On Monday night, the Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) failed to meet quorum at its Fall General Assembly (GA). The GA passed several motions as a consultative forum, including motions mandating AUS support for accessible education and for  the AUS to help promote departmental GAs.

The AUS began holding GAs in Fall 2011. Last semester, over 1,000 students attended its spring GA as a contentious general strike motion was on the agenda as part of a larger student movement opposing provincial tuition fee increases. Multiple rooms were required to accommodate all participants.

Because this week’s GA did not meet quorum, successful motions will serve as recommendations to the AUS Council. In order for the GA to pass binding resolutions, 150 arts students must be present. Approximately 30 to 35 people were present for Monday’s GA, which ran for about two hours.

Some attendees suggested that Monday’s low turnout may have resulted from a lack of advertising. Arts Representative to the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Claire Stewart-Kanigan said the use of flyers and more classroom announcements could have helped raise awareness. She also pointed to the fact that the motions were only made available to AUS members a few hours before the GA began.

“[Classroom announcements] provide the opportunity for more discussion between the AUS and our constituents about what’s going to be brought up at the GA and these motions for us,” Stewart-Kanigan said.  “I do wish that the motions would have been made available to AUS members ahead of time. … A General Assembly might not spark [students’] interest, but one of the motions might.”

However, AUS Vice-President Communications Yasmeen Gholmieh said the AUS used multiple methods of promotion, including posters, emails, and social media tools, and could not have done much more in the way of advertising.

“I think the GA was well-advertised, and it’s a shame that we had such a low turnout,” she said. “We advertised to the point where some people actually contacted us, saying we should stop sending out emails about the GA.”

Gholmieh expressed concern about the criticisms the AUS executive team faced from students at the GA, both during and after the event.

“Both SSMU and AUS General Assemblies have faced issues with low student turnout in the past, and I think it is unfair to blame the low turnout only on the VP Communications,” she said. “I, along with the Chief Returning Officer and the President, did our best to advertise the GA. In the future, we will start advertising it sooner.”

The consultative forum passed five motions, which dealt with facilitating increased departmental democracy by encouraging departmental GAs, lobbying McGill to free the university from financial ties to fossil fuels, opposing Plan Nord, and opposing Canadian aggression towards Iran. Many of these motions were originally discussed at the SSMU GA earlier this year.

The forum also discussed a motion mandating support for accessible education. The motion passed following an amendment by SSMU Vice-President External Robin Reid-Fraser, which included a clause mandating that “the AUS lobby McGill University to refund the tuition still pending to out-of-province and international students.”

A motion regarding the creation of a “Students Helping Students” fund was tabled indefinitely. The motion sought to re-allocate pre-existing funds from AUS student fees. If passed, $0.75 per student, each semester, would be assigned to the creation of a fund that could help students financially affected by a student strike.

Students at the consultative forum expressed concern over the specifics of how and to whom the funds would be delegated, as well as what would happen to the funds if a strike were not called in a specific year. Nicole Georges, arts representative to SSMU, called for amendments to address these concerns.

“I have a concern with the ability [of present and future] AUS executives … to be giving away money like this,” she said. “Is there going to be somebody surveying the AUS executive to make sure that the money goes toward people who are deserving?”

Lily Schwarzbaum, U3 arts, said she found the discussion and proposed amendments to the motion problematic.

“I think amendments are not the place to lay out step-by-step execution plans,” Schwarzbaum said. “[Motions] are mandates that are for representatives who are elected in order to sit through longer meetings.”

Since the motions only passed as recommendations, they will be brought to the next AUS Council on Nov. 28, when councillors will vote to either reject or adopt them.