The approval of the November 21, 2019 meeting agenda was unanimous, with the proposition to discuss item nine on student aid position policy.  All were in favor to move for the approval of the October meeting minutes, and there were no action items to be discussed.

From this point, the council moved quickly into the In-Camera discussion, which began at 6:43 PM, and ended at 7:00 PM.  The motion discussed In-Camera was defeated by a vote of 1/10.

After concluding this discussion, council moved on to discuss the policy revisions which had been tabled from the October 2019 council meeting.  First came the approval of Policy 2.14, Council Responsibilities and Honoraria edits.  This policy discusses what is the responsibility of the councillors, and what needs to be upheld to continue as a member of council.  The original wording required council members must be AUSU members for two thirds of a term, but council posed the question if this was an accurate reflection of what being an AU Student is, as students complete courses at different rates, some quite quickly, some much more slowly.  Since you’re only an AUSU member while actively in a course should AUSU penalize you if you do courses quickly with a significant break in between them?

It was concluded that the policy would need to have changes made to it that state that one course must be completed in a year to continue with council membership.  But it was noted that for this policy change to be effective, the AUSU bylaws must also be adjusted, as they would override the changes in policy.  To change the bylaws requires specific processes and timelines, including notices to the members and a minimum time period for members to understand and opportunities to comment on the proposed changes.

The council also made note that they did not want to restrict council members to having a GPA of 2.0, as some of those who have expressed interest in joining council are early in their academic career, and one bad grade can affect their GPA.  The council expressed their concern that this might deter people from joining.  Council voted to accept the changes and would enter into a discussion after the meeting as to whether they would be able to provide appropriate notice to change the bylaws before the next election.  At the writing of this report, it appears they decided it’s possible, and the first reading of the Bylaw changes was held on December 16^th, with the second reading and opportunity for student comment will be held on January 16^th.

After concluding the discussion on this policy, the council moved to discuss the president’s report.  President Brandon went on to elaborate on the success of the new virtual co-op program with the faculty of business and filled council in on how well it has been going.  So far, he notes, it has been an interesting opportunity, although there are a few minor glitches.  The new co-op program (as in computer program) creates situations and generates conversations that the student will have to respond to accordingly, and they will be rated on how well they respond.  The program will continue to be worked on and improved, and hopefully will be available for students to use in January.

Also discussed in the president’s report was the topic of provincial budgets.  He noted that it was being worked on with AU what the budget will be, as they were, at the recent consultation with the student union, unable to provide what the proposals would be for tuition.  The government is pushing institutions to raise their tuitions by 7 percent, and this has created several concerns and will be discussed with administration. (This has since been confirmed, and tuitions will be increasing by 7%, along with various other fees that are tied to tuition, such as the Learning Resources Fee.)

The council then moved on to discuss the success of the pledges from across the country for the Get out to Vote campaign.  Every single province and territory had at least one pledge, which is a positive outcome and what was strived for.  There were approximately 1500 pledges made, and that was about 300 more than what was expected.  Vice-President External and Student Affairs, Natasha Donahue, went on to elaborate that at the CASA conference it was discussed that there should be the creation of an indigenous advisory group.

At the conclusion of the November meeting, it was not known if there was to be December meeting, but after the meeting AUSU council was able to schedule a meeting for December 16th,  ensuring that they had enough time to meet the requirements for notice for the above mentioned change to the bylaws.

The December 16th meeting, however, was extremely short, and due to technical difficulties neither myself or Voice Editor Karl Low was able to attend, as a password had been somehow set on the meeting room, and, once provided with it mid-way through the meeting, that password did not work.  AUSU staff has indicated that even councillors were having difficulties getting in, and they were not sure how the password was set, or why it did not work for Karl.  As it was, the meeting ran for barely a half hour, from 5:30pm to 6:00pm.  We spoke to a councillor after the meeting and learned that all Councillors did manage to get to the meeting, the first reading of the bylaws was made and approved, and there was some short discussion about the 7% tuition increase and how disappointed AUSU was with it and the effects it will have on students, especially those from out of province and internationally.  However, it apparently was noted that AU has indicated that they may seek to avoid the same increase in the next two years, as the government is suggesting, due to the facts presented to them by AUSU.  Whether this will bear any fruit remains to be seen.

