Special General Meeting Monday, March 26, 2007 Minutes Executives:
Jennifer Leaman, President Todd Embley, VP Finances & Administration Rick Sandu, VP Campus Life Matt Chong, VP Public Relations & Marketing Thomas Trowbridge, VP of Student Affairs Scott Haller, Manufacturing, Electronics and Industrial Process Chair Ron Asperin, Transportation, Construction & the Environment Chair Carlo Ocampo, Computing & Academic Studies Chair Julia Cornester, Health Sciences Chair Sukh Aujla, Business Chair
Councillors:
Amanda Harris Zhasmina Mihova Matt Crawford Paul Matthews Shane Gilbertson Doug Holdgate Emily Ho Yoojin Park
Sajan Zachariah Bryson Norrish Arun Randhawa Allan Olson Marlina Kinnersley Jennette Leung Brenda Corbett Tod Fraser
Staff:
Caroline Gagnon, Director
Geoff Gauthier, Editor
Excused:
Hyup Lee Rahil Lalani
Pankaj Garg
Members
Foaad Soleymany Nat Webber Gordon Shannon Momchil Dimitror Rav Sandhu Laura Grose Sayed Najibe
Brent Bergman Roberto Avendeno Nick Bevilacqua Richard Pendzimol Inzel Jugpal Ian Rodriguez
1. Meeting Called to Order The Chairperson, Jen Leaman, calls the meeting to order at 5:37 pm. 2. Acceptance of the Agenda It was moved that the agenda be approved as distributed. Moved by: Thomas Trowbridge Seconded by: Sukh Aujla 38/0/0 Carried
3. Business Jennifer explains that this meeting is to address the following motion.
Motion: Be it resolved that all student executives must remain full time students as defined by BCIT for their term in office. Moved by: Rick Sandhu Seconded by: Carlo Ocampo Amendment to motion: Be it resolved that full-time and part-time students attending for an entire school year session. Moved by: Ron Asperin Seconded by Julia Cornester 23/12/4 Carried • Ron explains that has 50,000 part-time students. This amendment is a better democratic process, as everyone can partake in the SA activities. • Jennifer states that this bylaw is changing the duties of executives and not the election by-laws. Comments: • Rick - full-time students use most of the services offered by the student association; therefore, full-time students are more aware of the needs. • Bryson - part-time students have other commitments (work, family). If they are not on campus, how can they do their job with the SA? • Julia - the number of hours expectation would be the same. If part-time students are coming outside of business hours, they could bring other ideas to Council. • Amanda – not all part-time students are evening students. • Ron – we should not generalize part-time students. • Jennette – under the current by-laws, councillor could be part-time students. • Gordon – with the amendment, it would eliminate the removing of executives during their time in office, which is strong handed. • Rick – what are executive models in other schools? Caroline – there are different models; students become part-time, while becoming full-time executives; and other schools have the same format as BCITSA, full-time students with part-time executive duties. Rick has issues with students staying in their position for many year and not staying progressive. • Emily – full-time students leaving for practicum outside of the Lower Mainland would have to leave office. She agrees that part-time students need to be represented. • Carlo wants members to refocus on full-time status - as long as a you take 3 classes your are still a full-time students. • Foaad – What is considered part-time? Jen - BCIT does not have the level of credits and hours. Gordon - it is based on 60% credit. • Julia - all students bring different experience. This amendment would remove people during the year. • Sukh does not feel that there are differences in the level of commitment between PT and FT. Under the amendment, PT correspondence students would now qualify for office. • Brenda – when people are voting for the candidates, they are under the impression that they will be FT in the up-coming year. PT students can presently be represented by becoming Councillors, which none have showed interest. • Todd – Although there are more PT, FT spend more time and could be weighted equal to PT.
• Scott – when elected people are FT, therefore if they become PT due to life issues, they can be evaluated based on performance. It would eliminate loosing good people. • Thomas – does not see how PT are not represented. We are trying to protect the SA from the worst-case scenario. Some commitments are required to be here on campus during business hours. • Gordon – What are the duties of Council? The Duties should guide the students’ decision. Jen goes over the duties. Jen explains that although not stipulated in bylaws, executives are expected to work 10 hours. • Roberto – when running, executive are committed to the position, and they are not staying for the money. But if status change, motivation could be affected. There are ways of dealing with these issues. • Amanda –This would be a rare case when students would change from FT to PT. Correspondence students could represent students that are in the same situation. • Julia – Correspondence student are not an issue as they could not perform their duties. The likelihood of having 10 people changing their status to FT to PT would be rare. • Rick – Most issues that are brought forward to him is about issues related to BCIT. By having PT students, they would not have the same level of needs that FT. If this becomes a FT position for people, how will they truly understand students? • Ian – When people are elected, they have to be FT. • Carlo – When looking at users of SA services, they are mainly FT. PT students have a different culture. They are in and out. It is a cheque and balance to ensure that people are staying connected. Motion: Call the question Moved by: Scott Haller 29/0/0
Seconded by Carlo Ocampo
14.11 Meeting adjourned It was moved by Julia Cornerster and seconded by Todd Embley to adjourn the meeting at 6:41pm. Carried