ams assembly2015/07/01 · agenda assembly 1. motion #1 – approval of the agenda of the meeting...
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AMS Assembly
Thursday, December 1st, 2016
7:30pm – Macdonald 001
Agenda
Assembly
1. Motion #1 – Approval of the Agenda of the meeting of December 1st, 2016
2. Motion #2 – Approval of the Minutes of the meeting of November 17, 2016
3. Speaker’s Business
4. Guest Speaker
a. George Jackson
5. President’s Report: President Tyler Lively
6. Vice-President’s Report
a. Operations: Vice-President Dave Walker
b. University Affairs: Vice-President Carolyn Thompson
7. Board of Director’s Report: Chairperson: Quinn Giordano
8. Undergraduate Student Trustee’s Report: Trustee Jennifer Li
9. Student Senator’s Report: Student Senate Caucus Chair Brandon Jamieson
10. Rector’s Report: Rector Cam Yung
11. Statements by Students
12. Question Period
13. Business Arising from the Minutes
14. New Business
a. Motion #3 – That AMS Assembly formally ratify and approve the AMS
Environmental Procedures Manual: Government as seen in Appendix: Hamlet
i. Presentation – Liam Dowling
b. Motion #4 – That AMS Assembly ratify Charlotte Corelli to the position of ORT
Coordinator for the 2017 year.
c. Motion #5 - That AMS Assembly approve the first reading on the changes to
Section 2.2.3 of the Constitution, as seen in Appendix: Othello
d. Motion #6 - That AMS Assembly approve changes to Policy Manual 4 as seen in
Appendix: Albany
15. Discussion Period
a. Fall Term Break – Carolyn Thompson
b. Where do We Go From Here? Addressing the AMS place in Reacting to Recent
Events on Campus – Carling Counter
16. Adjournment
Motion Sheet
1. Moved by: Miguel Martinez Seconded by: Tyler Lively
“That AMS Assembly approve the agenda for the Assembly meeting of December 1st,
2016.”
2. Moved by: Miguel Martinez Seconded by: Tyler Lively
“That AMS Assembly approve the minutes for the Assembly meeting of November
17, 2016.”
3. Moved by: Liam Dowling Seconded by: Carolyn Thompson
That AMS Assembly formally ratify and approve the AMS Environmental Procedures
Manual: Government as seen in Appendix: Hamlet
4. Moved by: Greg Kurcin Seconded by: Carolyn Thompson
That AMS Assembly ratify Charlotte Corelli to the position of ORT Coordinator for
the 2017 year.
5. Moved by: Jon Wiseman Seconded by: Susie Emerson
That AMS Assembly approve the first reading on the changes to Section 2.2.3 of the
Constitution, as seen in Appendix: Othello
6. Moved by: Ryan Pistorius Seconded by: Carolyn Thompson
That AMS Assembly approve changes to Policy Manual 4 as seen in Appendix: Albany
Dear Members of Assembly,
Please find below updates on what I have been working on over the past two weeks.
AMS Governance | We are in the process of drafting an in-depth backgrounder and
discussion paper on AMS corporate and society governance.
John Deutsch University Centre | We have spent much of our time preparing for a few
upcoming meetings. Our project team will be touring the Board of Trustee’s Capital and
Assets and Finance Committee on Friday, and presenting to senior administrators the
following week.
Fall Term Break | The Task Force has been engaged in consultations over the past two
weeks. Members of the Task Force have met with most Faculty Societies, SOARB, and
many Faculty Boards. We met as a committee last week, and discussed the initial results
of the survey and consultation sessions. Members of the task force and student body at
large have expressed concerns over move-in day being fixed on Labour Day weekend.
TRC Task Force | A number of AMS representatives attended the final Truth and
Reconciliation Committee Task Force consultation last week. Attendees discussed
awareness of indigenous issues and peoples on campus, and the campus climate as it
relates to the aforementioned. The Task Force is anticipated to present a final report in
February. We will update at Assembly at that time.
External Alignment | We have visited nearly all Faculty Societies. Our aim is to meet
before the Winter Break to discuss our findings, and start to hone in on the themes we
want our report to address.
Tyler
The President of the Alma Mater Society
Report to Assembly
Tyler Lively
Dear assembly,
I have a few updates that me be of interest for you!
Student Life Centre I The Student Life Centre Management Board, which is comprised of a SGPS, AMS,
and Queen’s representative met this past week and approved a capital expenditure to purchase a new
security gate for The Brew. As it currently stands, the 20-25 seats are only available during the
operational hours. With this improvement all students will be able to use those as study space 24/7. The
installation will be taking place over the holiday break.
Event Sanctioning I Earlier last week I met with Event Services to continue to address the event
sanctioning process with all parties involved. They expressed their interest in working together to create
an integrated system which would prevent student groups from having to reach out to all of the parties
involved individually.
