Council Forum 6 August 2009

Students’ Council meets every second Tuesday in the Council Chambers in University Hall at 6pm. The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, 18 August, where free food will be provided for all attendees.
The council meetings held on 21 July and 4 August are summed up in this edition of council forum. Council meetings are open to all students. So if you’re interested in student government, come grab a plate and satisfy your craving for democracy.

Question period
Vice President (External) Beverly Eastham was questioned about upcoming events slated for this year’s Week of Welcome (WoW). Key to this year’s event, said Eastham, will be gearing the festivities towards including first-year undergraduate students. The centenary will also feature prominently in this year’s theme, and, although unconfirmed, rumours of a giant birthday cake are circulating.

Questions concerning delays to renovations at Room at the Top continued to plague VP (Operations and Finance) Zach Fentiman. A broken floor scraper, the result of overly-effective carpet glue, had to be traded in for a diamond grit sanding tool. Room at the Top is expected to reopen on 10 August.

President Kory Mathewson fielded a question about this year’s Campus Cup Dodgeball Tournament. He reported that so far budgeting for the event seemed feasible.

VP (Student Life) Nick Dehod further elaborated that the tournament would be a strong campus event for February, but that plans were all tentative until a final date for the event is selected.

Taking a cut
Vice President (Operations & Finance) Zach Fentiman presented his solution to Dewey’s expired lease agreement. University administration intended to reclaim the west side of the building—the location of the mezzanine and the west bar—for the use of offices being decanted from the Henry Marshall Tory building.

In order to save the student common area, an agreement has been struck between the SU and the Graduate Students Association (GSA). Offices occupied by the GSA before completion of their new offices north of the Dewey’s will now house those moved from the Tory building.

With the University able to house these offices in the same area, the SU, with the help of the GSA, hopes administration will return the west bar and mezzanine to the lease. The agreement, although not yet finalized, has been looked on favourably by all parties.

In exchange for accommodating the move and because an administrative foible left the GSA with control of the space after their move to Triffo Hall, the GSA will receive 15 per cent of Dewey’s annual net profit along with the ability to request use of the space, within reason.

Additionally, executive Fentiman announced the formation of a non-binding committee dedicated to increasing Dewey’s profile on campus and solving some of the bar’s “popularity problems.”

Open happiness
Council ratified the SU’s new single source beverage agreement. Although details of the agreement have been kept quiet, Science councillor Jazz Singh spoke strongly in support of the new agreement, saying that the new contract was without many of the downfalls that made the last agreement unfavourable. He also spoke favourably of the increase the contract would bring to available scholarship money on campus.