Revisions to SRA Minutes – SRA 09N, 09O

Prepared by the Bylaws & Procedures Committee

SRA 09N – January 24, 2010

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ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM THE CHAIR

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Welcome to all the observers and presidential candidates in the room. I would like to point out howawesome impressed I was withtheAssembly’sconduct was at the last meeting, I was impressed.Page 1:

DELEGATION FROM THE FLOOR – Undergraduate Senators

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The senate Senatedeals with determining academic policies for the University. This caninclude (but not limited to): new academic programmes, changes in curriculum,admission standards , exam policy, academic integrity, professor tenures etc. The powersof theSenate are described in Section 13 of theMcMaster University Act.TheSenate has a number of standing committees where many of the matters that come to Senate for approval are discussed in detail first (see handout). This is where the pre-decision makinghappens, although final approval is in the hands of the Senate. Composition of thecommittees are described in the Senate by-laws, and usually always consist of at least oneundergraduate student senator. The undergraduate student representatives have two-year terms. The Undergraduate Senators are: Aditi Khandelwal; Science, Hamzah Qureshi;Engineering, Callen Clarke; Humanities, Alicia Ali; Social Sciences, Ryan Martin;Business, and Farhan Pervaiz; Health Sciences. As student senators we face a number of issues. One of our biggest problems is visibility. Another problem that exist is thediscontinuity between the MSU and University Governance (Senators and Governor).Resolutions for our Visibility visibilityissues are to work with the Provost and Deans totry and create awareness to the student body of senators and to ourselves createawareness via various campaigns. Resolutions for our Discontinuity discontinuityissuesare to start working together with MSU (through SAC etc...), make regular meetings between Senators, and to make turnover for new senators simpler and more concrete.Page 2:

DELEGATION FROM THE FLOOR – Undergraduate Senators

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Martin – I have been trying toorganizing organizethe SAC schedule but have not heard back from most. have Haveyou been gettingmyemails?

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Pervaiz – Yes. Everything is monitored through thesecretaryUniversity Secretariat.

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Polania – What about thereps academic divisionsthat don’t have senators?

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Coleman – According to provincial legislation there is oneundergraduatesenator to one full-fledged facultyfor each of six Faculties. For example Arts and Science isn’t afacultyFaculty, it’s a program.Arts & Science students are represented by an observer atSenate. Changing the voting membership of Senate would require provincial legislation,and the University does not want to have the Act reopened.To get something through theUniversity, they don’t want to open the act again. A lot of issues that needs to beresolved.

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Ali – The University seesus members of Senateas representing the interests of theUniversity andfacultythe Faculties.

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Voloshenko – Does every committeehas a have an undergraduatesenator sitting on it?

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Qureshi – Some Senate committees have 8-10 members, but whether they includeundergraduate student senators depends on what the committee deals with.There aresome that are around 8-10 people on it and depends on what they deal with.

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Qureshi – We have been put in a tight place sometimes, most are in closed session. A lotof times issues are important and debate occurs,butthere is oftena lot of overwhelming support for year or notagainst. It shows the faculty andthe

provost Provostandthe

presPresidentthat it does affect students.Page 2:

DELEGATION FROM THE FLOOR – SRA Year End Assessments

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Finkle – We will have themdue bythe first meeting beforegeneralsthe SRA General Election in March.

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Lanteigne – Will someone be Crosscross-checkingthese assessments with members’ year plans to ensuretransparency. ? If a member Fill fillsthis out andclaims tohave accomplished 7 of their

year plans goals, ...is someone double-check ing this and to ensure that it is asomewhat accurate reflection.? Page 3:

REPORT PERIOD – SCSN

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Saeed – You mentioned that the number of reported violations has gone down this year.If I played devil’s advocate, and argued that this could have been because the promotionsand presence of SCSN at McMaster went down, what would you say? In other words,what efforts has SCSN made to promote itself?

