion carried.

Selection of Auditors for 2023

With the 2021-2022 audit concluded, Council had to choose to appoint a firm for next year.  Council motioned to appoint KRP as AUSU’s financial Auditor for the 2022-2023 fiscal year.  Exec Director Campbell spoke on the merits of KRP, their professionalism, and thoroughly detailed work.  Councillor Blake Collett, who has extensive experience with budgets, wanted to congratulate Council on a well-balanced budget for the last three years “When you look at budgets, you are going to see fluctuation, you’re doing to see downs, you’re going to see up, you’re going to see everything, and you gotta look at big pictures with budgets, I have to say this organization is in tremendous shape because when you look at 2020 to 2022, I have never seen a budget go over the three year period and only fluctuate by less than 3%,” he continued, “the fact that you kept it within 3% is virtually unheard of, so it’s clear that good decisions are being made and I wanted to compliment everybody on that, consistency is what you want in a budget.” KRP was awarded the appointment with a unanimous vote.

Bylaws

AUSU is currently updating its bylaws, which require two readings.  Any substantive changes to the bylaws require membership notice and restart the process.  During this first reading, there was much dissent over clause 4.16 subsect D “Conviction on charges levied against the Councillor for violation of the Athabasca University Code of Student Behavior, provincial law, or federal law.”

Many councillors, including Councillor McDuffe and Councillor Ahmed, were concerned about this clause being unfair and discriminatory.  Councillor McDuffe cautioned that this clause could be enacted for trivial things like traffic violations that fall under the Highway Traffic Act, which is a federal law; she also pointed out that some charges are subjective “Kidnapping is subjective, if a parent is caught “kidnapping” their child because they are trying to save them from an abusive parent and they get kidnapping charges, are they removed?” Councillor Ahmed also weighed in, noting that some students live outside of Canada, and it would be difficult to enforce and verify this clause for these students; therefore, this could be discriminatory for students who do reside in Canada.  The discussion turned to how laws differ in other countries and students who are in insecure environments, “a woman living in an insecure environment and got in trouble with the law for not wearing her hijab properly, that could be breaking the law in another country”, Councillor McDuffe reminded the group.

Vice President External and Indigenous Circle Representative (VPEX & IC Rep) Trishtina Godoy-Contois warned how this clause could unfairly target vulnerable populations, such as indigenous, who tend to be disproportionately charged with crimes.  President Fletcher recognized these concerns but argued that she did not want this clause removed entirely in the event a councillor committed a serious crime, “I never want to be in the situation where we have like – speaking really frankly – someone who raped another student and we can’t get them off council, I don’t think that’s a safe place.”

The discussion then moved into the details of the clause, and whether it was necessary or whether other clauses provided them with the options they were looking for.

It was pointed out that this clause does not require them to remove the councillor, just gives them the option, and it will still require a resolution, and that this would only be effective if the person were convicted of the charges, not accused.  Councillors argued on whether other clauses allowed them to remove a councillor and if the removal of this clause would impact their options.  Councillor McDuffe reminded them that there is an attendance policy that allows a councillor to be removed for missing three council meetings.  If a council member were convicted of a serious charge, they would be unable to attend meetings and therefore be removed.

It was clear that this would need to be amended and require another first reading.  Fletcher suggested they have meetings to workshop these bylaws and motioned to table this item; the motion passed unanimously.

The usual reports were then presented, and councillors spoke on the acknowledgements of each other’s work.  President Fletcher provided updates on the AU community, acknowledging the passing of AU President Dr. Peter Scott’s wife and passing along AUSU’s and her own condolences.  President Fletcher rounded out the meeting with some good news she received upon returning from the holiday break: AU is giving $5000 to the AUSU food bank, which has been received and will be a great benefit in helping food-insecure students.

Check out what Council is up to at www.ausu.org on their news page and find upcoming events on their events page.

Work in Progress

President Fletcher provided updates on the action items.  During an informal session, which took place before this meeting, Council was able to provide a solution to a concern previously brought up during the budget discussions in September.  Some councillors questioned whether it was the best use of funds to hold retreats in person as councillors who are part of an online organization that represent an online institution and live all across Canada.  There were also accessibility concerns.  President Fletcher proposed for their two-day executive retreat, they hold one day of the retreat online and the other day in person in February when the executive committee will already be meeting for a provincial conference which would reduce travel costs.

Award Applications

Council has been working on updating the award application policies to ensure students’ adequate access.  Students can now use all social media platforms to apply for the “IGo2 AU” award rather than just YouTube.  Due to a website malfunction, some students missed the deadline.  Recognizing this needed rectification, Council changed the timeline so applications could be accepted within policy.  Vice President of Finance and Administration (VPFA), Dur-E-Najaf Syed said, “There was a really good conversation happening on the side about how the policy says no more than six weeks, to better reflect that it is only open for a month before.” President Fletcher suggested that the dates be changed from April 15th to May 30th because some students do traditional semesters with summer or alternative semester structures; this allows all students to apply as you need to be in a course to be considered an AUSU member.  Fletcher added this allows councillors more time to make the decision and for new councillors to take EDI training before making the decision.