Evaluations I Corporate evaluations are well under way and have been a great learning process for all
involved. This is the second set of evaluations for all 12 month staff. The purpose of which is to identify
areas of improvement for our managers to ensure that they are creating effective and positive work
environment’s within the services.
As always, let me know if you have questions!
Dave
Vice President (Operations)
Report to Assembly
Dave Walker
Dear Members of Assembly,
OUSA
This week, from Monday to Wednesday, Leah and I are in Toronto for 'lobbycon' to lobby MPP's at
Queen's Park. I will give a verbal update about the week at assembly on Thursday.
Special Projects Grant
The Board committee and I have met to talk about the 15 special projects grant applications we
received. There were many good contenders. We are finalizing additional questions we want to ask
applicants. We hope to have the money approved by the beginning of December.
Racial and Ethnic Diversity at Queen's
As many of you probably know, Queen's was in Canadian media this past week in regards to a student
costume party held in the University District. Thursday the AMS in conjunction with the Human Rights
Office is holding a forum to discuss racial and ethnic diversity at Queen's and action we should be taking
moving forward to address this problem. The Facebook event for this forum is here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1185962368166789/ please come, discuss and listen.
Queen’s Culture
Last week Rector Yung and I had the opportunity to meet with Drs Heather Stuart and Terry Krupa of the
School of Rehabilitation Therapy. They talked about their research to understand Queen’s drinking
culture. It was their research that led to the development of Queen’s For the Boys. We are interested in
continuing this conversation, especially in relation to the Journal article written about Prof Emeritus
Geoff Smith.
Francis and I had a conversation with Geoff and Councillor Peter Stroud to discuss the problems he sees
with Queen’s drinking culture (link to relevant journal article here:
http://www.queensjournal.ca/story/2016-11-11/news/student-drinking-culture-sparks-counter-
initiative-by-former-professor/). Francis and I offered some alternate suggestions to his such as the
implementation of the landlord summit in February and looking into campus security off campus
response program to deal with this problem.
Yours,
Carolyn Thompson
Vice President (University Affairs)
Vice President (University Affairs)
Report to Assembly
Carolyn Thompson
Dear Assembly,
I’ve had lots of smaller projects going on in the last two weeks, so here are some highlights!
Internal AAC
Last week we had a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Academic Accommodation, and the
committee started working on the Academic Considerations policy, which explains the procedures for
when a student needs short-term or temporary accommodations made when students are experiencing
extenuating circumstances, such as a personal crisis, a physical injury, or a family emergency. Cam and I
had some concerns with the policy, so we will be meeting with Jenn Dodds, the Director of Student
Wellness Services, to go over these concerns.
The Turnitin Implementation Group has been busy meeting, planning the pilot for how this
software will be implemented. I was concerned about how students’ privacy concerns will be addressed
with this process, so I spoke to Carolyn Heald, the university privacy officer, to get her insight. The
compromise we can to on the committee was that if students have concerns about TurnItIn having their
work in their database, they can opt to have their work not saved into any of the databases, so once it is
scanned for plagiarism their work will not be saved into the system.
The Undergraduate Research and Inquiry subcommittee met again this week, and discussed
how we can best advance undergraduate research at Queen’s. There was discussion about centralizing
and ‘branding’ our opportunities to make these more attractive to students and employers.
The Commission’s committees have been very busy. The Teaching Awards Committee has
collected all nominations for professors and TAs for the AMS teaching awards, and has begun auditing
these classes. The Student Faculty Relations Committee held their “Last Lecture on Earth” event on
Wednesday, November 23rd, hosting Commerce professor Matthias Spitzmuller. The event was a huge
success, and the committee did an outstanding job planning and executing this event! The Academic
Grievance Centre has been holding extended hours whenever possible in our shared space to
accommodate the higher number of grievances we typically get around this time! We are always open
Monday-Friday from 10-12, so feel free to drop by!
External AAC
Commission of Academic Affairs
Report to Assembly
Leah Brockie
Bianca, the Policy Deputy, and Karlee, our External Advocacy Coordinator did a fantastic job this
past week running our OUSA Working Integrated Learning campaign on campus. They collected
responses from students about what their work integrated learning experience was, and these
responses will be sent to OUSA to inform our future lobbying efforts. The volunteers in the commission
did an amazing job, especially Katie Willson, our Policy Committee Chair!
Carolyn and I will be at OUSA’s Lobby Conference from Sunday, November 27th to Wednesday,
November 30th at Queen’s Park. We will be meeting with numerous MPPs (and hopefully Ministers!)
about our three lobby priorities – the tuition framework, data collection, and sexual violence prevention
and response.
