BUSAC Report for February 16th

Dear Council, please consider this report in conjunction with the report dated February 2nd, which was released as if a meeting were to take place at that time. It did not, so you will be approving a double-report at this meeting.

Fee Replacement Referendum

As many of you were well aware, I was tasked by BUSAC with running the Yes side of the Fee Replacement Referendum, and spent a very significant amount of time in the halls, and running that campaign during the election period. I am incredibly happy to say that this referendum passed, winning by 505 votes.

Thank you to everyone who helped out, and thank you to all candidates in all races. The winners have received and will continue to receive their congratulations. I want to give a special thank you to those candidates who ran and were unsuccessful. It takes a lot of courage, effort and desire to put your name forward in the public eye and deal with the scrutiny of a campaign process. You all brought ideas forward which will be used next year, and in years to come, to strengthen this organization, despite the fact that you may not be the one to implement them. For those of you who are remaining at Brock next year, I hope you still have the desire to remain involved through council and volunteer/staff efforts. For those of you who are moving on to bigger and better things, please don’t let this process sour your mood, efforts, and time you have spent here your last few years. We have all benefitted from your efforts and ideas, not just in the past two weeks, but from all you have done while you were here.


Senate & Humanities Language Credit Requirements

At the February 10th meeting, Senate voted to remove the faculty-wide requirement from Humanities students to complete a second-language credit. A second vote made this repeal a retroactive one to all students currently at Brock. Individual programs within the Humanities will now determine (some have done so already), what will take the place of that credit in their programs. Some departments will continue to require a language, and may be even more specific about which one to take, while some will replace it with a different required credit, and some will make it an elective. Please visit the main page of www.busu.net for the note to Humanities students which I posted within an hour of the vote for any more information you need.


Upcoming Referendum – Recreation Services

During these two weeks, I met with Karen McAllister-Kenny from Recreation Services to finalize the details for an upcoming referendum which is on the agenda for today’s meeting. Students currently pay $2.00 per credit for the Recreation Facilities Fee, but this fee is set to expire at the end of the summer term. This referendum seeks to renew this ancillary fee, and if it passes, will provide a guarantee that all students will receive the free access to the facilities (gyms, pool, courts, etc) which we do now, in perpetuity, and will initiate a process of collaboration between BUSU and Recreation Services to provide and/or repair gym equipment on the Hamilton Campus annually.


Brock TV

With Sohail on leave, I filled his seat on the Independent Student Filmmaker Designation Committee (ISFDC) which is mandated under the Brock TV referendum of last year. The first student has applied to be an Independent Student Filmmaker, and receive a portion of the 10% set-aside. This committee, which also included Sameer, laid out the parameters and logistics of how an ISF is designated and how the application process will work. We have reviewed the first application as well, and bring it to BUSAC at this meeting for approval as required by last year’s Memorandum of Understanding.


CASA

The International Branch Campuses policy has been finalized for translation to send to the CASA plenary in March. I was the Chair of the committee working on that policy, and have also spent some time commenting and contributing to the upcoming Childcare, Part Time Students, and Teaching Award policies.

I have also sent in my final comments on behalf of BUSU with respect to the proposed new CASA operating bylaws and new Board structure.


OUSA

On Friday the 12th, I attended an OUSA Steering Committee meeting in Toronto. Following the meeting, myself, Alexi, Dan and Justin travelled to the MTCU Offices for a meeting with four senior bureaucrats about the Multi-Year Accountability Agreement process. These are bilateral agreements between universities and the government regarding planning and quality targets. OUSA has proposed a new vision for how these operate alongside institutional planning, with an expanded role for student consultation and allowing universities to establish their own differentiation focuses in areas of strength to them.


Signing Authority + other responsibilities

During the leave of absences, I sat on the Club Policy Committee and approved two funding requests and a club ratification. I was also a BUSU signing officer for these two weeks, taking up some additional time. The Board of Directors did not need to meet in the past two weeks while I was a temporary Director.


School of Fine and Performing Arts

Last week, I finalized and sent off letters in support of the Marilyn I Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts to various government officials, including Dr. Lightstone, all local MPPs, and the Ministers of Training, Colleges and Universities, and Energy and Infrastructure, as well as the Premier. All indications are that there will be no new funding announcements until the provincial budget is delivered in late March, however. (This is very typical of most governmental cycles, they don’t announce new funding or money for about 60-days before a budget is delivered).