Councillor Amber McDuffe motioned that this item is tabled until the next meeting to allow time for VPFA Syed to work on these amendments, which was met with no objections.

Coming Soon: Student Price Card

Council has been working on an exciting new partnership with Student Price Card (SPC), a company that sells membership cards for students to receive discounts at retailers across Canada.  AUSU would promote SPC to students, and for each card purchased by AU students, AUSU will receive a $2 kickback, which Executive Director Jodi Campbell explained would be used to fund student services such as the food bank.  Councillor Cilhane Ahmed and Councillor Amber McDuffe voiced concerns with the card’s price not being discounted for students, and that students receive no benefits from the partnership while SPC essentially receives advertising at a low cost, and, if AUSU will be receiving a $2 kickback, it should be formally decided how those funds will be used.

Councillors agreed that they would prefer to see students receive a discount than for the money to come to AUSU.  One hurdle in negotiating a discount is that the AUSU website does not have a Point of Sale (POS) system, so they are not able to sell the card on their website explained President Fletcher, however, Executive Director Campbell explained he still sees value in this partnership “I think one of the motivating factors for us is this is still providing AU students with the opportunity for a discount.  I think the goal and the intention behind this were to find an opportunity that is Canada-wide, that is accessible – you are absolutely right, Karen, that one of the challenges we did face is the fact that we don’t have a point of sale – so we needed to find a creative solution within SPC so that we could link over to their site and use their point of sale, and that is what we have been able to create with them.  So, yea, the intention was to really look at creating a really cool opportunity where we could promote this to AU students.”

Other concerns continued to be discussed, such as AU’s unorthodox student IDs that have validity date stickers that could be questioned (as you often need to show a valid student ID to use an SPC card), and Councillor McDuffe brought forth concerns about SPC membership only being offered in an app, no longer providing a physical card which could be an issue for accessibility.  President Fletcher recognized all these concerns but felt that AU students, especially since our students are not always the “typical student,” often miss out on these opportunities because they simply are unaware “I don’t think it’s a perfect service, but honestly I wish more students knew about it so they could make their own informed choice, and I have thoughts about how they could make it better or more inclusive, but sometimes I think it’s a little bit like low hanging fruit, like I’d hate for students to be ‘oh I wish I had known about that.’” After a great deal of lengthy discussion, Council agreed that Executive Director Campbell would go back to SPC and discuss options for membership besides an app and having a $2 discount go directly to the students rather than a kickback to AUSU.

More Policies

There were also changes to policies regarding member representatives on AUSU committees, the most substantial change regarding membership status.  Initially, member representatives on AUSU committees had to maintain their AUSU membership, which is active as long as a student is enrolled in a course at AU.  As course contracts end, however, many students take a break before enrolling in courses again, resulting in students’ AUSU membership ending; the policy was changed to say that members must be enrolled at the time of their appointment, to prevent issues for members already on AUSU committers.  Additionally, Council updated the language to ensure that the executive committee recommends a sufficient number of applicants for committees, ensuring that if permitted, Executive Committee (EC) recommends three applicants per vacancy.  The motions passed unanimously.

In August 2022, Council started work on a policy to provide an alternative path of resolution for interpersonal disputes in the conflict resolution policy.  This policy, which is based on Alberta law, allows both parties either to seek a mediator or to find an internal mediator but doesn’t allow for arbitration.  If both parties agree, it allows them to explore other avenues for resolving their dispute, but at no point does it deny their right to refer to another policy.  Council discussed aspects of this policy, such as adding that prior to seeking external mediation, they have to attempt in-house mediation.  It was agreed to table this item to be reworked and presented again.

By-Election

President Fletcher announced there would be a by-election to fill the two remaining councillor positions, which were not filled in the last election.  Councillor McDuffe inquired about an accessibility officer, referencing that there was an issue with a student who was interested in running for student council last year; the student was advised to wait to enrol by AU accessibility services to get better accessibility benefits; this resulted in the student not being able to run for Council.  Currently, Executive Director Campbell Campbell would be acting as the Accessibility Officer; Vice President Community and Wellness Natalia Iwanek offered the idea of hiring a Chief Returning Officer (CRO) with a background in accessibility.  Governance and Advocacy Coordinator Duncan Wojtaszek reminded Council that a decision would need to be made soon as he is hiring and onboarding the CRO soon, as he will need to inform them if an Accessibility Officer can overrule them.

President Fletcher rounded out the meeting with an update on the advocacy meeting VPEX & IC Rep Godoy-Contois and herself attended, where they were able to meet with the Deputy Minister of Indigenous Services Canada.  Fletcher and Godoy-Contois also worked with AU to reach out to indigenous students to secure some Indigenous Circle applicants.

