Students’ Legislative Council discusses MacHall Defence Fund
By Tina Shaygan, September 19 2017 —
The Sept. 19 meeting of Students’ Legislative Council began with an update on the MacHall Defence Fund, which was created in 2015 to cover the legal cost of the Students’ Union’s dispute with the university over ownership and operation of MacHall.
In 2015, SLC voted to approve the $500,000 fund and in 2016, they voted to increase the fund by $350,000. According to a presentation by SU vice-president operations and finance Ryan Wallace, the SU has spent $518,887 of the total $850,000. The remaining money will continue to be in place for future legal fees.
Both SU president Branden Cave and Wallace reviewed the payments that the SU has received from the university since losing the injunction over MacHall last year. As specified in the University of Calgary Letter of Intent, the SU will receive the rent money from MacHall tenants, minus the costs of operating the space.
According to Wallace’s presentation, the SU received $379,865 for the period of Oct. 18, 2016 to March, 31 2017 and $298,370 from April 1, 2017 to June 30, 2017. The SU will now receive tenant payments from the university on a quarterly basis.
The meeting proceeded with executives providing updates on their weekly activities. Cave and vice-president student life Hilary Jahelka did not provide verbal reports, citing that they instead sent in a written report, which can be found here. Vice-president academic Tina Miller reported on General Faculty Council training and various committee meetings. Wallace said he met with U of C vice-president finance and services Linda Dalgetty to discuss “various issues” and worked on the beverage management agreement. Vice-president external Shubir Shaikh was not present.
Among the arts representatives, Frank Finley and Nabila Farid reported on attending Arts Welcome Evening hosted by Faculty of Arts Students’ Association and meeting with various student groups.
Faculty of Medicine representative Sarah Park said she worked on promoting the vacant medicine representative position within her faculty, among other things.
The three science representatives, Kevin Dang, Kayla Huggard and Omer Mansoor said they are planning a pancake breakfast for Sept. 27 and that they held roaming office hours during the week.
During announcement period, Miller said that the Undergraduate Research Symposium working group is still looking for students-at-large. She also noted that Teaching Excellence Awards nominations open on Friday, Sept. 22.
The meeting moved in-camera to discuss the MacHall dispute. The next meeting of SLC will be on Tuesday, Sept. 26. in the Executive Council Chambers.