Thread by @UbysseyNews

We're here at #GSSCouncil, virtually! A few technical difficulties, but we came in as the VP UAA is amending the agenda.

Susan Porter is presenting on the Graduate Life Centre.

She adds a quick note they managed to get the minimum PhD stipend from $18,000 to $22,000, but their hope is to get it to $26,000. But it might still have to pass through the full Senate.

She's presenting on the history of the Thea Koerner House. She said it was intended to be a physical space, a collegia for graduate students.

Porter is now outlining the project timeline for Graduate Life Centre.

Porter is now outlining the next steps. The feasibility study should be complete by the end of this year, with costing in January. As for funding sources, part of it is coming from the tuition surplus, likely some from donor support and likely from some central funding.

Nicolas Romualdi said that Council has heard about this from him, but reminds everyone that this is not just a GSS project, the university and faculty are involved as well. He echoes Porter that this is a joint effort.

He said they are doing their best effort to fund this without having grad students pay more fees to pay for it.

Porter adds that it "has been a pleasure" to work with the GSS.

Now moving to a presentation on Studentcare.

This is the same presentation that came to AMS Council, so here's a summary of that and we'll be back when they're on to questions.

https://twitter.com/UbysseyNews/status/1334338715078914050?s=20

Back for questions!

No questions. Now to a motion:

They're talking about a legal service proposed by Studentcare that would provide legal assistance for students.

This is outside the mandate of the committee, so they're asking if Council is okay with the structure that they're proposing.

Studentcare is giving a brief overview of the service.

The program was launched in 2016/17 in Quebec. They got feedback that students were seeking a service like this, and they developed the founding principles of what they wanted to create from that.

The principles:

Part of the service provides actual legal representation. Here are some examples of disputes students might face and the service might be able to cover.

A Studentcare representative is now outlining what's included (in the image below). The service also includes unlimited access to a toll free legal assistance helpline,

In their needs assessment, Studentcare identified these needs:

Charlie Tajnay said that students could benefit in terms of rental rights. Bahareh Jokar said this is something to evaluate, they aren't set on moving forward with the service. They want to see whether there is a need for this on campus right now.

The HR committee rep said this seems very valuable. They say that they appreciate that there are no limits on how much support people can get, but asks how it will be financed.

Jokar said this is a pooled service. She said it is similar to travel insurance in that sense.

The cost is $29.50 per student per year, but it would have to be passed by referendum. If you want to remove yourself from the service, you do have to do it at the start of the semester.

Tajnay emphasized that the larger pool includes everyone who's part of it, including those in other provinces.

Question from the GSS Elections asks what the geographic limit of the program is, if it's limited to just Canada?

Tajnay said the program covers the whole country, but it's catered to the province you're in. Overseas, you'll have access to the legal help line.

Someone asks how this would connect to the LSAP and other resources already on campus.

Jokar said they had to evaluate this. She said the resources on campus don't have the same ability to support cases.

Someone asks if there are any schools that have rejected the service after getting through the survey stage.

Tajnay said he's worked with a few unis and the results of the surveys so far have been favourable.

Jokar said they're looking at two avenues of survey, first by Studentcare in a smaller pool, and next a bigger survey to the population as a whole.

Someone asks how cases would be selected?

Tajnay said they chose cases provincially. He notes that any student who needs to speak with a lawyer can, and if they run out of capacity, they'll create extra capacity.

Tajnay adds that there also is a built-in appeals process if a lawyer thinks they have no case.

Another person asks if the appeals process is one that can be debated/reconsidered because any complainant is going to think they have a justified case...

... But they said they are concerned about a jury of peers, as executives aren't lawyers, so how would they be able to speak to those issues?

Jokar said there are so many steps that would need to happen before it gets there, and the reason to have that last step is because it is a service by peers, for peers.

She adds that this is not something that will be the make-or-break of the service existing.

Now to the motion. Here it is:

Julia Burnham said there's no reason to vote no on this, but emphasized that students already have the SLFS, the (forthcoming) AMS housing service & the AMS/GSS advocacy offices. She says there should be an analysis of the existing services when considering this.

She said the fee is fairly high as well. Romualdi emphasizes that this is just to explore the service, not to approve it.

Alireza Kamyabi said there might be other services Studentcare provides that they might want to explore.

Romualdi said this is outside the scope of the motion.

The motion carries.

Now to the GSS financial audit report.

Erik Allas is presenting. Here's their opinion:

Net assets: $957,431, up from ~$810,000 last year

Here's their financial statement for this year:

He says that this statement is "very healthy."

Some more stats from the fiscal year:

Revenues: ~$789,000 (about 10k more than last year)
Expenses: ~$642,000 (about 12k more than last year)
Excess of revenue: ~$146,000 (about 1k less than last year)

Nicolas Romualdi thanks Erik for the work he did on this, and everyone else involved.

The motion to accept the financial report has carried.

They're now approving Council minutes from the last meeting. Minutes are approved.

Now to committee minutes, they have been approved.

Kimani Karangu thanks the frontline workers in the chat, as it is 7 pm!

They're now seating some new councillors. Motion carries.

Now to external rep seatings.

Romualdi encourages councillors in the faculty of arts to join the faculty of arts council. Torin McLachlan is elected to the council.

Now to committee seatings. Motion carries.

Taryn Scarff is now on Elections committee. William Canero is now on the Strategic Planning ad hoc committee.

Now to affiliate organization recognition. These organizations want to be recognized as affiliate organizations. Motion carries.

Now to consent agenda items. Only one item in consideration today.