If you are interested in observing council meetings, join AUSU every third Thursday of the month or visit  www.ausu.org to see what Council is up to.

I was joined by a Councillor, Cilhane Ahmed, the Vice President of Community and Wellness (VPCW), Natalia Iwanek, and the Vice President of Finance and Administration (VPFA), Dur-E-Najaf Syed.  Councillor Cilhane Ahmed, a student from France, was elected in March of 2022 and currently sits on both the Finance and Awards committees.  VPCW Iwanek has a wealth of experience; having been elected in August 2020, she was elected as Vice President External and Student Affairs before transitioning to Vice President of Community and Wellness, a position she has since held while also chairing the Equity, Diversty and Inclusion committee (commonly known as the EDI committee) and the Member Engagement and Communications, or MEC,  committee.  VPFA Syed was elected to council during a by-election approximately two years ago; in addition to her roles as Vice President of Finance and Administration, she also chairs the Awards committee and the Finance committee.  Jodi Campbell, Executive Director at AUSU, organized our zoom meeting and offered insights.

I asked councillors to share what made them decide to run for council.

Councillor Ahmed saw an opportunity to gain experience, but she also spoke on how her unique experience as an international student was a driving factor “I believe my point of view might bring something to the association as a foreigner and because we also advocate for international students and having a new view of things might help.” VPFA Syed wanted to advocate for the changes for issues she saw students facing.  “There were just a lot of things that I wanted to see differently at AU, and the best way to change it is to be in a position where you can advocate for the things you want.”

VPCW Iwanek added that while she was unsure of her decision to run because of concerns related to accessibility and accommodations, she saw things that needed to be addressed, “I noticed a great deal of things that were not working as well as they should on the university level, I also noticed some things that were maybe lacking a bit on the AUSU level as well, I very much wanted to get involved, but I wasn’t sure if student leadership was for students like me, and I was just a bit unsure, and I did step out of my comfort zone, and I think it was one of the best decisions I’ve made to date” she stated.

Many students often have a vague idea of what the student union and what student council does, which can be overwhelming if you are interested in running.  VPCW Iwanek had a great way of explaining it “You can’t really explain this job in one sentence; council does so many things.  We can simplify this by saying we advocate for undergraduate students to AU but also provincially and federally.  We advocate for things like lower tuition rates; one thing we have advocated for is improved, updated and inclusive course content, more awards, more bursaries, improved communication with tutors, reasonable marking times, and so much more.  And then I think on our end, as an organization, we provide student support, assistance services, things like the virtual food assistance program and a lot of community building events.” Executive Director Jodi Campbell added that council is the decision-making body; they are the highest level of governance at Athabasca University Student Union (AUSU),

If you are wondering how much time you need to commit to the council, it depends on what committees you are on.  Most councillors commit about an hour each week, except the week of the monthly committee meetings, where councillors attend a two-hour meeting that, admittedly, can sometimes run longer.  If you join a committee, then you may add some more hours; Councillor Ahmed added that she checks her emails once a day to make sure there is nothing time-sensitive she may need to attend to, especially as a member of the Awards Committee; where they have three days to decide if a student will receive an award.  If you are in an executive committee role, such as a Vice President like Natalia Iwanek and Dur-E-Najaf Syed, you are working 30 hours a week as these are considered full-time roles.

And what do councillors love about being on council? “So one of my favourite things about being on council is how much support, assistance, and events that were developed for students in a pretty short time, and seeing how much we progressed as an organization.  I have been here, I believe, for about two and a half years, and just seeing what we have done is actually pretty inspiring.  I think our wins are exciting, especially when it seems like such a struggle sometimes,” VPCW Iwanek explained.  VPFA Syed added, “The big wins are really good, but even sometimes the smaller ones, like just giving students awards, is really nice,” she continued, “The little things, they add up, like the big ones like tuition stuff, that’s great, but the little ones really make a difference.” Councillor Ahmed appreciates how diverse the council is “What I like is our team has really diverse experience, so every time we are going to advocate for something, we bring a different point of view.”

Councillors are really proud of everything they have achieved, from awarding bursaries to all the change and progress they have made within the organization.  “We are just able to create a sense of community for students, which is something that I think has been lacking at our institution,” VP Iwanek commented.  When asked what challenges they face, VPFA Syed answered, “I am going to go with time.  There is never enough time.”

Another reason many students consider running for council is to gain valuable skills and experience; Exec Director Campell echoed that being on council helps when you are in an interview and can be a great addition to your resume “this is 100% something that should be going on your resumes.” All the councillors have gained many skills and experiences; Councillor Ahmed has gained an understanding of the Canadian culture, VPFA Syed is gaining career skills in managing finances and writing policy, and VP Iwanek appreciated how much she is learning from others on the team “I think they are pretty incredible people and really really glad to be able to share ideas with them every day, and you learn so much.”