Hope you have been enjoying the snow! Let me know if you have any questions!
Leah
Commission of Campus Activities Report to Assembly Greg Kurcin
Hello Assembly:
Can you believe that it’s almost the end of Week 12? How the semester has flown by! I’m really excited
to be speaking to you this week about the AMS Environmental Procedures Manual. As well, I have
updates regarding the events and activities that are occurring in the commission. I’d be happy to take
any questions
EPM | Attached to this week’s agenda you will find the completed Environmental Procedures Manual:
Government. The contents of this policy reflect months of drafting and consultation. I will be happy to
take any questions regarding this after my presentation.
SAF | This past week the SAF granting committee finalize our funding decisions. If you have any
questions about the final decisions or would like to know more about the Sustainability Action Fund,
please feel free to reach out
UDBrite | This Saturday, December 3rd, one of the Commission’s committees Greenovations will be
heading out into the University District. There they will be knocking on doors in the hopes of replacing as
many incandescent porch lights as possible. If you’re interested in getting involved or would like your
house retrofitted for free, please let me or the co-chairs know.
SFS | Students for Sustainability will be hosting a sustainability awareness event at Cogro on December
5th. There will be live music, crafts and giveaways so be sure to check it out and destress during exams.
Sustainable Queen’s Forum | This past Monday night, we had our first Sustainable Queen’s Forum of
the year. This forum is an opportunity for the various sustainability and environmental groups on
campus to come together, network and assist each other with events and promotions. Our next meeting
will be taking place in January so be sure to stay tuned!
OOTD | This week’s organism is the fungi genus known as Ophiocordyceps or more commonly known as
zombie ant fungi. What this organism does is infect passing by ants. Once inside, it releases special
chemicals that essentially causes the ant to lose all control over its own motor functions. The fungus
Commission of Environmental Affairs
Report to Assembly Liam Dowling
then instructs the ant to climb up some plants and hang upside down. The fungus continues to grow out
of the ants head until it starts sprouting out spores which float down to ants that are passing
underneath and thus, the life cycle continues.
Thanks and I’m happy to take any questions,
Liam Dowling
Commissioner of Environmental Affairs
Hi All!
Here’s what I’ve been up to for the past weeks:
Housing Fair:
The housing fair was a great success with over 400 students attending! The 20+ landlords who attended
were very pleased with the turnout, and are looking forward to the next one in Fall 2017!
Youth Employment Task Force:
The Youth Employment Task Force has started to meet again! The AMS is a partner on many of the
initiatives, such as connecting students to the community and shaping the jobs of the future! We’ll be
ramping up our efforts to help them out in the coming weeks, as this is a crucial time in the execution of
the recommendations which were approved by the City a few months ago.
Workforce Design Sessions:
A large part of my goal plan was dedicated to community involvement, especially when it comes to
retention rates, and jobs for students during the summer months. Similar to the Task Force mentioned
above, I’ve been participating in smaller sessions, designed to work out strategies of keeping graduates
around, opening new doors, and finding new jobs.
February Summit:
The anonymous housing survey is going out this week! Look for it on the AMS website in order to tell us
about your experience living in the University District. We want to shape what the district will look like
in the coming years, work out processes for accountability, and better our landlord-tenant relations!
District Associations:
I’ve been meeting more frequently with the nearby district associations, and I’m pushing plans forward
with them which would involve them in the UD Summit, and help them get more involved in the student
community. Not only do we want to get more students out in the community, we also want to involve
the community in our decision-making processes.
That’s about all for now!
Francis Campbell
Commission of Municipal Affairs Report to Assembly Francis Campbell
Happy December Assembly!
Congratulations on making it to the final stretch of the semester. It’s been a hectic few weeks, but
here’s an update on what has been happening in the SIC:
Collective Reflections
Collective Reflections has started their submissions drive for this year’s publication. They are showcasing
student work on topics relating to race & racism, accessibility, mental health, sexual and gender
diversity, feminism and poverty. Submissions can be anything that can be printed (poems, stories,
paintings, photographs etc.) and can be emailed to [email protected] and the deadline is
currently set for December 1st.
An open discussion about racial and ethnic discrimination at Queen’s
If you’re reading this before Assembly, it means you still have the opportunity to come out to our open
discussion on race and racism at Queen’s. As student leaders, I strongly encourage (urge) you to attend
and listen to the voices of our student body so that we can all work on this together. Senior
administration will also be there to listen and hopefully they will also walk away with some takeaways
but also an understanding of the importance of having an ongoing dialogue surrounding the culture and
environment here at Queen’s.
SIC Committees
The committees within the SIC have been doing a lot of hard and phenomenal work this semester. They
have hosted a variety of events, while valuing the importance of having an intersectional lens in the
work that they do. They have incited anti-oppressive dialogue on campus in empathetic, caring and
productive ways.
