By The News Team
The Ryerson Students’ Union (RSU) fall general meeting is going down on Nov. 11, meaning that a bunch of motions that could affect campus life are going to be put forward and voted on. Haven’t had time to peruse the agenda? Don’t worry — The Eyeopener has got you covered.
As usual, the meeting is set to open with standard financial stuff about the RSU’s budget. Yale and Partners, who audited last year’s budget, will be put forward as the RSU’s financial auditors for the 2014-2015 budget.
Motion A: Freeze The Fees
If passed, the motion would allow the RSU to kick off its “Freeze the Fees” Campaign, calling on Ryerson to lower international student fees so they’re in line with domestic fees, for the Board of Governors to work more closely with the RSU and CESAR on the annual budget and for the province to freeze tuition fee levels and increase funding for post-secondary schools. The RSU also wants to “develop an an aggressive campaign which employs tactics such as large scale mobilizations, petitions, membership education, protests, class talks etc. in order to achieve these campaign goals.”
Motion B: Opting Out of the RSU
Traditionally, all full-time students automatically pay a fee to the RSU every year and are part of the union. If passed, this motion would allow students to opt out of joining the union.
Motion C: Calling for additional and accessible multi-faith prayer rooms on campus.
Motion D: Pop Quizzes
A motion to abolish unannounced quizzes in class will be discussed at the meeting. The motion outlines the “unreasonable” expectation that students will be able to attend every minute of class. Moved by Wai Yin Lee, the motion says these tests are unfair because students can miss pop quizzes if they get sick or for other emergencies. If this motion passes, the RSU will lobby the university to prohibit all random quizzes.
Motion E: 8 a.m. classes
Another motion submitted to the agenda by Wai Yin Lee is set to abolish 8 a.m. classes because Ryerson is comprised of numerous commuters from both Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area. The motion describes this as “extremely inconvenient” for these students, at such early hours of the morning. If this motions gets the go ahead, the RSU will lobby the university to put an end to 8 a.m. classes and set the earliest time for classes to 10 a.m.
Motion F: Smokers, beware. This motion wants the RSU to lobby Ryerson admin to strictly enforce the city’s smoking bylaws, which include not smoking within nine metres of a public building’s entrance. It also wants the RSU to take steps to making Ryerson a “smoke free campus.”
Motion G: This one’s calling for the RSU to oppose the Canadian government’s military action in Iraq, for the RSU to write a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper saying so and to donate $1,000 to the Canadian Peace Alliance.
Motion H: More on opting out of the RSU. This motion proposes that RSU membership becomes voluntary in the Winter 2015 semester, that students who want to opt out get refunded their union fees, that the RSU posts all its expenses online and that it stops funding “campaigns that revolve around foreign political conflicts and paying membership to organizations that lobby on any foreign conflict.”
Motion I: Calls on the RSU to revamp its anti-Islamophobia and anti-Semitism campaigns
Motion J: Calls on the RSU to explicitly say it’s against anti-Semitism on campus. This motion proposes working closer with the Jewish community and publishing a report of racism on campus and what the RSU does about it.
Motion K: Women’s Only Gym Time expansion
Two years ago the RSU collected more than 2,000 petitions demanding women’s only gym hours. This year, the pilot project for women’s only gym hours has been a success according to the motion. Pascale Diverlus moved the motion — she’s the RSU’s vice president of equity. It also says that the gym has had a huge increase on female-identified students during the hour and a half they run. Should the motion be passed, the RSU will work with Ryerson Athletics to expand the program in terms of “hours and versatility of spaces.”
Motion L: calls on the RSU to lobby the school for more work study positions for students
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