The next meeting and final reading of the bylaw changes will be held on January 16^th.  Merry Christmas!

Since the last meeting, the council had seen quite a few policies that needed to be revised.  The edits made to several of the policies were minimal and were done to make each concise.  Most of the councillors agreed with the revisions except when it came to Policy 2.08, which governs how Council deals with meeting absences.  While the rest of councillors in attendance agreed on the revisions made to this policy, Councillor Alice Namu opposed.  When The Voice Magazine later asked her to explain her opposition, Councillor Namu replied,

“I objected to Policy 2.08: Council Governance Meeting Attendance because the changes that have been made to the policy are not fair and place unreasonable demands upon councillors.  According to the policy, a councillor’s absence from an AUSU council or committee meeting will result in the councillor being marked as absent.  This is regardless of whether a councillor provided advance notice to the president or not.  Furthermore, if a councillor accrues 3 absences within the first or second year, the councillor’s attendance and participation in the life of the AUSU is subject to discussion at the executive council meeting.

I find that this policy is too punitive and does not consider the personal emergencies that come with the challenges of juggling one’s academics, career and/or academics.  It does not provide a reprieve for instances in which a councillor could be ill or must deal with any other form of life emergency.  Therefore, according to the current interpretation of the policy, a councillor could provide – for example – three weeks advance notice for not being able to attend a meeting and will still be marked absent.  So, you are damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.

Furthermore, the fact that it is up to the executive council to determine whether a councillor deserves to remain on the council or not, is a decision making process that places too much subjective decision making power to the executive council, and I am concerned this subjective decision making process has the potential of being misemployed.”

I feel the point that Councillor Namu makes is fair.  In the event of an emergency, or with a certain amount of notice, I think a councillor should be marked excused instead of absent.  I don’t believe it’s fair to expect a council member to balance all their obligations perfectly all the time.  It’s understandable that the policy is put in place to deter those on council from missing several meetings, but I think the policy should be revised again to include exceptions.  There was some discussion that during the pre-meeting discussion Council held, there may be a need for more revisions to this policy, so if council discusses it again at the next meeting, it will be noted in the next Council Connections article.

When asked to contribute his thoughts on Alice’s comments, President Brandon Simmons stated:

“The revisions to policy 2.08 were not taken lightly, we discussed the policy at great length with council on multiple occasions and the revisions were eventually approved unanimously.  We found that the old policy was not able to accomplish its original purpose of ensuring councillors were actively fulfilling their duties.  The old policy could allow a councillor to give advanced notice and miss almost every meeting of their term with no consequences. At the same time, it severely penalized councillors for unexpected emergencies and faced them with harsher consequences.

Previously if you missed two meetings total an automatic motion for your removal would be placed on the next council meeting.  So, someone who got into a car accident the night of a meeting and was then severely ill the following meeting would find their name up for removal. With the new policy if a councillor does miss meetings instead of having a motion directly put on a council agenda it first goes to the executive committee for review.  If the councillor is fulfilling their duties and doing their best to attend meetings, then no further action is required.  So, someone who runs into a couple of emergencies and did their best to notify council will have no direct action brought before them.  Alternatively, if a councillor shows a consistent lack of interest in fulfilling their council duties the executive committee can put forward a motion for council to remove that individual.  A 2/3 majority of council would still need to approve the motion for that councillor to be removed.

Overall the new policy is a lot less harsh for councillors who are doing what they were elected to do.”

On a different subject, at the time of this meeting, the Get out the Vote campaign was doing exceptionally well.  Since September 15, 2019, AUSU, along with CASA, had been working to get as many students as possible to pledge to vote in the Canadian Federal Election on October 21, 2019.  To establish initiative in students, AUSU had developed a competition in which students who pledged to vote would automatically be entered to win a free undergraduate course.

Council was informed that the goal to have at least one student in every province pledge to vote had been met, but the goal set for number of pledges had not.  The committee was hoping for at least 200 more pledges.  The success of that goal will be discussed at the next council meeting in November.  It was noted that the momentum of this campaign was fierce, and a lot of hard work had been put into it.  Athabasca University had surpassed other schools greatly and had an excellent approach with the number of individuals from staff to executives that jumped right in with all-hands-on deck.  The overall success of this campaign and competition will be discussed at the council meeting in November, once all the numbers were in and finalized.

