AGM meeting sparks student debates

All policies in question passed, most concern Student Representatives

By Jamal Al-Bayaa, Staff Writer.

On Wednesday, February 17, nearly 120 students were packed into the DSU lounge to attend the Annual General Meeting so they could vote on new resolutions proposed by the DSU Student Representative Committee.

Before voting began, students were informed about the previous years’ financial statements. Of note is that there is an annual allocation of $100,000 put towards funding student productions in the performing arts department. The money is meant to assist students in putting on productions and incentivize the students to run performances independently. However, no money was spent on performing arts projects.

After the financial overview, students were allowed to voice their concerns to the current Student Representatives.

The special resolutions could be organized into two categories: “Housekeeping,” and “Issues.”

“Housekeeping” included items that only needed to be voted on due to political procedure in the school. For example, the student body has to vote on whether or not to accept the auditors from last year as the auditors for this year as well. The vote passed unanimously.

Before this year’s AGM, there were no anti-bullying policies that were legally binding to the DSU. Bullying has always been unacceptable in Douglas and at the DSU, but having one passed means that it has been made explicitly clear that bullying is never allowed. Douglas College has always had its own bullying policy, but since the DSU is not a part of campus, it did not legally extend to the DSU as well.

The following major policies were implemented, as of February 17: in order to seek election, Student Representatives must sign an acknowledgment of their roles and responsibilities, promising that they are familiar with them and are abiding by them; no student representative can serve more than three terms in office; and all Student Representatives must maintain a 2.0 cumulative GPA or else they cannot continue in their position. An amendment to this motion was also made which states that they cannot continue in their position as a student representative “without a vote from the current representatives as to whether or not an exception should be made.”

As well, four separate policies were passed, all making Student Representatives more accountable to the students, and more transparent about the work they do.