Sam Reynolds / McGill Tribune

Councillor resignation

The session began with an announcement that Fenimore Love, the representative to SSMU Council from the faculty of religious studies, was resigning from his position. He did so without any explanation; the council expects a replacement.

Libraries

Colleen Cook, Trenholme Dean of Libraries, was invited to council as a guest speaker. She was appointed to the position last year, following a move from Texas A&M University. She answered questions about current plans for McGill’s library system.

Asked to compare Canadian university libraries to American university libraries, Cook said that the latter had nicer spaces. In terms of collections, Cook said that McGill is “just right at adequate,” due to the availability of electronic access, but in the physical book world, there’s much room for improvement.

Potential plans include a larger eating area in Redpath and the renovation of one of the floors on McLennan.  

Question period

During council, councillors discussed the events of Nov.  10. Some wondered what SSMU was doing to support students, and whether it could do more. SSMU President Maggie Knight discussed an independent student inquiry, in conjunction with Dean Jutras’ investigation, into what took place on Nov. 10.

“We don’t have a completely unbiased, everything co-ordinated, version of what happened, although McGill security might, we’re not [entirely] sure at this point,” she said. “There [are] also students doing an independent student inquiry into what happened … because we don’t know exactly what’s going to come out of the dean of law’s investigation.”

VP External Joël Pedneault mentioned another concern for many groups on campus: the increasingly securitized atmosphere at McGill. He expressed trepidation that Dean Jutras’ inquiry would lead to a further increase in security presence.  Knight addressed that concern, saying it would be  interesting to include in feedback for   Dean Jutras’ investigation. 

“Certainly in the conversations that VP Clare I had with univeristy saftey and university services in advance of Monday’s event, we were very concerned that they would have a really beefy security presence there, that it  would sort of further escalate things,” said Knight. “They seem to have an awareness of the fact that that would be inappropriate.”

General Assembly reform

SSMU councillors discussed a notice of motion on General Assembly (GA) reform. As Speaker Nida Nizam reminded Council, this motion was intended to address some quick questions about the process of GA reform. Nevertheless, Knight was faced with big picture questions regarding concerns with the reform’s structural process. 

“Unfortunately, there hasn’t been the level of involvement in this process that I would have liked,” Knight responded. “Please do your job … and I’m not implying that that people haven’t been so far, but please take the next two weeks to do your job and really bring forward what you want to see for Dec. 1. [Otherwise], we’ll yet again fail to reform the GA.”

SSMU Council time limits

Engineering Councillor Alexander Kunev presented a motion to limit council sessions to seven hours in an attempt to standardize time allocation for the meeting. Concerns were raised regarding council’s ability to deal with time-sensitive issues, as well as travel time for students who live far away from downtown Montreal.

“Council always has the ability to vote to table a motion … and perhaps it should simply be a right that council utilizes more effectively,” said President Knight.

Annual budget approved

VP Finance and Operations Shyam Patel presented his plan for SSMU’s 2011-12 budget. Major changes included allocating funding to the Sustainability Case Competition and an increase in the Ambassador Fund to $34,000. The budget was passed unanimously. 

 Letter to education minister

VP External Joël Pedneault introduced a letter written by MUNACA to the Minister of Education, Leisure, and Sport. The letter called for the Minister to take action “to ensure a respectful learning environment for all members of the McGill community,” and cited tumultuous events such as the MUNACA strike and the deployment of riot police on campus. MUNACA would not entertain any changes to the letter, stylistic or otherwise, so council debated three available choices: signing the letter in conjunction with MUNACA, not signing any letters, or sending a revised version.

Many councillors cite concerns over the letter’s allegations regarding the events of Thursday, Nov. 10. Ultimately, a vote of 2-6-17-1, with an abstention and six councillors opposed to sending any letter at all, mandated council to send its own version of the letter, to be drafted by Pedneault.