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What you missed at the RSU semi-annual general meeting

By The News Team

The majority of motions presented at the Ryerson Students’ Union (RSU) fall general meeting on Nov. 11 were passed. Some of the biggest motions passed include calling on the RSU to present “all budgets, expenses and financial statements online,” and the approval for the RSU to launch its Freeze the Fees campaign — the union’s latest campaign to stop tuition fee increases.

The meeting was scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m., but started about 40 minutes later due to delays with people registering. The meeting was also scheduled to end at 8:30 p.m. but continued until around 9:30 p.m., at which point students voted to adjourn the meeting due to not making the minimum quorum of students needed to vote on motions.

All but three of the motions in the agenda were voted on.

Here’s a quick rundown of the motions presented during the meeting (in the order the motions were voted on):

Motion to approve the RSU’s audited budget passed, as well as the motion to assign Yale and Partners as the RSU’s financial auditors for the 2014-2015 budget.

Motion H featured four resolutions. The first two, which stated that RSU membership should be voluntary as of Winter 2015 and that students should be able to opt out. Refunded memberships fees were struck down by the chairperson because they violate RSU bylaws.

The remaining two resolutions were voted on separately. The resolution that the RSU posts a detailed budget online was passed. The resolution to stop funding “campaigns that revolve around foreign political conflicts and paying membership to organizations that lobby on any foreign conflict” was denied.

Motion I, which called for the  RSU to revamp its No Islamophobia No Anti-Semitism No Racism Campaign was passed unanimously.

Motion J calling on the RSU to publicly oppose anti-Semitic actions on campus, to work with Jewish students to fight anti-Semitism and for the RSU to publish an annual report detailing all incidents of racism on campus and the actions taken by RSU (to be published at the next Annual General Meeting) passed.

Motion C calling for the RSU to lobby Ryerson for additional and accessible multi-faith prayer rooms on campus and for the RSU to raise awareness of the need for more multi-faith prayer/worship rooms on campus was passed.

Motion K, which calls for an expansion of the women’s only gym time program, passed.

Motion A passed. The motion allows 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 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 D passed and called for the RSU to lobby the university to prohibit all random quizzes.

Motion E passed, which called for the RSU to lobby the university to put an end to 8 a.m. classes and set the earliest time for classes to 10 a.m.

The three motions that weren’t voted on (calling on the RSU to make Ryerson a smoke-free campus, calling on the RSU to lobby the university and provincial government to increase work study programs and calling on the RSU express its opposition to Canadian military action in Iraq) will be passed on to the next board of directors meeting.

 

 

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