Every few weeks, your elected student government meets on Wednesday night to talk about issues concerning the AMS. Agenda items can seem long, mysterious and confusing without the proper background, making it difficult to see how these issues affect students. Here’s what to watch out for in the upcoming AMS Council meeting on November 8:
Student Court
Council will be having a discussion on the Student Court, which is a body of the AMS that has been largely dormant in recent years; it has powers that concern the disciplining of AMS members and interpretations of the Society’s governing documents, among other duties. The Governance Committee is proposing that a referendum be held to dissolve the Student Court.
New hires
Council will be considering the approval of two proposed new hires: Waged Jafer for Ombudsperson and Filza Raza as Elections Administrator. Jafer is new to the Ombudsperson role, while Raza returns for her second stint as Elections Administrator, having previously served in the position for the recent VP Academic and University Affairs by-election.
Academic Experience Survey policy
After having conducted the Academic Experience Survey (AES) for a number of years through the VP Academic and University Affairs, Council will be considering the adoption of a policy to govern future iterations of the annual questionnaire sent to students. Among a number of provisions, it will ensure the standardized recurrence of certain questions while offering future executives the ability to respond to topical issues as they arise.
Jakob Gattinger, a fourth-year applied science student, is the former VP Academic and University Affairs pro tem for the AMS and a current member of AMS Council for engineering, as well as a student Senator.