AMS Food Bank and Peer Support Centre
Both of the SIC services have been running extremely well and are working to support students with all
their might. They have seen a steady increase in usage compared to last year and have been working
diligently to ensure that they are able to provide the same quality of support to students. Mariana and
Cole are always open to talking about any questions you may have about either of their services.
Please remember that my door is always open, and I am always happy to chat about anything and
everything that is on your mind/happening for you.
I’m here for you,
Lea
Commission of Social Issues Report to Assembly Lea Keren
Hello Assembly,
I have nothing of importance to report on.
Hope everyone is having a great week and is ready for the break because I know I am!
Miguel
Office of the AMS Secretariat Report to Assembly Miguel Martinez
Judicial Affairs Office
Report to Assembly
Ryan Pistorius
Dear Assembly,
I have a couple of interesting updates this week, as you’ll see from the attached appendices.
Firstly, as you’ll see from the AMS NAM report for first semester, the office has (as of writing
this report) received 28 cases, approximately 2/3 of the total cases received last year. The report
included in this agenda will provide insight into the types of cases, sanctions, complainants,
and so on, and allow you to compare this year’s operations to that of previous years. It should
be noted that this report was previously submitted to the Senate through SONAD (the Senate
Committee on Non-Academic Discipline), and then published for all students to see; however,
because of new reporting mechanisms, this is no longer the case, and thus Assembly is being
directly provided with a copy of the report.
Secondly, you’ll see a number of changes to AMS Policy Manual 4. As discussed back at the
Assembly meeting of November 3rd, Vice-President Thompson and I have worked, along with
President Lively, Lyn Parry, to create new policy on judicial independence which fills the gap
left after the removal of the removal clauses (in Section 5 of PM4) for the Judicial Affairs Office.
President Lively and I also met with Lisa Newton, University Counsel, to discuss further
changes to PM4 in order for the document to be approved as per the Agency Agreement.
This brings me to the final point, which is the Agency Agreement itself. Some of you may have
seen a copy of this agreement, but for those of you who have not, you’ll find it attached to this
agenda. This document, which is to be re-signed annually, forms the basis of the delegation of
authority to the AMS under the new NAM system. It also includes a number of clauses which
have made policy necessary, hence it is in your interests to see a copy of the actual document.
Fiat justitia ruat caelum,
Ryan
AMS Board of Directors Chair Report to Assembly Quinn Giordano
Dear Assembly,
Countdown: 4 days. (As of November 28, 2016)
The Board of Trustees is meeting this Friday, December 2nd and Saturday, December 3rd! Items on the
agenda include the approval of the amended Sexual Violence Policy, a consultation session with the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission Task Force, and presentations by the Director of the Dan School of
Drama and Music and the Executive Director of the Dunin-Deshpande Queen’s Innovation Centre.
The full Board of Trustees agenda will be released on Monday, November 28 and will be available on the
Governance Portal.
If you’re interested in attending the open sessions on Friday evening and Saturday morning, email
[email protected] to reserve your spot. I am also happy to meet with anyone in advance of the
meetings to discuss concerns or questions.
Recognizing that it has been a difficult week, I urge you all to take time to practice self-care and to reach
out for support if you need it. As we wrap up the Fall Term and head into exams, I wish you all the best.
Remember – you are not alone.
Sending smiles and hugs and puppy videos,
Jennifer Li
Undergraduate Student Trustee Report to Assembly Jennifer Li
Nothing to Report on. Senate meets on Tuesday. Oral Report at Assembly
Student Senate Caucus Chair Report to Assembly Brandon Jamieson
Dear Assembly, Let me begin my report by addressing the Beer Fest party that was hosted on the weekend of November
19th-20th. The costumes that were present at the part were acts of racism and cultural appropriation. The
behaviour and actions demonstrated in the photos are contradictory to all that this University and its
student body stand for: inclusivity and diversity. This behaviour is not, and should not be condoned, nor
should it reflect on the character of our student body.
I am hurting. Much of the student body is hurting. I implore the Queen’s student body to please have
accountable discussions with one another to learn from this event. We need to be able to listen to people
who have different opinions with respect. We need to be able to educate each other, but more importantly
ourselves. We need to ask questions, create a space to hold discussions with each other and show that we
want to learn more and that we are working together to prevent this from taking place again. It will show
that we want to do better.
We need to do better. We need to be better.
Agnes Benidickson Tricolour Awards | There have been a few responses about representatives from
faculty societies to sit on the Selection Committee. Faculty societies who with representatives at this point
are:
- the Engineering Society
- the Commerce Society
- the Nursing Science Society
- the Concurrent Education Students’ Association
- the Physical Education/Kinesiology Students’ Society
As such, I will be reaching out to the unrepresented societies to please nominate someone from their
society prior to December 21st.
