In Brief: The RSU’s first board of directors meeting

The first Ryerson Students’ Union (RSU) board of directors meeting of the 2016-2017 academic year was held on Sept. 26. Here are the motions presented at the meeting:

Appian Way Group audit to restructure RSU to be available online and to the board — NOT PASSED

The motion was to present to the board the full report of the recommendation to eliminate employees and subsequent layoffs, as well as the creation of the general manager position (taken by Natasha Campagna). The report was done by external auditors, Appian Way Group. The motion stated to have all board members see a full copy of this report as they were not presented with them before. RSU president Obaid Ullah said that it cannot be the case due to confidential information which cannot be shared online legally. The motion was out of order due to legal issues.

Review of Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) presentation

A heated debate struck when the RSU’s obligation to participate in every CFS campaign was questioned. The RSU is currently required by the CFS’ bylaws to carry out CFS programming on Ryerson’s campus. An example of this is the current CFS “Fight the Fees” campaign against rising tuition fees. Anna Stevenson, co-chairperson of the Social Work Students’ Union, said this should be included in the RSU’s (in addition to the CFS’) bylaws. Ullah argued that the bylaws are not the place for this, because both organizations represent students but the CFS and RSU aren’t directly connected. Therefore the RSU automatically holds no obligation to partake in all events. 

First-year representative on the board — PASSED

First-year business technology management student Razi Syed, has been appointed as first-year representative on the board of directors.

Ratification of Ghanaian Students’ Association — PASSED

The proposal stated that the Ghanaian community at Ryerson feels their voices are not heard and that their ideas are not incorporated in the group of African Student Association. They therefore wanted the leeway to host their own events. These would include guest speakers, food and discussing issues catering to the Ghanaian culture.