Students may be asking themselves, is student council for them? If you are a student, then the answer is yes.  No experience is required, and AUSU would love to see more students from a variety of programs on the council.  VP Iwanek mentioned that student councils across Canada are often heavy with Faculty of Human and Social Sciences students in programs such as Political Science, but student council is for everyone, and students in all programs from business to science & technology should run, as all students need representation.  And if students are concerned about time zones, the council is flexible to ensure that a student on the east coast isn’t staying up until 1 AM for a meeting.

Councillor Ahmed and VPCW Iwanek offered some last advice for students who identify as shy or introverted like themselves.  “It is difficult because it is out of your comfort zone, and sometimes you think student leaders are just full of confidence, but you get that, you build that.”   She continued, “I just think all backgrounds, all experiences have something really important to offer students.  If you don’t see students like yourself on student council, please run.” Councillor Ahmed was afraid to join council at first as well, “I just want to tell people who would like to [apply] but are afraid, to just go for it, you won’t be asked to do things that you don’t want to or not at ease to do.” She added, “Being a councillor will bring you many positive things, so just try it; it’s only for two years.”

Self-nominations close on Sunday, February 26th, so this weekend is your last chance to apply.  If you have any questions or would like to know more, visit the AUSU website or reach out to Duncan Wojtaszek, Governance and Advocacy Coordinator, at governance@ausu.org.

The meeting was called into order on November 17, 2022, at 6:30 pm, running through the usual business such as attendance, land acknowledgement, and passing the previous minutes and the agenda unopposed.

AUSU council reviewed the status of action items including further changes to the Awards policy, the policy for Member Representatives on AUSU committees, and adjustments to the Executive retreats to make them more cost efficient and accessible/effective.  The Awards Policy adjustments had been completed and were on the current agenda, the other two were still ongoing.

New Indigenous Circle Appointment

Vice President External and Indigenous Circle Representative Trishtina Godoy-Contois moved to appoint Jessica Anderson to the AUSU Indigenous Circle for the 2022-2023 term.  VP Godoy-Contois spoke on the appointment “More or less, this is an individual [we learned about] through the hard, hard work of Natalia and some of the staff members putting on Indigenous week, it came from the fruits of that effort, so we are really excited to have Jessica join us, and we met with her already, so I am quite excited to see what she brings and see how this plays into the next steps of the Indigenous Circle.” The motion passed unanimously.  If you want to get to know the newest member of the Indigenous Circle, check out the October 21, 2022, edition of Minds We Meet, where Voice Writer Natalia Iwanek talks to Jessica Anderson.

Discipline Policy

When reviewing changes to the discipline policy, the policy that Councillors and AUSU staff themselves must adhere to, questions arose about a clause that states the complaints committee must agree unanimously.  If they do not, the committee would have two choices: dismiss the complaint or have it reviewed by a neutral third party.  Initially, President Fletcher wanted clarification on how it would be decided; Councillor Blake Collett explained that it was advised to be written this way to give the committee leeway to be effective, adding they could remove the option of dismissing the complaint.  VP Godoy-Contois agreed; however, she was concerned that the finance committee would have to approve the expense of a third-party review as it would likely be outside of the budget and asked how they would get the approval of the cost while still keeping the complaint confidential.  There was a lot of discussion around this issue; Councillor Collett stated that the details would not need to be divulged to the finance committee to receive approval and that it would largely be a formality as the Finance Committee is required to approve the expense as per the policy.  The motion passed with the amendment to remove the option to dismiss the complaint; Councillor Allie Wojtaszek abstained.

In-Camera

The Council then went in-camera for a confidential motion.  When they returned, President Fletcher motioned that BIRT council approves the executive committee seeking HR mediation, and the motion passed.  Nothing outside of that was divulged, including why HR mediation might be required.

A Long Short Meeting

Although little on the agenda had been addressed, the length of time the in-camera session took meant that the meeting had already run past schedule, so President Fletcher motioned to table the remainder of the session until the December meeting, except for some updates and closing remarks.  This was quickly accepted.

Exciting News for Student Loan Holders!

President Fletcher announced that Canada Student Loans had become interest-free this month due to the work of CASA.  “That’s a big deal; that will save students a lot of money” Fletcher said.

Additionally, the maximum annual income for recent grads to delay the commencement of their payment plan increased from $25,000 to $40,000 in the Repayment Assistance Plan Program.  “So that gives recent graduates a lot more breathing room – that’s really, really great for new grads, and our students will benefit from that” Duncan noted that this only applies to federal student loans, not provincial student loans.

Check out what council is up to at www.ausu.org on their news page and find upcoming events on their events page.