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Stevens – We have had many promotional initiatives including tables at MUSC, postersand special events. Page 3:

REPORT PERIOD – Teaching Awards

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Moore – How do you goaboutnominatinga professor for the lifetime Lifetime achievementAchievement award?Page 3:

REPORT PERIOD – First Year Council

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Saeed – Have you considered getting in touch with the IRC? That organization has a verysimilar mandate to yours, and its target audience is also first years. They have things likethe Student Dining Committee where you can get involved and help solve issues like thelack of healthy vegetarian or halal food on campus for residence students.

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Neves – We haven’t looked into that but we can. Page 3:

REPORT PERIOD – Executive Board

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Richardson – We had a capital request to upgrade systems for greyhound GreyhoundatCompass. It was due to have been replaced at the end of the year so it was just bumpedup in the cycle. We had discussions about the MUSC operating agreement and the PSTaudit. For the PST audit the figure is pending due to the appeal. They gave us a number of the fine versus interest. We are currently appealing because the interest was chargedtoo early in the fiscal year. This is all pending investigation by the BOD of how thishappened and we will have a concrete action plan within the next few months.Page 4:

REPORT PERIOD – Executive Board

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Caterine – Money owed was not paid. It was collected each year and we just didn’t pay it.We are more worried about the interest penalties assessed as a result of the amountsnot being paid.Page 4:

REPORT PERIOD – Arts & Science Caucus

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Arts&Science Caucus – Koziol presented

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REPORT PERIOD – Engineering Caucus

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Voloshenko – Our main goals were wasto advocateon behalf of our students totheMSU and the University, and build a relationship between thesociety Engineering Societyandthe SRA. I have spoken to Mr. Wright about the computers in Thode. There is a petitionfor a referendum going around for Engineering without Borders asking for money to sendmembers to Africa. As for building a better relationship between MES and SRA, I have been attending as many engineering events as I can to speak to Eng students as a whole.Barrette has been working towards setting up spiritual space. All of us are working hard.Page 5:

REPORT PERIOD – Health Sciences Caucus

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Tenenbaum – This Tea with Tenenbaum is held on Wednesdays, whichis a free hot beverage day for those withcourtesy cards.We Students and Iwill go tounion Union market Marketand grabthemhot beverages, as we discuss student issues. The limit of one beverage per cardholder has never been enforced,andI did runit my idea

past the board Boardof directors Directorsand they said it was okay. Page 6:

INFORMATION PERIOD

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Smyth – TheMSUcharity Charity dodge Dodge ballTournamentis March 13th,andthe Charity charitythat we are supporting is Camp Trillium. Please sign up for teams. 100%of the profits go to the charity.

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Ali – CASA review is going throughatransitionalperiod, it is not a typical reviewand we are trying to work out the logistics of it. I would appreciate a lot of constructivecriticism for the Senatemembers. Currently looking at Haiti relief efforts and have talkedto a number of clubs on campus for this. They are coming to me to see if the MSU canmatch any donations. I am going through different avenues from where to get the money.I will be talking to a few of you within next few weeks.The student government at theUniversity of Toronto matchedstudent fundraising for Haitiup to $5,000.

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Saeed – The front-page article from this Thursday’s issue of The Silhouette caught myeye and made me visibly upset. I have interests in the One of my majors is inreligiouscommunity fundamentalism and stereotyping, and I am very angry about this articleand Ihave been followingthis the Toronto 18issue in detailsince it happened. I am veryangry that unhappy withthe Silhouette’s coverage, which included many factual inaccuraciesmanaged to screw up facts and that they were very inaccurate.There have been a lot of controversies in the way this has been presented, This is a sensitive issue anda lot of constituents are unhappy withtheway it was reported.The Silhouette hasn’t done a good job reporting of this issue. When you comment on social issues there is a big chance of ticking people off.I am surethatthe writer and the editor knew it would cause issues.My personal point of view is spirited so people see this picture and pick it up since normally people don’t read the Silhouette. The bigger issue, however, was the accompanying court