Students’ Union board of directors kicks off a new semester

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Photo by Madeline McInnis

Over the summer months, the Studentsโ€™ย Union Board of Directors has had several Board of Directorโ€™s meetings.

The most recent official Board of Directorโ€™s meeting took place on Aug. 12, 2017. The meeting consisted of the board discussing various orientation week topics, such as promotional items, programming, and more.

The main topic of the meeting, which lasted approximately five hours, was the conflict of interest announced byย Tariqueย Plummer, chair of the Studentsโ€™ย Union board and chief governance office, as per his intent to run for Studentsโ€™ย Union Presidentย this upcoming election season.

At this point in the meeting,ย Michael Del Bono, vice-chair of the Board of Directors, headed the discussion on the elections portfolio.

Essentially, the board discussed Plummerโ€™s ability to continue upholding his responsibilities and role as Chair of the Board while running in the presidential election. In the end, the board decided that another director would take over the elections portfolio.

After being unable to come to a conclusion in regards to who will take over the elections portfolio, the board then moved to have an emergency board meeting.

Atย the emergency board meeting, which was held on Aug. 31 at 7 p.m., Plummer first took the time to go over Robertโ€™s Rules of Order in order to reiterate and ensureย all board members are educated.

โ€œWhen we started, not everyone had the knowledge of Robertโ€™sย Rules or a solid knowledge of policies, not everyone had the knowledge of traditions and customs, so as we go from meeting to meeting they’re going to be inefficiencies,โ€ย Plummer said.

Before the discussion surrounding the elections portfolio began in regard to who would take over the portfolio,ย Idrisย Omar Hassan, director of the board, decided to put forth the motion to silence the gallery during the conversation pertaining to the elections portfolio.

In contrast, when asked about the decision to silence the gallery, Plummer felt the decision was appropriate and achieved the necessary objective.

Although numerous directors disagreed with the motion, such as Directorย Wojtanowskiย and Director Del Bono, the motion was carried 4-3-1.

โ€œThere were a lot of comments that came from the gallery. Opinions from the gallery impact the conversation which went off track and deviated. So in an attempt to ensure that the conversation stayed on track and stayed objective in a very timely manner, they put that [motion] forward for that particular conversation [sic],โ€ย Plummer said.

Ensuing the motion to silence the gallery,ย Kanwarย Brar, president of Studentsโ€™ย Union, began to voice his concerns towards the decision on Twitter.

Brarย stated on the social media platform that he felt the boardโ€™s decision to silence the gallery was unfair and unconstitutional. He requested that any students who had questionsย tweet them to him so thatย he could voice their concernsย to the board.

However, when asked to comment further on his decision to be the spokesperson for any students wanting to voice their concerns about the elections portfolio,ย Brarย decided to decline to the offer.

In contrast, when asked about the decision to silence the gallery, Plummer felt the decision was appropriate and achieved the necessary objective.

โ€œOut of precautionary measures, the board thought it would be best to proceed in that particular sense. Itย wasnโ€™t unconstitutional,โ€ย Plummer said.

Nickย DeSumma,ย former chair of the board and current student at Laurier, stressed the importance of galleryย participationย at Studentsโ€™ย Union board meetings.

โ€œI think regardless of whoโ€™s sitting in the gallery, you shouldn’t motion to silence the gallery because they are the ones who elected to the board to be there, so I donโ€™t agree with that decision I hope that it doesn’t happen again,โ€ย DeSummaย said.

โ€œEspecially with a topic such as elections where you really need that student input, it just doesnโ€™t look good to silence it because student input is the most crucial with something like elections.โ€


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