Another reminder that the due date for the nomination packages will be Wednesday, December 21st at
5:00pm to the AMS or SGPS offices.
Truth and Reconciliation Consultations | The last Truth and Reconciliation Consultation took place last
Wednesday, November 23rd. The general discussion topic was what Awareness and Climate on Queen’s
Campus. Ideas of how to raise awareness and visibility of Indigenous Peoples on campus were discussed.
Thank you to the many student leaders who attended these consultations. These were truly important steps
to creating a more inclusive community at Queen’s.
Caring Campus Project | The Provost, Dean of Student Affairs, VP of Advancement, VP of Marketing,
Carolyn, and myself met with the directors of the Caring Campus Project, Dr. Heather Stuart and Dr.
Terry Krupa to discuss the Caring Campus Project, Queen’s For The Boys, and the drinking culture on
campus. This was a very educative meeting and hopefully we will continue to discuss this as we move
forward.
University Rector Report to Assembly Cam Yung
Royal Society of Canada | The Royal Society of Canada is an institution encompassing three Academies
(The Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada) held their Annual General Meeting in
Kingston. The meeting ended with a dinner where our own Nobel Prize Winner, Arthur McDonald gave a
speech about encouraging the Canadian researchers to nominate one another for their exceptional work,
as Canada has much to showcase.
Fall Convocations | The last of the 2016 Convocations were held a couple of weeks back.
Congratulations to the Graduating Class of 2016, and to the honorary degree recipients. One notable
recipient was Michelle MacLaren, a graduate of Queen’s, she has worked in the film industry for 30
years, directing and producing famous TV series such as The X-Files, Law & Order, Breaking Bad, The
Walking Dead, and Game of Thrones. Her speech was moving and inspirational with a focus of being
good to people.
Princeps Servesque Es
Cam Yung
35th Rector of Queen’s University
Dear members of assembly,
Hello everyone! I can hardly believe that the semester is almost done. This being our last
meeting I wanted to wish you all a happy holidays and good luck in all of your exams.
Audit:
The Audit was concluded through the General Assembly.
Society Events:
ResSoc is ran an exclusive event for our constituents that took place on Wednesday
November 16th. We had the pre-screening of the movie which received a high turnout and a lot
of positive reviews. The movie that we played was Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them.
First Year Experience Fund:
We have just concluded the application process and has been processed by general
assembly. The applications and money that the committee has deemed to be reasonable has been
emailed to the successful applicants. We handed out $24,000 to applicants which asked for over
$33,000.
RF Hiring:
RF hiring has been opened and applications are up on our website. We are also advertising
in the ARC, and a few other facilities on Campus. Our info booths are in full swing and be in
operation over the next few weeks across campus.
As always, if you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask.
Warmest regards,
Chance Spencer
President & CEO of The Residence Society Inc.
106C Victoria Hall
75 Bader Lane
Kingston, ON K7L 3N8
Phone: 613-533-6216
Residence Society President
Report to Assembly
Chance Spencer
Dear Assembly,
Here is what ASUS has been up to!
BeerFest Incident
ASUS has released a statement regarding the incident on our Facebook page. Brian and I believe that as
elected officials, we should not be normalizing these incidents. We have received many messages from students regarding how much they appreciated our statement, and what it means to them. When real
incidents happen on campus, it is our job as student leaders to take action. We strongly urge other Faculty Societies to do the same.
We have worked closely with the Faculty office regarding this incident, and have encouraged them to take
action. As such, the Dean of Arts and Science has issued a statement at Faculty Board that can be found
here. Furthermore, Faculty Board voted unanimously to endorse both ASUS’ and the Faculty’s statements,
and strongly recommended for the Dean’s office to implement, wherever possible, the recommendations of
the 2011 Diversity, Anti-Racism, and Equity Task Force. However, this will require a second vote. If passed,
we will be working closely with the Faculty moving forward.
Facilities Director
ASUS Assembly has created a new position, Facilities Director, in order to manage the operations and
maintenance of all ASUS space, including the Red Room. We will be hiring upon the start of the Winter
Semester. If you are interested in operations and project management, this position will be great for you.
Financial Assistance Fund
ASUS will now reallocate an amount (at the discretion of ASUS Assembly) from the annual surplus into
financial assistance for students. In short, this fund will assist students within ASUS by offering bursaries
for events and conferences which have not traditionally allocated any financial assistance. This year, we
have allocated $15,000 towards financial assistance towards all ASUS initiatives, from Orientation Week,
peer tutoring, and jackets. We are extremely proud to have made this step forward in improving financial
accessibility within ASUS!5
Grading Transparency
I have been working closely with the Faculty in improving the grading practices of Arts and Science students.
