TANNARA YELLAND
Associate News Editor

The Nov. 12 annual general meeting of the University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union was one of the shortest in recent memory, but still brought significant change to the union’s constitution.

The USSU executive had proposed several changes to the constitution, chief among them a move that would give the constitution stronger legal force.

“We hired a lawyer to make the election bylaws more iron-clad legally,” said USSU president Warren Kirkland, “and the lawyer we had hired for that explained that our constitution and bylaws had no power legally.”

The USSU released a copy of the proposed changes with comments and the original text of the former constitution. The comments on the draft of the changes stated that “ ‘constitution’ has no meaning under the (Non-Profit Corporations) Act, which recognizes only Articles [similar to constitution] and bylaws,” so the term constitution was removed and the entire document is now a set of bylaws.

Minor changes were also made to the portfolios of the executive. Kirkland, as president, will no longer sit on the provincial and federal student loans committees. That task will now fall to vice-president external affairs Chris Stoicheff.

Vice-president student affairs, the position currently held by Ben Fawcett, will no longer liaise with the World University Services of Canada. Child-care has been added to his portfolio and now sits alongside parking, housing, disabilities, sustainability and equity.

There is currently no representation on the University Students’ Council for Aboriginal students. The Indigenous Students’ Council is supposed to elect a member to sit on council but some years, that does not happen. To rectify this, a provision was added that will allow the Aboriginal Students’ Centre to elect someone to USC if the ISC is not organized enough.

Students in open studies have also been absent from USC. However, this is due to the fact that they have not had any association representing them for a number of years. Open studies was removed from the group of colleges and associations that elect members of council with the understanding that if they form any sort of union in the future they will be allowed to elect a representative to USC.

Changes were made to the rules surrounding the removal of USC councillors, so that two thirds of the members of council must vote in favour of removal for it to take place. Previously the requirement was 50 per cent of members. This change had special importance because in the USC meeting held after the USSU AGM, councillors voted to remove Blair Woynarski, the representative for residence.

The changes raised some comment from students attending the meeting. Arts and Science Students’ Union president Katie Salmers asked the executive how the changes will effect the operation of the USSU.

“Can changes still be made to the constitution?” she asked. “Will there still be AGMs?”

Kirkland responded that nothing about the operation of the USSU will change, adding, “AGMs are required by the Non-Profit Corporations Act.”

After outlining the changes and answering questions, the motion was passed unanimously and the meeting was adjourned. This prompted Kirkland to remark that everyone present had “just participated in the shortest AGM ever.”