Changing Positions

AUSU’s position policies manual was up for review and being updated; Vice President of Finance and Administration Dur-E-Najaf Syed ran through all the position policy changes.  Most policies had minor changes such as language and adding resources.  Policy 9.02 on invigilation fees has been updated to reflect that AU has closed its exam centers.

Another notable change was to policy 9.28 on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.  The “Be it resolved that” (BIRT) was updated to add “and remove systemic barriers to education” to the previous statement “Be it resolved that the Athabasca University Students’ Union (AUSU) will advocate to Athabasca University (AU) and all levels of government to acknowledge systemic barriers to education”.  As well as adding “Be it further resolved that the Athabasca University Students’ Union (AUSU) will advocate to Athabasca University to ensure that an EDI lens is applied to course content, and that course content is respectful and representative of students’ identities.” to the policy’s BIRTs.

There were some questions as to whether the explanation for the policies needed to be updated immediately and Advocacy Coordinator Duncan Wojtaszek advised that only changes to the BIRT need to be approved by council, all other changes to the position policy manual can be done at any time without council’s review.  The motion to pass the updates to the position policy manual passed unanimously.

Council voted to approve these changes unanimously with an action item for the discussed revisions.

Email Voting

A proposed motion to remove the clause stating that disciplinary action can be taken for missing an email vote was brought forward.  Vice-President Finance and Administration (VPFA) Syed reasoned that since many council members are volunteers, they should not be penalized for missing an email vote on a weekend or while on vacation.  The conversation then moved into discussion on sharing opinions on email voting, Councillor Cilhane Ahmed was concerned that not providing an opinion could result in someone being marked as absent however VPFA Syed clarified this is not the case, participation includes reading the email.

Councillor Amber McDuffe suggested that they remove staff from the council email list for the purpose of confidentiality in the event of dealing with a disciplinary issue.  After President Fletcher, Duncan and VPFA Syed provided input, the resolution is to create two emailing lists.

The next topic of discussion was relating to transparency issues with having decisions ratified at a public meeting.  “This caused a lot of headaches for the previous council with having to have things ratified at a public meeting” Councillor McDuffe explained.  For example, if the motion was regarding letting go of a staff member and the decision is ratified at a public meeting, then this becomes public record, searchable online, and it could negatively impact a person’s reputation.

McDuffe proposed that the policy be amended so that decisions be made public “at the discretion of council” allowing council to decide when a person’s confidentiality needs to be protected and supersedes transparency.  Duncan advised that the by-laws do not allow a decision to be made in-camera, all motions of council must be made public however the discussion can be done in private, but you inform the public of the decision that was made.  When Amber inquired on how to change the by-laws Duncan responded that the by-laws aren’t going to be up for changing until December 7th, however, he advises against council being allowed to make decisions in private, council needs to be beholden to students. President Fletcher offered an alternative option: decisions be worded to protect any harm to reputations, in the end this discussion was tabled until they can look at addressing the by-laws.

Executive Director Jodi Campbell ended the discussion with a piece of advice to council: email voting should be primarily used for timely votes where you have confidence the motion will pass, and that Council should be careful using email voting for important issues.  The motion was put to a vote and passed with unanimous consent.

While reviewing the policy updates by the executive committee, Councillor McDuffe inquired if The Voice Magazine faced legal action how this would be funded.  Jodi explained there is a reserve for legal in AUSU’s budget, as well there was also a fund created for the Voice for various purposes including website upgrades and other major items, with expenses from this fund being approved by council.  Voice Editor Karl Low agreed that any expense due to litigation against the Voice should be funded by the Voice reserved funding.

Tuition Increases

President Fletcher presented her report, during which she encouraged all students to fill out the tuition increase survey that AUSU will be distributing “When we walk into the Board of Governors, being able to say that what students are saying about tuition, with some numbers and pie charts attached, is incredibly, incredibly helpful.”  The survey will be gathering information related to discussions that took place during the Tuition Town Hall on September 12th, and another town hall was held November 7th.  Another way AUSU wants to make an impact during this meeting is by demonstrating how much thirty dollars can impact students through a contest on twitter, where students can enter by posting a photo of $30 worth of groceries.  “We have really been hearing students are struggling with food insecurity and this is connected because when you are living paycheck to paycheck something going up means you have to cut something and we are hearing that students are hungry and that’s not okay” President Fletcher said tearfully “Being able to walk into a meeting and being like this, this is how much food you are asking them to give up if you raise tuition that much”.  She noted that students are struggling with food insecurity, with one in four students said they were likely or very likely to use the AUSU food assistance program last year.