We are currently discussing the merits of having either 30% of a course grade before the academic drop
deadline (i.e. Week 08) and/or 50% of a course grade before the exam period. As of right now, the Faculty
believes that the 30% metric is more feasible and reasonable, and would also limit the volume of academic
appeals that occur. Other potential solutions include (i) better informing instructors of academic drop
deadlines when creating courses, (ii) implementing feedback deadlines into all syllabi, and (iii) mandate the
uploading of all grades online. I am also advocating for a proactive approach rather than a retroactive one,
meaning that all future courses will be subject to this limitation. This makes sense because there are a
Arts and Science Undergraduate Society President Report to Assembly Darrean Baga
panel of students on Curriculum Committee. The Faculty, along with ASUS, plans on releasing a survey on
grading access before exams at the beginning of the next semester, in order to obtain data that I can
present to the Faculty.
Undergraduate Research
I have been working closely with the Faculty in planning the hub. We will be releasing the first iteration of
the research hub in February or March 2017. This will include undergraduate research profiles from each
department (if available). If yourself or your peers are willing to participate, please contact Mitchell Thibault
at [email protected]. The current research website has faculty members who are conducting
interesting research, as well as their contact information and published works. The website will also include
agglomerating all research funding sources and explain how to obtain a summer- or year-long research
experience. ASUS Research Journals will also be featured, further legitimizing our publications and we hope
that this will increase readership and contribution rates.
Red Room Revitalization
We are in the process of reviewing the final quote prior to agglomerating the funding for the project. This
is because Brian and I have realized that our funds could be better spent on new tables with outlets and chairs rather than on sound-absorbing panels. Once the final cost estimates have been provided, we will
commence the revitalization process. Physical Plant Services estimates a length of two-weeks from start to finish. This project is slated for completion by the end of January.
That’s all from me, and I’d be more than happy to take any questions. I wish you all the best of luck with
exams and your final papers.
Respectfully submitted,
Darrean Baga Brian MacKay Victoria Chappell Carling Counter
ASUS President ASUS Vice-President ASUS Representative ASUS Representative
Craig Draeger Ben Evans Nicholas Maida Alexandra Romanski
ASUS Representative ASUS Representative ASUS Representative ASUS Representative
Hello Assembly!
Happy week 12!!
ESSCO
ESSCO is the engineering equivalent of OUSA. EngSoc has been constantly evaluating our
relationship with ESSCO (similar to what assembly is doing right now with OUSA) and after a 3
year long hiatus, we have re-joined as partial members (Ontario Engineering Competition Only
Members), which means we can send our students to OEC (the Ontario Engineering
Competition).
Fall Reading Break
After our last Engineering Society Council meeting, I drafted a letter from the Engineering
Society to the Fall Term Task force to summarize the opinions that Engineering Students. Our
Associate Dean Academic, Dean Clapham also presented our opinions to the Faculty at Faculty
Board.
Conference on Diversity on Engineering
Delegates from Queen’s Engineering went to the conference on diversity in engineering this
past weekend, and I think they learned a lot. I am excited for them to pass on what they learned
to other Queen’s Engineering students!
Position Descriptions
The engineering society is working towards creating comprehensive position descriptions for
all involvement opportunities we offer students, and after much preparation, we sent out many
survey’s on Sunday. I look forward to collecting the results!
Hiring Town Hall
This past week the HR department of EngSoc hosted a hiring town hall meeting, where
students were able to voice their opinions about our hiring process!
That’s all from us! Have a lovely holiday break!
Cheers!
Taylor
Engineering Society President Report to Assembly Taylor Sawadsky
Commerce Society President Report to Assembly Bhavik Vyas
Hello Assembly,
Happy holiday’s!! I hope that everyone is looking forward to some well-deserved time off from school.
Orientation week head-coach hiring
Congratulations to Aidan Kerr on being selected as the 2017 Head Coach for the PHEKIN
orientation week. We are very excited to have him on board and we are cannot wait to see the amazing
week that him and the rest of the executive team bring together.
BPHE Suspension
At the end of last week, we hosted our last formal consultation event for students with regards to
the BPHE program closure and visioning for the future of the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies.
We are always welcome to additional feedback and input from students, as we want to ensure that all
students have had their voices heard. The vision for the future of the School will be a conversation that
continues and we will ensure that students have the opportunity to continue to contribute.
All the best,
Matt
PHEKSA President
Jess Leach – VPUA
Sarah Skelding – Equity & Wellness Officer
Physical Education and Kinesiology Students’ Association President Report to Assembly Matthew Nelms
Hello Assembly!:
Meeting with the Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies at the Faculty of Education
Katey, our Academics Affairs Commissioner, and I had a very successful meeting with Don
regarding the results of the Con-Ed Academic Survey. He was receptive to the results and our
feedback as he looks to enhance the academic experience of Con-Ed Students. Thank you to
Katey for all of her hard work throughout this semester preparing and presenting this report!