News from Across the Country

College Faculty

In a vote last week, college faculty members voted narrowly 51%-49% in favour of the latest contract offer from Colleges Ontario. However, due to the small margin, there are enough outstanding mail-in ballots that an official determination cannot be made. Once those mail-ins are counted, college students will finally know whether their year will be in jeopardy or not.

SFUO at University of Ottawa

In a very bizarre incident on February 5th, the President of the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa, Seamus Wolfe, was arrested by Ottawa Police.

The incident starts with background: student Marc Kelly had been barred from the university and deregistered from classes by the university for prior incidents on campus. He was also issued an order not to trespass on U of O property. Kelly entered campus and went to an SFUO-leased space, the Academic Appeals Office, to file his academic appeal to be reinstated to the university. The police arrived, and were ready to arrest him when SFUO intervened and claimed they were the legal occupiers of the office. Police asked Wolfe to obtain a copy of the lease for proof, however when he was gone obtaining this, they moved in any way to arrest Kelly.

Wolfe returned after the arrest, and angrily but peacefully demanded to know why the arrest took place while he was away obtaining the lease. At first, the officer refused to respond, but soon began answering angry questions with short responses. When Wolfe swore at the officer, he was arrested. The cameraman following the exchange was also threatened with arrest. View two videos of this incident at http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/2010/02/05/video-student-president-arrested/

Alberta Budget

In Alberta, the budget came out last week, including a 6% cut to post-secondary funding. Grants and scholarships were cut by nearly 40%, and students lost their provincial debt-ceiling, which used to stand at $28,560 for a four –year program. That cap was similar to the Ontario OSOG program, which in rough numbers for the traditional four-year undergraduate student caps debt at $28,000.

Students in Alberta may also be facing huge tuition hikes. While tuition is legally allowed to rise by 1.5% annually, the government is opening the door for one-time “market modifiers” to hike tuition levels in high-cost professional programs. At Calgary, courses in Business, Engineering, Law and Medicine could be facing hikes over 45% for next year.


VPUA Job Tip of the Week

Tip #10 – Statistics Canada and News Releases

Believe it or not, sometimes it is possible to see into the future. Or at least know what stories are going to be big news when, and on which day. A big part of your job is media monitoring, and getting the name of BUSU and the opinion of students into press coverage. On campus, local, provincial, national, whatever you can get.

How do you find out? A lot of media coverage circles data that is released by Statistics Canada. StatsCan doesn’t just throw out reports randomly however, they have a cycle of indicators and reports, and their website gives you a heads up on which days individual reports come out http://www.statcan.gc.ca/release-diffusion/2010-eng.htm. Most organizations, including CASA, OUSA, and (if you choose) BUSU, have their media releases and talking points written and prepared in advance of the data. You will often know the tone of the report, and student messaging is fairly consistent on key issues; they don’t often change from year to year or month to month. As soon as it’s posted, you plug in the numbers, and send. If you’re one of the first few out of the gate, you’re sure to hear a reporter on the phone within a few hours for your comment on the story.

Another way to know what’s coming up, or coming out, is monitoring the Canada News Wire (www.cnw.ca). This can also be followed via Twitter and RSS, other tips from my past. Basically, organizations who have a real important message, including governments, won’t just e-mail their stories directly to local media (like BUSU will), they’ll pay to post them on a national newswire for maximum coverage. OUSA and CASA, CFS and government will all use this medium for the most important releases. Often, organizations may also pre-release CNW, or post a newswire about an impending announcement or press conference to have media and other organizations perk their ears up about “tomorrow’s news”. By checking the newswire regularly, you’ll often know things before they happen, and can prepare BUSU for whatever response may be necessary.


Closing Lyric of the BUSAC

(Olympic Themed....I’ll be in Vancouver during Reading week!)

“I know this place is where I am
No other place is better than
No matter where I go I am
Proud to be Canadian
I love this country where I am
This land is where I make my stand
No other heart is truer than
The one we call Canadian
I am, you know I am
I am Canadian”
- Old Molson Canadian commercial