President Brandon Simmons joined the meeting at approximately 7:30PM and had some interesting news to discuss in the AUSU Executive report.  In October, there had been a graduate research conference and undergraduate students were invited to attend.  For the first time, it was promoted to undergraduate students who are interested in pursuing graduate research.  This invitation was an opportunity for these students to meet graduate students already doing so and gain a little insight into what graduate studies are like at Athabasca University.

After a quick discussion about that, President Simmons went on to elaborate on a virtual co-op program being launched in the Faculty of Business.  He noted that it is planned to be a requirement for the Bachelor of Commerce program in the future, and it will allow students to interact in simulated work environment, dealing with simulated conflicts and clients.  This type of program is the first of its kind at Athabasca University, and AU is excited about the launch.  President Simmons has been invited to participate in initial testing and is looking forward to providing the council with updates.

If the course and the technology prove to be successful there is a potential of expanding it to other programs, which would open more opportunities in the future for AU students! He noted it would be quite beneficial for students who are studying in areas of Canada or internationally where it wasn’t possible to gain work experience in a regular setting.  This will be another unique way to make education accessible and flexible to students at AU.  The October 2019 meeting came to an end around 7:41 PM.  The next meeting was held on November 21, 2019, and The Voice apologizes for the delay in getting this report out, but wanted to ensure we had full information on the councillor absence issue.  Look for the report for the November meeting out very soon.

The approval of the agenda and the meeting minutes from August, 2019, was unanimous. Council quickly moved to the new business, where they approved an updated copy of Policy 7.02 Member Services: Scholarships, Awards, and Bursaries Program. Changes include that any unused funds will be placed in an unrestricted reserve, which, in turn, will help the committee to fund a new award as needed. It was suggested that they may use these unused funds to create more emergency bursaries in the future. Before the motion was unanimously approved, it was also discussed that awards paid directly to students are paid by Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), the only exception will be in the event a student lives outside of Canada, and therefore will be paid by cheque.

Councillor Mark Teeninga pointed out that the policies in place for the travel bursary contain wording that conflicts with this policy revision. The travel bursary is in place for those who need to travel for convocation, as well as university labs, practicums, on-site courses or sometimes academic conferences if they’re important to the education of a student. To receive this bursary for convocation the student must provide proof that they have been invited to attend. The conflict was that the awards policy noted that only current AU students could apply for awards, but some students may only receive their invitation well after their courses are completed and they are no longer an AU student.  Staff noted that their current procedures allow for this but Teeninga stressed to the council that the conflicting language of the policy revision and the Travel Bursary must somehow be addressed, which council and the Executive agreed to do.

Following the discussion of the policy revisions, a unanimous decision was passed in regard to the individuals appointed to the Student Advisory Committee. This is the second time the committee has been implemented, with five reoccurring members, each recommended by the Executive.  The members who were appointed to the committee include: Christopher Hinbest, Dakota Soares, Mark Toews, Michele Mrkvan, Landon King, Rebecca Hayward, Stacey Hutchins, Ian Stewart, Jennifer Bouley, and Raphael Ugobe Okechuk.

It was noted that the individuals selected were excellent candidates who showed much initiative, and that overall the selection was difficult as there were many great candidates. Based on their applications, members of the Executive felt that many of these people would have been excellent as member on council. President Brandon Simmons discussed the possibility of implementing a process for the future in which these people can put their name forward for council. A thank-you is extended by Council to all of those who put their name forward, and those selected will be receiving emails from staff and getting an AUSU email address. Also, an orientation and a teleconference would be arranged for the Student Advisory Committee to become acquainted.

President Simmons went on to confirm that the Minister of Advanced Education Critic has agreed to appear on an episode of the AUSU podcast. Vice President Natasha further reported that a meeting with the Minister of Advanced Education Critic had been concluded, and a commitment to write a letter for AUSU’s advocacy asks to the government minister has been established. The AUSU podcast was discussed with much excitement, as the podcast is expanding and doing well. At the time of this meeting, six individuals were to appear on the podcast, as well as many students expressing their reasons for voting.