Advocacy Success Story

At the end of the meeting President Fletcher shared a success story of one of their most recent advocacy efforts.  Another council member had tagged her in a social media post from a University of Calgary student who was intending to take a semester at AU due to personal circumstances; they were unable to do so because they could not get funding due to a change in policy from the Alberta Government that limits funding for students in open studies.  The student was a program student at another institution, however there was no way to recognize this on the financial aid forms.  President Fletcher approached CAUS, together they worked together to create three categories of students including a program student attending on a letter of permission which would be treated the same as a program student attending their home institution, and this has eliminated this issue for future students.  “So much of advocacy sometimes feels like you are digging through an escape tunnel with a spoon, you’re making progress but it, sometimes, it feels slow, but this was a win, and it was a win because of the work we do as organization and because one of you was on it on Facebook and so I wanted to say good job team” President Fletcher explained.  Unfortunately, this was not able to be done in time to help the student, but she informed the student of the changes, and they were glad to know other students won’t face the same challenge.

The next meeting is November 17th, 2022.  But if you’re interested in seeing what else the council is working on, there is no time like the present.  Contact governance@ausu.org and let them know you’d like to attend!

During the agenda discussion, Advocacy Coordinator Duncan Wojtaszek advises postponing policy reviews; you need a mover and seconder to approve the agenda, then a member can move to table an agenda item until the next meeting, and the mover and seconder of the agenda could accept this as a friendly amendment.  Councillor Amber McDuffe inquired if we could move through the agenda items and table what Council does not get through.  Duncan states that this is germane but whatever is last on the agenda is likely not going to be tabled, which means bringing it back in the next meeting, as that includes the question-and-answer period.  It is interesting to learn how these processes work and how the Council manages the time in the meetings.

The Council then moved through the regular business, approving the agenda, previous minutes, and action items unopposed.  Karen moved to postpone the position policies to allow people more time to read through these policies, as they’d discussed earlier, and this motion passed unanimously.

Membership

The first significant item to be discussed is a motion to change membership policies for member representatives on AUSU committees.  The most considerable change is to allow non-councillors serving on a committee to be eligible for AUSU scholarships, bursaries, and awards as they are currently not.  It was noted that this change stems from a procedural change, previously, students’ names were used for the application, but they now use the student’s ID, so there is little danger of bias or favoritism.

Other changes discussed were changing member removal processes from AUSU committees to an automatic removal with no tribunal and how membership applications are reviewed.  Amber suggested that applications be evaluated with the same process as awards committees review applications, allowing the Council to review applications ahead of time and select their top applicants.  This seemed to be met with general agreement though it was noted this would take up more councillor time.

Council then proposed changing the process by which Indigenous Circle members are selected.  The current process had self-identifying indigenous students voting in new members; this process was chosen to ensure the circle was reflective of Indigenous students and prevent oppression; however, because the circle only consists of two members, Council is proposing it returns to the previous model of Council appointing members.  In this process, the Executive Committee will review all applications, consult with members of the Indigenous Circle, and provide their recommendations to the Council to ensure the Indigenous Circle continues to exist and not overextend the only two members.  Once the Indigenous Circle has sufficient membership, the process can change to ensure the committee is represented by Indigenous students.

Council voted to approve these changes unanimously with an action item for the discussed revisions.

Budget

An essential task of this meeting was to approve the budget for Oct 1.  The critical discussion on the budget was regarding the $28,000 allocated for an in-person retreat.  Amber brought up concerns about spending such a large portion of the budget on an in-person retreat when other parts of the budget suffered from cuts due to declining enrollment, especially when you consider that the AUSU council is an online organization representing students of an online institution.

There were dissenting voices from many councillors, many adding in suggestions to make the retreat more cost-effective or voicing concerns on how to implement a virtual retreat while preventing “Zoom fatigue” and accommodating schedules so all councillors can be involved.

This issue was hotly contested, and it was noted by some councillors that they would not be able to vote in favor of the budget if these issues weren’t resolved; Jodi advised they could approve this budget and always reallocate funds later, for example, if they cancel the in-person retreat.  The budget was put to the vote, and the motion passed nearly unanimously, with only Councillor McDuffe voting against, and an action item was created to review and discuss alternative plans for the retreat.

As AU is an online university, insisting on spending a large part of the budget on an in-person retreat does not seem to align with the experience of the very students the union represents.  It will be interesting to see how Council addresses these concerns and, ultimately, if they decide to proceed with the in-person retreat.

Future Advocacy

Council discussed the pros and cons of students being able to use Open Educational Resources (OERs), which are publications accessible for free by public domain in place of textbooks by Pearson or Nelson.  There are concerns about OERs having outdated information or affecting the standing of some programs that require recognition from occupational regulatory agencies.  Council amended the work plan to clarify the goal is to advocate for students to be able to choose between e-texts, physical texts or OERs, which will give students more choices and reduce costs.  A survey or town hall may be held to discuss this further in the future.

A priority for AUSU in the 2022-2023 year will be advocating for better student health services, including reviewing Homewood health.  Some suggestions councillors mentioned included Homewood having more employees with diverse backgrounds so students can speak with someone with their shared lived experience.  Also, Homewood health only allows you to access services over the phone, even if services are in their local area; Council will be advocating for more accessibility options like in-person sessions.