The committee chair is bringing the bylaw changes that weren't able to pass at the AGM due to lack of quorum. This motion would submit them to either the next AGM or a referendum.

Motion carries.

Now they're talking about a bylaw amendment that would amend policy manual and bylaws. This would also be submitted for the next AGM and/or the next referendum. This is not consent because there were some minor changes by the committee. Motion carries.

Another bylaw amendment! This to submit the creation of a separate fee to support Graduate Student Financial Aid to referendum. Initially it was sent to AGM, but according to the University Act actually has to go through referendum.

Romualdi said this program assists grad students in financial distress. Currently, the VP Academic can decide to fund or not to fund this program. This change would allow for specific funds to be collected for the financial aid program. Motion carries.

Final bylaw amendment to refer to the AGM or next referendum. Here are the changes:

Jackson Schumacher asks if there will be a conflict if someone is also holding office in a different student society, other than the AMS.

The CPC chair said they considered this, but they don't think it's an issue at this point.

This bylaw amendment is about the rules for executive elections.

Motion carries.

Alireza Kamyabi is presenting on the #StudentsforLoujain campaign.

ubyssey.ca/news/Loujain-a…

He said they've starting a campaign to call for the release of al-Hathloul, adding that the campaign & letter have been sent to student unions across the country. studentsforloujain.ca

He's seeking endorsement of the campaign. Here's the motion.

Kamyabi adds that this has been in collaboration with the AMS and the SUO and they want to act on it at soon as possible.

Kimani Karangu said this does go beyond their mandate as the GSS, but urges everyone to be compassionate and be brothers and sisters. He said we can not stand back and watch things go the wrong way.

Nicolas Romualdi also expresses his support. He said he would like to move an amendment to have the campaign including a disclaimer advising Saudi Arabian citizens to be careful before participating in the campaign, as it could result in issues for them.

Kamyabi said this might not need to add an be it resolved section, they can just add this to the letter and the website.

Romualdi said he has full faith in Kamyabi to communicate this.

Karangu advocates to keep the amendment.

Sarah Park asks why we don't have simply a blanket statement, to encourage all to consider the potential legal consequences?

Jackson Schumacher asks if they should reword it to say the GSS advises, rather than this would be included in the campaign as they might not have full control over that.

It's been reworded to 'the GSS advises caution.'

They're now voting on a motion to amend the amendment. This carries, confirming the wording of 'the GSS advises.'

Nevena Rebic provides alternate wording. The two options currently. They vote for the first option.

Another amendment has now been proposed. They're now voting between these two options. Motion carries, they chose the second option.

Romualdi encourages everyone to vote on this, and whichever way they vote the VPX understands the point they're trying to get across. Nailing the wording will not make much difference.

They're now voting on amending the original motion at all. Motion carries.

Finally back to the original motion. Motion carries.

Tayo Olarewaju is presenting the October and November 2020 report of GSS finances.

Cash & cash equivalent at the end of October & the month overview.

Olarewaju rushes through the individual exec's financial reports. Now to cash & cash equivalent for November, along with a visual overview.

No questions. Next to a discussion on remote invigilation from Nicolas Romualdi. He said this is the outcome of a long process of the GSS to develop its position on remote invigilation. The process:

He's now outlining the relevance to the GSS and highlights that half of grad students do actually take courses.

Romualdi says that there aren't actually any published studies yet on whether Proctorio is actually effective in curbing cheating. A quote from the partner success manager at Proctorio.

The GSS's remote invigilation principles: fitness for use, context appropriate, universally accessible, privacy & security, culturally & situationally respectful and unbiased.

They've presented these principles to many bodies, and next steps are discussion and decision in the Teaching & Learning committee.

Nevena Rebic thanks Romualdi and everyone involved for their work on this.

Final presentation of the night is 'SMART Goals End of Term Report' by the governance & accountability committee. The chair is going through some of the key goals moving forward.

Running through some context:
- March 2017, GSS Strategic Plan, 2017-2021

SMART goals help committees fulfill the GSS strategic plan on schedule.

Timeline for SMART goals:

Guide to the symbols and an chart of the goals of various GSS bodies.

The chair is now running through each committee and how they're doing on their SMART goals.

Highlights:

The chair said committees set realistic goals relevant to the strategic plan, and shouts out all committees for shifting online. He said they were all able to make substantial progress, despite the pandemic.

Next steps:
- tracking KPIs
- setting 2020/21 SMART goals
- improving the goal-setting process

The chair encourages further feedback.

They're looking over matters to note. Julia Burnham asks for more info on the petition discussion with the provost regarding the dean of the faculty of education.

Karangu said the provost reached out to the GSS to talk about the petition making rounds on social media.

He said they discussed the potential ways to mitigate the damage around the situation.

In the faculty of education, the current dean is retiring so they have hired a firm to look for a few candidates taken through the hiring committee, he explained.

During the search, a few students close to the issue said the searching process wasn't fair. According to the info he was given, Karangu said the situation did not reflect the spirit of equity, diversity and inclusion.

The petition, drafted by community members, was signed by 150 people. The provost gave a response, but they did not feel it was a sufficient response.

Karangu said the GSS was consulted and he did give his opinion on this issue.

The search has now been postponed to next year, where the university says it would be more transparent and open.

Burnham said she appreciated the confidential nature of the discussion, but asks if their meeting was before or after the memos went out to the faculty of education?

Karangu said they spoke to the provost after the petition made its rounds.

That is the end of the meeting! The next one in on January 21, at 5:30. See y'all in 2021!