To encourage students to pledge to vote, a new contest has been implemented. Students are automatically entered to win a contest with a grand prize of an undergraduate class when they pledge to vote on CASA with AU as their school. It is a goal of AUSU’s to have a student from every province in Canada pledge to vote.

President Simmons also extended congratulations to Duncan Wojtaszek, the Governance and Advocacy Coordinator, for managing a podcast with people calling in from all over Canada as well as people coming in and out of the office. He noted it would have been a hectic environment to record a podcast. Natasha was also congratulated on managing the social media and photographs for the Get Out the Vote campaign. At the time of this meeting, there were 344 pledges. This drastically surpassed many of AUSU’s SU colleagues, who have been running the campaign for awhile. To pledge to vote, check out getouttovote.ca. This is an easy way to possibly win a free undergraduate course!

The meeting concluded not long after the discussion of the pledge to vote contest. The next meeting will be held on October 17^th, 2019 at 6:30 pm MDT.

I quit the job that wasn’t serving me anymore.

Okay, so when I quit, I didn’t know I was pregnant. I was about 6 weeks pregnant and had no idea why I was crying all the time. While I was working I often would randomly cry, and my nights were spent tossing and turning due to the stress I was under. It wasn’t good for my emotional health and the day I quit I had had enough. I like to thank my pregnancy hormones for that one. At the same time, I wasn’t focusing on my studies as much as I should have.  Quitting my job suddenly meant I had that time to focus.

It Reminded Me of my Promise

I always said I would have my degree finished before I started a family.  Change. Of. Plans. I know now that it doesn’t matter at what point you start a degree or at what point you start a family. At the same time, it has made it a little bit more difficult now that I have a one-year-old who really does take a lot of my attention. But that’s okay, it won’t be like this forever, and the lovely thing about AU is that you can work on your classes at your own pace. My pace would be classified as off-the-charts-mall-walker-slow. Some days I really feel like I am barely getting anywhere. It might be annoying, but it is the one major motivation I must get things done. I became even more serious about my education after the birth of my son. Because, though I may not be able to meet my promise now, I’m still going to get it as close as I can.

It helped me figure out what makes me happy.

I had a difficult pregnancy. I wasn’t in a good place emotionally and I was very ill right up until I went into labour. Because of this, I quickly realized what I needed to do to be happy and acquire some sort of normalcy in my life. A few friendships suffered and I really had to redirect my focus to take care of myself. In that respect, I have always had to aggressively defend my education choices. It got to the point I was questioning them myself. Eventually I realized that it doesn’t matter if someone else doesn’t understand why I would choose to major in English. I don’t have to explain myself and I don’t have to come up with a career plan to present to anyone about my choices.  If it makes me happy and it’s what I want to do, it isn’t important what someone else thinks.

When I was pregnant, I realized the only person I had the energy to focus on was myself, and that that was the most important. Now, as a mom, it is even more important that I make sure to focus on what is important to me and what makes me happy. Working on my degree through AU gives me something to do for myself, and I refuse having to defend that any longer.

Who taught you to be so negative?  Where did you learn to say, “You can’t, you will look like an idiot, don’t even bother”?

I ask this of myself frequently.  Time and time again, I let a potential job opportunity slip away, or watch the shadows change on my wall, the night easing into morning and my insomnia getting the best of me.  Throwing blankets aside and blinking into the darkness, while that inside voice is yelling, “Who do you think you are?!”

Who is this sinister voice taunting me? Telling me to give up on my dreams, that maybe I would be happier if I was a person who was willing to just settle.  Maybe I want too much, maybe I am not easily pleased, maybe I think too highly of myself.

But where did I learn that I should be ashamed of my confidence? Who taught me to be this way?

After thinking about it for some time, I realized I did not teach myself to be like this, and I am blaming you.  I mean you, the person who gave up on your dreams and now you feel that it is your mission to encourage every other person to give up on theirs.

