Student leaders discuss reports, ratification, and student representation in what was supposed to be the first Special General Assembly of the year.
AMS Assembly took place on Nov. 18 at 5:30 p.m. in Wallace Hall, lasting for about an hour and a half. With Assembly coinciding with Transgender Day of Remembrance, the meeting kicked off with guest speaker Axelle Dolan to speak about Transgender violence. They spoke about the overrepresentation of Transgender people as victims of crime and the importance of speaking about these issues.
“The trans community is full of so much beauty and love, and it deserves to be celebrated as such,” Dolan said. “It’s important to stay educated and stand up for other members of our community. We’re loudest together.”
The Assembly was set to be a Special General Assembly, allowing all AMS members to vote on motions, but was quickly turned into a regular Assembly after a motion from Vice-President (University Affairs) Alyssa Perisa. The motion passed unanimously without any discussion.
As a consequence, four motions requiring a special Assembly, focused largely on advocacy and divestment proposals, were removed and rescheduled for Dec. 2.
Reports and Ratification
In AMS President Jana Amers’ report, she explained that she’d secured year-round ARC membership for AMS members. This means students in Kingston over the summer will no longer need to pay an additional fee to use the gym, as it will be included in the current fee.
She also explained that after consultation with Assembly earlier in the month, and after conversations with external stakeholders such as Kingston Police, she’s found that most people are in favour of having one homecoming each year rather than splitting the celebrations between homecoming and fauxcoming. She added she’s planning on bringing these recommendations to the Office of Advancement for future years.
Following other brief student reports, AMS Assembly then moved on to motions.
Motions three, four, and five are all related to the ratification of various positions within the election team. Racheal Reddy was ratified as the new secretary of Internal Affairs, Mirwaaj Afzar, was ratified as the chief returning officer, and Alexander Wong Ma was ratified as the chief electoral officer.
Each individual being ratified into their role gave a brief speech to Assembly members on their excitement for the role before leaving the room for members to vote on their approval. All three were ratified unanimously with no discussion.
Discussion Period
After the motions, AMS Assembly kicked off their discussion period. Among the topics on the agenda was a question from the AMS Election team regarding the format of debate questions for the upcoming winter election. One member asked whether all candidates should be asked identical questions or if debates should include questions tailored to specific individuals.
In response, Commissioner of Campus Affairs, Ali Hussein, said that candidates who are running for the same position should be asked similar questions. However, different positions have different responsibilities, so there shouldn’t be a single set of questions to ensure consistency and fairness.
Another issue that came to the AMS Assembly’s table was raised by the Nursing Science Society (NSS) President, Mika Heler, who briefed the AMS Assembly on a Senate review of how student seats are allocated within the Faculty of Health Sciences on Senate, and later asked on Assembly’s opinion on the matter before bringing a proposal to Senate.
The review began after former Student Senate Caucus Chair, Lucas Balog, questioned why Bachelor of Health Sciences (BHSc) students didn’t have a direct seat on Senate. On Nov. 4, the NSS, the Rehabilitation Therapy Student Society, Aesculapian Society, and the Dean of Health Sciences received a memo discussing reallocation of the three Faculty of Health Sciences seats within the Senate to include the BHSc.
Heler acknowledged that the NSS hadn’t yet consulted the other faculties, but said concerns about the current structure remain. The three Senate seats are historically assigned to Nursing, Rehabilitation Therapy, and Medicine—an arrangement dating back to 1997, when all three were undergraduate programs. Now, Medicine and Rehabilitation Therapy are graduate-only, while the BHSc has more than 1,200 students and no representation.
Currently, three options are being considered: creating a new BHSc seat, redistributing all seats without tying them to specific schools, or keeping the current model. Current consultations are ongoing, and a motion on this is expected to be made for the upcoming AMS Assembly on Dec. 2.
Tags
AMS Assembly, Senate, Transgender Day of Remembrance
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