VICTORIA MARTINEZ
Senior News Editor

Executive goals

The University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union president Chris Stoicheff told students at the beginning of the year, “The main thing for me on the university front is that the next phase of beds are created for residence students.”

He saw his goal achieved, as work on the first phase of the College Quarter is already underway and the U of S board of governors approved phase two as of Oct. 14. Construction for phase two will begin immediately after the first phase is complete, hopefully in September 2011, saving the university about $3 million in construction costs.

Each phase will provide 400 new residence beds, which will start to bring the U of S up to national levels on campus housing.

Another priority this year has been childcare. The U of S currently offers one on campus childcare centre for students, compared to the University of British Columbia’s 23 and University of Alberta’s five.

On Sept. 22, the USSU held a rally for childcare on campus to raise awareness of the issue. When the U of S raised parking fees for employees, it also tied the increased revenue to the academic priorities fund, which could be put towards childcare or the proposed Gordon Oakes-Redbear Student Centre, which will centralize student services for Aboriginal students on campus.

Along with the Gordon Oakes-Redbear Centre, Aboriginal inclusion has been a focus for the USSU. The executive this year has its first-ever Aboriginal member in vice-president Leon Thompson and signed a strategic alliance agreement with the office of the treaty commissioner to promote the slogan “We Are All Treaty People.” To that end, Oct. 4 to 8 was the USSU’s We Are All Treaty People Week.

Council motions

At a meeting of the University Students’ Council, councillors voted 9-8 in favour of supporting an exclusive contract with a cold beverage supplier — an exclusive agreement would better the chances of getting a satisfactory funding deal — with no bottled water on campus, in order to promote environmentally ethical hydration choices.

Representatives from kinesiology wanted water bottles in the PAC for health reasons, and Edwards School of Business representatives didn’t want to see student choice, and therefore revenue, limited.

The USSU also publicly gave its support to the proposed white water park project after a report highlighted that the university might use the park for educational purposes. Initially, the council voted against creating a public letter of support as the park did not appear to be a student issue and was therefore outside their mandate.

“Student issues have a direct impact on student life,” said vice-president external affairs Blair Shumlich.

The council and USSU have also made campus safety a priority by supporting the replacement of dysfunctional safety phones on campus and improving lighting on campus. The USSU has not pledged funds to either project.

Additionally, the USSU is now offering rape and aggression defence courses in conjunction with campus recreation. The last time RAD courses were offered through the school was 2006.

The USSU executive also publicly supported the provincial government’s efforts to block BHP Billiton. Council was not consulted and students and councillors expressed that whether the position was correct or not, the need for the USSU to act was questionable. While Stoicheff stated that the decision was made along with the University of Regina Students’ Union, their student president has since explained that U of R support was exclusively for the government’s actions.

The Annual General Meeting saw six amendments to the USSU operating bylaws passed. These included adding a member to the sustainability board, connecting the executive protocol policy — which makes it harder to remove members of the executive from office — directly to the bylaw, providing more notice of AGMs, and making summer meetings optional.

The Annual General Meeting also stirred the complaints of two students whose proposed amendments to the bylaw were deemed unconstitutional and were not posted. Their objections stem from a line in the bylaws that states that the General Manager “shall publish proposed amendments,” which the USSU interpreted as a mandate to post only constitutional amendments for discussion.

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image: Pete Yee