Fall Term Break Consultation
CESA’s consultation with our Senator, Scott Kell, went very well and there was a lot of valuable
discussion that took place! Con-Ed students are looking forward to the results of the Fall Term
Break survey and are excited to see what the committee recommends!
Changes to CESA’s Group Hiring Processes
At our last Council meeting, we made many substantial policy changes with respect to our
group hiring processes, all of which passed unanimously! This was the culmination of a lot of
work with feedback, consultations and policy-writing, and it satisfying concluded on Sunday.
The hiring panels for our Orientation Executive and Conference Executive were revamped, and
the structure of group interviews was slightly altered.
Thank Yous and Welcome!
I’d like to thank the outgoing Orientation Executive Team, Emma, Trev, Mike, Rebecca and
Charlotte, for all the hard work they put into each of their portfolios! I’d also like to welcome
Chloe, Bronte, Grace, Kevin and Aubrey who now begin their roles on CESA as Orientation
Executives for 2017!
That’s all from me. Have a great exam period and break! Thanks for reading my report,
Jacob
Concurrent Education Students’ Association President Report to Assembly Jacob Gardhouse
Dearest Assembly,
We cannot believe the end of another semester is here. For the both of us, that means that the NSS
2016 year has come to a close. It is unbelievable to think that an entire year in office has gone by just
like that. We are tremendously grateful for the opportunity to have served alongside each of you in the
AMS world and with our amazing team back at the NSS. We couldn’t have made it through without the
endless dedication of each member of NSS, and would like to pay a special shout out to our VP
Operations, Ruixi Sheng for all of her work on the Exec Team.
At this time, we are thrilled to announce the hiring of our 2017 NSS Council, and the election of our new
2017 NSS Executive. We’re pleased to announce that the students have re-elected President Palmeri for
one more year in office- how exciting! We have two new VPs coming into office: VPUA-elect Cortnie
Lortie & VPOPS-elect Geoffrey Tai. We cannot wait for Team AGC to get started. This year marks the first
time that NSS has hired its Council, as in previous years they were elected into their positions. We
received record-shattering interest for these positions and are thrilled to announce the following
successful candidates:
Rowan Sanford Ladon – Health & Wellness Commissioner
Erin Roach – Social Issues Commissioner
Matthew Secord – Academics & Professional Development Commissioner
Christine Figeys – Events Commissioner
Kaitlyn Meloche – CNSA Official Delegate
Holly Dye – CNSA Associate Delegate We have the utmost confidence in the newly elected executive and council. NSS 2017 will certainly be a
year to remember!
With this in mind, we would like to take a moment to congratulate NSS 2016 on all of their hard work
and successes. We’ve learned so much and have made it a year dedicated to giving back to the students
and improving the NSS for future years to come.
We wish everyone the best moving forward! Be sure to come check out Café Disco this week and our
brand new student lounge reveal coming soon! All the best to our amazing fourth year nursing students
who are leaving for their final integrated practicums this January!
With love… Peace out and take care!
Vincat Scientia Morbos,
Alexandra Palmeri & Courtney Middegaal
NSS President | NSS VPUA
Nursing Science Society President Report to Assembly Alexandra Palmeri
Members of Assembly,
It’s amazing how quickly this term has flown by! COMPSA has been making a lot of small
internally-related changes in the past couple weeks so again we don’t have too much to
report. We’re excited for classes to end so that we can continue making changes and
preparing for all of next term’s events.
Qumulus, formerly known as COMPSA Web Services, is currently hiring its Operations
Team and Advisory Board. Due to limited availability of the hiring committee during the last
week of the term, the application deadline was extended to Wednesday November 30th at
9:00pm. Positions are open to students from all faculties, so if you are reading this report
prior to the application deadline, please encourage your constituents to apply! We are excited
to launch this new, rebranded service in the next term.
Yours,
Aniqah Mair
President, Computing Students’ Association
Computing Students’ Association President Report to Assembly Aniqah Mair
MBA Students President Report to Assembly Sanjeetha Gutnaratnam and Michael Huskilson
Appendices
APPENDIX HAMLET
Due to the length of the Environmental Procedures Manual, please find a link to access
it here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwUtjcDMy5m9bGhNS0t0OVpvNUU/view?usp=sharing
APPENDIX OTHELLO Moved by: Jon Wiseman, Seconded by: Susie Emerson
Section 2.02 Executive of the Society
2.2.3 Incumbent members of the AMS Executive shall not be eligible to run for re-election but
shall be eligible to run in a subsequent year. The AMS Human Resources Officer, The AMS
Secretariat, Assembly Speaker/Chief Electoral Officer, Chief Returning Officer and Deputy
Returning Officers shall not be eligible to run for an AMS Executive position in the academic year
in which they hold or have held that position.