As children, we are told we can do anything – our parents coo that we will be a real singer one day, they just know it! And we truly believe it.  But then something changes.  One day maybe we meet someone who scoffs at us and makes fun of our dream.  Maybe it was even your own parents, or your siblings, or maybe a teacher or a playground peer.  The first jab, carving a small wound into your delicate being.  It is so significant, but I cannot recall when it happened. But there are times I can recall when I scoffed at someone else’s dream, unloading my whittled confidence and pain onto them.  And so the cycle goes.  Someone took a piece from me, and I turned around and took a piece from someone else.  Here we are stealing from one another, to restore a hollowness that was created by someone who was also hurting.  And what does that result in? A large percentage of the population working jobs they hate, living in cities they loathe and pursuing an education their parents encouraged.  You know what I mean.

So here’s to you, I am sorry for your pain.  I am sorry that whoever told you that you weren’t good enough made you feel this regret, and sorry you later felt the need to strike at another’s dream.  You learned from someone else to scrape away at someone’s creative inside, to leave them hollow and place your regrets on their shoulders.  That isn’t your fault.  But you hurt me, you’re hurting us.  It’s not too late to change.

And here’s to us.  To being unapologetically authentic, to getting exactly what we want out of life.

I never want to say, “I wish I would have done that”

Do you?

To prove my skills, the editor of a small newspaper in my hometown had wanted me to write an article. From there she would decide if she would want to hire me, and would let me know if she was going to publish the article or not. She also made it clear that she would pay me for the article. I then waited to receive the assignment, and when I did I set to work.

I put a lot of effort into that article, and I was quite certain I would get the job. I sent it to her and added that I looked forward to hearing her thoughts. Then I waited. A week went by and I still hadn’t heard from this editor. Somehow, I came across the previous week’s publication and realized that she had went ahead and published my article, without letting me know. I was ecstatic but thought she must be busy; that’s why she hadn’t got back to me. So I sent her a polite email.

I waited another week, and sent out another polite email. Followed by several other polite emails in the following weeks. A whole month went by and still not a word from this editor. I had had enough. I decided to get a bit aggressive, and sent out a less polite email. That got her attention. She replied, asked for an invoice, and said that she had gone ahead and hired someone else. I typed up an invoice and sent it out. And that was the end of that, for her.

But I felt used. In my mind, I had created an article that I had stressed over, that in the end was just thrown into a publication as a filler. I was angry.

It is possible to take a negative experience and turn it into a positive one. These positive experiences arise in the form of lessons. Here are a few things to think about when pursuing your goals:
• Identifying Red Flags
This one was huge for me. I encountered red flags from the beginning and I ignored them. The first was that the editor kept rescheduling the interview and had said “I’ll email you when it will be a good time for me.” She rescheduled on me more than once, or didn’t email me back when she said she would.

Another red flag was how she had failed to read my cover letter at all. During the interview, she asked me several things she would have known if she had read my cover letter. One more red flag was that she had difficulties locating my resume and cover letter in her office. All of these gave me the impression she was too busy to care. Not the type of person you want as a mentor, or to work for.

• Do your homework
When providing a service for someone, especially on a freelance basis, make sure a contract of some sort is written up. I had never been paid before for a freelance article, and I didn’t even think of sending an invoice. Make sure beforehand that you have everything in place so that you get paid. Be prepared.

• Know your worth, protect your talent, and be assertive.
Your talent, knowledge, and passion are important, and it should not be compromised. If you provide a service, you deserve to be paid. It isn’t normal to have to chase someone down for payment. That is stealing. I was nervous to send that assertive email. I was nervous to upset an industry professional, but I realized that if I didn’t I would have had my work stolen from me. If I hadn’t said something, I believe that she wouldn’t have paid me. I sat there thinking that since I was new, that it was normal to be treated that way. But it wasn’t.

A person in a higher position than you, is just that, a person. People develop biased opinions, become jealous, and manipulate. Just because someone has more experience than you doesn’t mean they’re exempt from being a courteous human being. A good leader is one that educates. In the end, it is worth it to fight back, to challenge, and to be a little pushy. You deserve to be treated fairly.

Karlee Kapler is a student at AU, majoring in English. She hopes one day to pursue a career in either editing, publishing, writing, communications, or post secondary teaching. She can’t decide! Feel like reaching out? Shoot her an email at karlee.kapler@gmail.com