TANNARA YELLAND
Associate News Editor

In keeping with its recent trend, University Students’ Council met for under 20 minutes on Nov. 19.

The meeting was briefly delayed while the University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union’s general manager, Caroline Cottrell, fiddled with the microphones. The USC is working on releasing its meetings as podcasts and this resulted in the equipment malfunction.

USSU vice-president student affairs Ben Fawcett encouraged everyone present to observe the Transgender Day of Remembrance on Nov. 25. The day commemorates the “117 recorded transgender murders in the last year,” said Fawcett.

This number includes people who may not have identified as transgendered. According to the USSU website, “many identified as transsexual, drag queens/kings, cross dressers, or were found dressed in clothing opposite to their assigned birth sex.”

There will be a memorial service held at the Frances Morrison Library from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Edwards School of Business representative Reid Nystuen asked USSU vice-president external Chris Stoicheff if the Canadian Federation of Students had been in contact with him following the council’s vote to terminate its relationship with the CFS. Stoicheff’s reply was as succinct as it was unequivocal.

“They have been totally silent,” he said.

College of Law councillor Kevin Miller then asked Stoicheff about his meeting with Saskatchewan’s Deputy Minister for Advanced Education Rob Norris. Stoicheff had met with Norris earlier in the day as part of his role with the Saskatchewan Students’ Coalition, an association of post-secondary students’ unions he helped create. This was the first official meeting between Norris and the coalition.

“I am wondering how VP Stoicheff’s meeting went today and how he feels the government is responding to our needs and concerns,” Miller said.

Stoicheff said the meeting went well and that the government seemed responsive to the SSC’s requests.

“They received quite well our request to lower interest on student loans,” Stoicheff said. “We currently pay the highest interest rates out of any province in Canada.”

The meeting wrapped up with arts and science representative Alex Steffen’s by-now-familiar entreaty to everyone present to buy coffee from the Arts and Science Students’ Union office. The ASSU offered coffee at the top of the ramp in arts for some time but with the recent move of their office, the coffee has moved as well. The new ASSU office is located beside the students’ lounge in the Arts Building.