Still no International Student Representative, despite request for nomination |
If Monday, May 7, was as painless as the rest of the 2018–2019 UVSS board meetings get, then the new board are in for a lovely year.
Chances are that won’t be the case, but the new board kicked off their tenure with ease as they handled their first matters as leaders of the UVSS: organizing committee membership.
Assigning Directors-at-Large to portfolios and appointing them as second chairs and general members of the committees, the meeting featured few reports but included a few pauses for secret ballot voting.
The most interesting appointment of the evening was the lack of one — International Student Representative. The 2018–2019 board is missing a Director of International Student Relations this year after no nominations were received during the most recent election. Their attempt to partly reconcile that on Monday did not succeed.
Pierre-Paul Angelblazer, reprising his role as Director of Outreach and University Relations, led the board in an attempt to vote for a Director-at-Large to take over the International Student Representative portfolio and then work with the Policy Development Committee to hammer out the specifics.
Isabella Lee, Director of Student Affairs, questioned whether it was worth sorting out the specifics and then hiring somebody. Angelblazer responded by saying that he wanted to get the position filled as quickly as possible.
In the end, it didn’t matter, as there were no nominations for the portfolio (a second time, according to the board’s repeated references to a similarly unsuccessful attempt to secure an interim Director for the position during the board’s orientation process).
Aside from the nominations, the board spoke generally to their summer plans. Lee said she expected to have online cheque reqs (the funding system for clubs at UVic) up and running by June. Angelblazer mentioned arranging the UVSS handbook, a yearly summer pursuit for the UVSS, and beginning work on a two-year strategic plan.
With (nearly) everybody settled into their committee roles and nominations open for UVic students to join in member positions, the next meeting on May 14 will have the new UVSS Directors-at-Large ready to begin developing policy and making the institution their own.
Whether that process includes similarly peaceful meetings is yet to be seen.
Committee Appointments:
CFUV Board — Noor Chasib
Lead Director Portfolios:
Campaigns and Community Relations — Mary Wood and Tyler Arnold
Outreach and University Relations — Jordan Gilson and Julia Witte
Finance and Operations — Shaun Zhang and Gulseerat Boparai
Student Affairs — Eric Jakubowski (awaiting second DaL)
Events — Jasmine Pathak and David Stevanovic
Open Committees:
Campaigns — Tyler Arnold (Second Chair), Adrienne Graham, Shaun Zhang, Mary Wood, Jonathan Loring
Events — David Stevanovic (SC), Jasmine Pathak, Tyler Arnold, Jordan Gilson, Jonathan Loring, Adrienne Graham
Finance & Operations — Shaun Zhang (SC), Gulseerat Boparai, Jordan Gilson, Natalie Blecha, and David Stevanovic
Member Outreach & Engagement — Julia Witte (SC), Adrienne Graham, Jordan Gilson, Gulseerat Boparai
Policy Development — Jordan Gilson (SC), Julia Witte, Tyler Arnold, and Willa Budz
Open Committees with Closed Membership:
Advocacy Relations Committee — Eric Jakubowski
Clubs Council — No appointment made
Course Union Council — Eric Jakubowski
PDU Council — No appointment made
SUB Occupants Committee — No appointments made, pending advertising to SUB groups
University Relations Committee — Jordan Gilson and Jonathan Loring
Directors on closed committees:
Electoral — Tyler Arnold (Chair), Pierre-Paul Angelblazer, and Curtis Whittla
Health & Dental Plan Appeals — Ainsley Kerr
SUB Business Marketing — Shaun Zhang (SC), Mary Wood, and Adrienne Graham
Ombudsperson — Ainsley Kerr
Personnel — Pierre-Paul Angelblazer (SC), Jordan Gilson
U-Pass Appeals — David Stevanovic and Ainsley Kerr
All member committee nominations tabled until next meeting pending advertisement to the UVSS body.
In attendance: Angelblazer, Chasib, Kerr, Lee, Whittla, Arnold, Gilson, Graham, Stevanovic, Wood, Zhang, Blecha, and Budz.
Absent: Boparai, Jakubowski, Loring, Pathak, Witte, SOCC, Third Space, and NSU reps.