AUSU plans to advocate to ensure all programs are reviewed every four years to ensure students are receiving education to the current standard and information is updated.

They will be writing to the Canadian Alliance of Students Associations (CASA) to ask the Federal Government to expand the verify.me log-in program, so you do not need to bank with the “Big Six” (the six large banks in Canada) to access federal student loans.

Awards Programming

There were many details discussed regarding the awards programs, such as who approves emergency bursaries and the accessibility of year-round bursaries during award season.

Council will be looking into options on how students can submit video applications, as some students may not have a YouTube account; one suggestion was to allow students to submit the video on any social media platform.  Others noted that some students might not want to share their social media account publicly.  Council will be looking into whether they can have an option for applicants to upload a video directly to their website as part of the application.  Another change is to allow councillors to ask applicants for more information; they will provide students with five business days to submit the requested information.

It was also noted that AUSU and AU have an agreement to pilot an Indigenous Student Award program to run in AU’s January award cycle.  To allow Indigenous Circle members to be eligible to apply for this award, it will not be awarded through the AUSU awards committee.  Instead, AU will choose the recipient.  After one year, the Council will vote on whether to make this a permanent award.

Amber requested that the agreement for this award with AU be amended to have two officers of the exec committee as the signing authority instead of the Executive Director to better reflect that the organization is being run by the students.  Concerns were brought forth that this could delay the implementation of the agreement and does not significantly change the document, and therefore is not necessary.  Amber put forth a motion to amend the document, but the motion failed when put to the vote; the original motion to approve this agreement passed.

The meeting wrapped up with councillors submitting their reports as presented and sharing acknowledgements.  The next meeting is tomorrow, October 20, 2022.  But if you’re interested in seeing what came of those action items, there’s still time to get involved.  Contact governance@ausu.org and let them know you’d like to attend!

AUSU President Karen Fletcher announced the appointment of Jodi Campbell as the Accessibility Officer and ran through the land acknowledgements, took attendance, and asked for member input.

Amending the Agenda

Karen proceeded to move to adopt the agenda.  Vice President and Indigenous Circle Representative Trishtina Godoy-Contois proposed amending that we table items for a late date due to limited time in the meeting.  Governance and Advocacy Coordinator Duncan Wojtaszek was asked to weigh in regarding the procedure within Robert’s rules of order.  It was interesting learning how these procedures worked; Duncan even pointed out that if the agenda is not passed, then the meeting immediately comes to an end.

Trishtina motioned to table the discussion of the budget along with policies until the September 15th meeting, with a special amendment for Duncan to explain what items of importance should be discussed during this meeting.  Duncan states the only motion that must be discussed is email ratification, as students deserve to know what business is conducted.  Duncan did warn that tabling the budget until September 15th would leave little time for feedback and changes to be enacted – for example, if notice is required—since the fiscal year ends September 30th, 2022.

The discussion of the reasoning whether to discuss or table the budget during the meeting started venturing into the talk of the actual budget, so President Karen Fletcher called for votes on these Agenda motions.  The policy changes were tabled and the motion to table the budget was put to a vote, which passed six to five.

The agenda and minutes were then both passed unanimously.

The Parking Lot List

At first glance, I assumed this was to discuss something related to parking.  Karen clarified the Parking Lot List is a list of various issues that need to be dealt with that were brought up during an informal meeting.  Council discussed the best way to organize these issues, including managing them into categories and transferring them into a report.  While Councillor Allie Wojtaszek initially volunteered to undertake this, it was decided to be put to Vice-President Finance and Administration, Dur-E-Najaf Syed, as an action item.   This will be an ongoing document that can be used to address issues that arise.

Complaint Review

Council moved in-camera for a confidential motion discussion that the voice was not privy to.  Anyone who is not on the council was moved into a waiting room.  Unfortunately, since we were moved to a waiting room and not a breakaway room, we could not converse.  The in-camera session was lengthy, approximately an hour and 45 minutes, which speaks to the depth of discussion that likely occurred.

The motion in question was listed on the agenda as a proposed motion and read “BIRT that the AUSU Council has determined that Trishtina Godoy-Contois has breached Policy 2.13 Code of Ethics by failing to conduct herself in a respectful, professional manner during an AU stakeholder meeting.”

However, after the in-camera session, council returned with the decision that the motion did not need to be moved, having eventually decided that it was not worth discussion.

When the council returned, Karen gave some insight into the issue that had lead to the situation causing the complaint, which was that a student was seeking assistance with enrollment and financial aid, however, they did not get the assistance they needed from the employee.  AUSU has met with the employee’s supervisor who has committed to providing “very specific mentoring,” and the student is continuing to receive assistance for the remaining unresolved issues.  The details of this were kept vague due to the confidential nature of the issue.

