Thursday, March 27, 2014

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To the mat! The Mustangs’ wrestling team impresses at junior senior championships. >> pg. 7

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THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014

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CANADA’S ONLY DAILY STUDENT NEWSPAPER • FOUNDED 1906

VOLUME 107, ISSUE 91

USC fails to post minutes USC on the hunt for Council meeting documents unavailable

student coordinators Dorothy Kessler GAZETTE STAFF

Iain Boekhoff GAZETTE

THE VOTES THAT GO UNDOCUMENTED. The USC has not posted any of the minutes from its council meetings since October of 2013, saying that backlog has prevented the documents from being put on the website.

Jesica Hurst ONLINE EDITOR If you’re interested in taking a look at any of the University Students’ Council minutes for meetings that took place after October 23, 2013, you’re out of luck. Despite the fact that it is nearing the end of the academic year, minutes for council meetings that took place on November 27, 2013 and January 22, February 26, March 12 and March 15 of 2014 are not yet available in the Councillors’ Corner section of the USC’s website, westernusc.ca. According to Jas Irwin, vicepresident communications for the USC, this lack of uploading is usual for this time of year. “We have one staff member who is tasked with managing all of our legislative materials at the USC,” Irwin explained. “At this time of year, it is not unusual to be delayed in compiling and posting the minutes.” Even though the minutes for these meetings have not been posted, Irwin explained the USC is acting in good faith by making council meeting video footage public and available, “albeit with the glamour and aesthetic of latenight Loblaws security footage.” However, Edward von Aderkas, news, sports and spoken word director at 94.9 CHRW, argues this video footage isn’t good enough for students or student media. “You can watch the videos that are up online at the moment that are four to six hours long, but

[T]his is a transparency issue. The student council represents your student government, and they are in charge of a certain amount of your money […] If you’re not sure about how your council members voted, or which council members attended, unless it’s online there’s no easy way for you to find that information. — Ed von Aderkas

News, sports and spoken word director at 94.9 CHRW

those are not the greatest audio quality and some of them are actually incomplete. For instance, the January 22 one starts halfway through Council business — it misses roll call, so you wouldn’t even know which councillors were there or not,” von Aderkas said. “It’s just the raw video thrown of students’ laps, and that’s not accessible for a lot of people.” Von Aderkas, who said he was irritated that he was the first person to bring this to the USC’s attention, also explained it is difficult for him and his volunteers at CHRW to do their job well when they don’t have the information

they need from the USC readily available. “Basically what I’m looking for is the minutes to summarize the meetings so I can get to material quicker. For some reason, past October, there’s nothing — it just stops,” he said. “Maybe not a lot of students are checking these minutes, which is probably why it’s taken until March of the 2013–14 academic year for people to figure it out, but students should still have the opportunity to check these [documents], and they should be up in a reasonable amount of time.” Von Aderkas also argued that while it is an annoyance for him personally, this is also an issue of transparency that the student body should be aware of. “The other, more altruistic reason is that this is a transparency issue. The student council represents your student government, and they are in charge of a certain amount of your money,” he said. “If you’re not sure about how your council members voted, or which council members attended, unless it’s online there’s no easy way for you to find that information.” Irwin agreed that the concern expressed is a valid one, and explained the USC is working hard to ensure the minutes are written and put on the website as soon as possible. “For the future, we can ensure that we do post attendance records immediately after the meeting, even [if ] minutes take a couple of days,” Irwin said.

Western’s University Students’ Council is looking to fill a variety of coordinator opportunities with Western students looking to get involved. “There’s a huge variability in the positions, which I think is an advantage because pretty much whatever your background, or interests or passions are, there’s probably a coordinator position that aligns with something you’re interested in,” Jas Irwin, vice-president communications, said. Irwin explained that the communications portfolio has positions in media, communications, PR and marketing, while there are opportunities in the internal or external portfolio if applicants’ interests are in policy and politics. Additionally, there are positions in advocacy, social justice, peer support, education and event planning. Irwin explained that in the past the people who work as coordinators have stumbled into the positions, and in the future, she hopes to give more publicity to the positions to reach more students. For this reason, the University Students’ Council website, westernusc.ca, has full descriptions for each coordinator position this year under the “Get involved” tab. Darani Urgessa is the student feedback coordinator, which was a newly created position last month. “Basically my role this year is

exactly how it sounds: To collect and gauge student feedback with regards to events, the USC as a whole, and maybe advocacy,” Urgessa said. Urgessa added that her successor should be responsible for continuously receiving feedback throughout the year through social media. “It’s also super cool because you get to meet new people, and I’m hoping that the person next year will get to expand and grow from my role,” Urgessa said. Nakita Coquin is the current Women’s Issues Network coordinator, and explained her role advocating for gender equality issues on campus. “This year we did a women in leadership conference where we had Sheryl Sandberg video-conference in,” Coquin said. Coquin explained that people should apply if they are passionate about gender issues and want to learn more, and if they want gender equality to be more sustainable on campus. Irwin added that there is no experience necessary in the USC to apply, as candidates will be judged based on enthusiasm and a capacity to learn. “I think we as an organization should do more, and I think we are doing more to highlight the work that volunteers do, and that being part of the USC is not just being a councillor — it’s being a part of the organization and furthering its work,” Irwin said.

Taylor Lasota GAZETTE


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