Purpose: This motion seeks to complete housekeeping on the split of the Speaker and Chief Electoral
Officer, as initiated at the end of the 2014-2015 year. Last year was the first year in which the Speaker
and Chief Electoral Officer were separate – the former being elected by assembly, the latter being a
hired position under the AMS Secretariat.
APPENDIX ALBANY
Policy Addition or Amendment
Submission Form
Policy Document(s): Policy Manual 4
Section(s): 2(G), 4, 5, and 6 (all in Chapter I)
Mover Seconder
Name: Ryan Pistorius Name: Carolyn Thompson
Position: Judicial Affairs Manager Position: Vice-President (University Affairs)
Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected]
Executive Summary (1-page maximum – font size 11pt)
Briefly summarize the rationale for the proposed policy change. Please identify the problem the change attempts to solve, and how the change will solve it.
There are two primary reasons for the changes today. Firstly, when the policy was first amended this year, on October 5th, Section 5 was left untouched pending future updates. Then, when the hiring and removal clauses in Section 5 were amended on November 3rd, the remaining parts of the section were not updated. As a result, the earlier changes to ensure accurate terminology (e.g. “Manager” instead of “Director”, “Chair” instead of “Chairperson”), gender neutrality, and updated cross-references are now being proposed to bring Section 5 up to speed with the rest of Chapter I. These changes also happened before replacement policy outlining judicial independence could be drafted; this policy has now been created by the AMS Executive and the Judicial Affairs Manager, on consultation with the AMS General Manager, the University Secretary and Corporate Counsel, and AMS legal counsel, amongst others (and it may be found in Section 3: Judicial Affairs Office). The second reason is the NAM Agency Agreement with the University. One of the terms of this agreement is that the University, through the Vice-Principals’ Operations Committee (VPOC), may review our policies and procedures for administering NAM. At a meeting attended by President Lively and myself on November 7th, VPOC approved the policy subject to review by Lisa Newton, the University Counsel. Last Friday (Nov. 25th), the three of us met to discuss necessary changes to policy, resulting in most of the changes you will see to Sections 4 (regarding the list of violations) and 6 (regarding Form 6 and open hearings). As for a brief overview of the changes: Section 2:
- G: The Judicial Affairs Office already serves as the representative of the complainant in all hearings and settlement agreements, so this just makes that clear to readers
Section 4:
- 4(D).I was incorporated into 4(D) itself, with some formatting and language changes to allow for the new subsections I-V to make sense
- The new 4(D).I now makes direct reference to the Code of Conduct, whilst subsections II-IV refer to the other rules and regulations over which the AMS has jurisdiction (formerly included as sub-subsections under the old 4(D).I)
- 4(D).V is new, referring to a new and unique situation where we technically have jurisdiction over any case assigned to us
- 4(I).VI was changed from Senate to Provost to recognize the new procedures; this power used to reside in SONAD, which no longer exists
- The old list of violations was moved under 4(D).II, with some slight alterations and the removals of the violations which directly and completely overlapped with the Code of Conduct (in other cases, where violations matched closely but were still identifiably different, the violation listing in AMS Policy Manual 4 was kept)
Section 5:
- 5(A) was moved under “Appointment”, to become Section 5(A).I
- 5(B).III was updated to remove the JCOMM exclusion from ratification; given that it is Assembly which is responsible for removing members of the Judicial Committee, it makes sense that Assembly first ratify these individuals to their positions (as was done this year in anticipation of this policy change)
- 5(B).V was previously moved to Section 3 on October 5th, 2016
- 5(C) was updated to include the Judicial Clerk, who until now had technically been forgotten by this policy
- 5(D) was simply changed to remove genders and update grammar or terminology
- 5(E) was passed by Presidents’ Caucus in the summer, but was not officially put into policy until now; this is thus the requisite notice to Assembly, in case of opposition
Section 6:
- 6(B).IV changed antiquated language of “implicated party” to “respondent”
- 6(D).VI clarifies how a party may access a copy of Form 6
- 6(F).V emphasizes how the Committee may move forward without the respondent in the event that the respondent fails to contact the Committee
- 6(G).I gives the JCOMM Chair the power to open a hearing if it is in the public interest even in circumstances where the parties may not request such a decision, in service of transparency and the public good
- 6(N).III updated to point out that this redacted copy of decisions only applies for a closed case, as open cases would already have a full copy of the decision
Due to the length of the document please find it accessible here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwUtjcDMy5m9czZiajMwRzNJaWM/view