THE UNIVERSITY OF SASKATCHEWAN’S MAIN CAMPUS IS SITUATED ON TREATY 6 TERRITORY AND THE HOMELAND OF THE MÉTIS.
THE UNIVERSITY OF SASKATCHEWAN’S MAIN CAMPUS IS SITUATED ON TREATY 6 TERRITORY AND THE HOMELAND OF THE MÉTIS.
KEVIN MENZ
Associate News Editor
In a 9-8 vote, student council passed a motion to support an exclusive agreement that prohibits the sale of bottled water.
Council felt that an exclusive agreement was in the university’s best economic interest and noted that banning the sale of bottled water sent a positive ethical message to both potential beverage providers and the community.
The initial motion favoured an exclusive agreement with Coca Cola, but was ammended by councillor Reid Nystuen. “This is an awful idea,” he said of limiting agreement options to one company.
Several councillors noted their opposition to the motion, primarily for the no bottled water clause.
University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union vice president student affairs Leon Thompson proposed a motion to support the recommendations of the safety phone package. The package, released by Campus Safety, suggests necessary steps to improve the safety phones on campus, which are mostly out-of-service. This action does not pledge funding to the project.
The campus safety report identified several targets for the improvements of safety phones. These included that all non-functional phones be removed, and that all phones replaced must be hard-wired as opposed to the current wireless system. All of the replacement phones must be highly visible, well lit and easily accessible, there should be a distinction between emergency phones and assistance phones and maintenance and regulation checks should be done remotely. Additionally, the phones should be well publicized and other uses for the phones such as wayfinding, surveillance and mass notifications should be considered.
An amendment to the motion pledged USSU support to improving the lighting on pathways on campus.
The motion passed easily.
Student council held one final debate and voted to not publically support the whitewater park. This came after two previous meetings discussing the proposed water park along the weir of the river in Saskatoon.
USSU President Chris Stoicheff argued that the park — especially when potential parking lot spaces are considered — will directly affect students. He said there was no harm in the USSU sending one letter to city councillors stating they support the project.
“I think the student body would be shocked to see the students’ union has no opinion on this,” Stoicheff insisted.
Vice president external affairs Blair Shumlich stated that the park is a City of Saskatoon issue and not a direct student issue and thus not USSU jurisdiction. He also noted that he does personally support the proposed park as resident of Saskatoon, though not as a representative of the USSU.
He suggested students speak for themselves if they want to see this project through. For those students, Shumlich suggested,“Go get your friends and get good and drunk and make noise about this at council.”
He was backed by USSU VP operations and finance Scott Hitchings who stated that the USSU can’t support or refute things that only indirectly affect students. Hitchings then pointed out that the USSU has not stated their opinions on other public issues such as Station 20 West or the Oil Sands.
Student council defeated the motion that the USSU should send a letter to city council stating their support for the park. Stoicheff did not vote, as he has declared a conflict of interest on the issue.