Termination of VMock and Email Ratification

The VMock resume review service has not seen popular uptake; the funds will be reallocated to another form of professional development.  A unanimously passed motion terminated the service.

On June 29th, 2022, an email motion was passed allowing AUSU’s members-at-large to be eligible for the AUSU’s Two-Spirit, Trans, Non-Binary, Gender Non-Conforming Student’s bursary awarded in July 2022.  Council passed unanimously ratified this email vote.

At this point, the meeting had been running for approximately two and a half hours, and many councillors had to leave.  The remainder of the meeting, specifically the reports and the recognitions, were tabled, leaving only the question-and-answer period which, given the lateness and few items publicly discussed, was unsurprisingly not used.

The next meeting will take place on September 15th, 2022.  It is expected to be an intensive meeting as the council will discuss the entire budget.  Contact governance@ausu.org if you’re interested in attending and seeing what AUSU has decided to with your money.

Conservatives:

The Conservative Party’s focus is always balancing the budget, more jobs and economic growth, they repeat it every chance they get like a broken record.  So, what does this mean for students? In their 160-page plan I didn’t find one initiative to invest in students, no reduction on student loan interest, no caps on rising tuition prices, no increase on interest for RESPs, and no investment in jobs after graduation.  The conservative party’s plan says one thing to me as a student: “we don’t care about you”.  The conservatives do have initiatives to help job growth in general, which could result in jobs for new grads as well, but nothing specific for jobs for new graduates

O’Toole has made vague promises to give $100,000 in tax breaks to new grads in the three years following graduation, however this promise is not in their 2021 platform.

The conservatives do, however, promote free speech on campus, though this does nothing to help students pay tuition or relieve the crippling debt they face upon graduation.

NDP:

The NDP is working toward a goal of universal free education, however they are not aiming to make this a reality in 2021.  Instead, they focus on making education affordable which is still a great goal.

Their first step is removing the interest from federal student loans.  They will forgive up to $20,000 in student debt for every grad.  In the first year they say this will reduce 20% of all student debt.  To reduce students taking on debt, the NDP party will permanently double all non-repayable grants.

Liberals:

The Liberal Party’s plan for students also focuses on reducing student debt.  Similar to the NDP, they promise to permanently eliminate the federal interest on student loans, which is a continuation of a policy they implemented temporarily during the pandemic.

They also promise to increase repayment assistance: any graduates who are single and making less than $50,000 will not have to start repaying their loans.  And they plan to help new parents—making it so they will be able to pause student loan repayment until the youngest child reaches five years of age.

The Green Party:

The party that promises the most is the Green Party; they promise universal free post-secondary education by abolishing post-secondary education tuition and cancelling all federal student debt.  They also promise to bring back the Canadian Emergency Student Benefit (CESB) until the pandemic has ended, remove the 2% cap on education funding for indigenous students, and improve accessibility to post-secondary education, graduate education, reskilling and retraining.  The Green party has lofty goals that I think most students would like to see implemented, however it is easy to make promises that they likely won’t have to keep.

Besides education funding and student debt, many students have concerns about other issues that directly affect them—like housing, pharma care, and climate change.  These may be parts of each party’s platform that students will want to look at when considering who to vote for.  Students also are likely to be concerned with social issues like equality and human rights, these aspects of a party can be reflected in a party’s actions as well as their platform and many students likely were watching the debates closely or will be keeping an eye on news headlines over the coming weeks.

Regardless of who you support, the most important thing is that you get out and vote, make sure your voice is heard.  The next four years could have large effects on our futures, and those could be good or bad depending on who is making the decisions.

References
Raymond, Ted (2021), What the Federal Parties are Offering Ottawa’s College and University Students., CTV News., Retrieved from: https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/what-the-federal-parties-are-offering-ottawa-s-college-and-university-students-1.5565180
Conservative Party of Canada, (2021) Canada’s Recovery Plan, Retrieved from: https://cpcassets.conservative.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/08200659/e4cd8c0115c3ea0.pdf
New Democratic Party of Canada., (2021) Ready for Better: NDP 2021 Commitments., Retrieved from: https://xfer.ndp.ca/2021/Commitments/Ready%20for%20Better%20-%20NDP%202021%20commitments.pdf?_gl=1*nwfg1w*_ga*Njc0MjUzNjguMTYyOTE1NjcwMg..*_ga_97QLYMLC56*MTYzMDk0ODIzMC40LjEuMTYzMDk0OTUwNy4w
Liberal Party of Canada., (2021) Forward for Everyone., Retrieved from: https://liberal.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/292/2021/09/Platform-Forward-For-Everyone.pdf
Green Party of Canada., (2021), Platform 21, Be Daring., Retrieved from: https://www.greenparty.ca/sites/default/files/platform_2021_en_web_-_20210907.pdf