Deferred maintenance, MacHall renovations among topics at busy March 27 SLC meeting
By Ashar Memon, March 29 2018 —
The March 27 meeting of the Students’ Legislative Council started off with Students’ Union president Branden Cave presenting brief highlights of the post-election report on the 2018 SU general election.
According to the report, seven formal complaints were filed during the election — an increase from the four complaints filed the previous year. The Chief Returning Officers also received a recount request for the vice-president student life position, which did not change the final count for that race.
Next, SLC discussed a report on campus infrastructure and deferred maintenance. According to Cave, deferred maintenance costs at the University of Calgary total over $500 million. Cave said he believes that it’s better to address deferred maintenance sooner rather than later in order to save costs in the long-run.
Cave said a program similar to the University of British Columbia’s Renew — which renovates rather than destroys some aging buildings on campus — would be adequate in addressing deferred maintenance. He added that to address aging infrastructure, the report recommends an increase in provincial funding to 10 per cent of deferred maintenance debt and collaborating with the U of C to engage students in the process.
The next discussion portion of the evening focused on a transparency procedure for SU committees, which vice-president operations and finance Ryan Wallace said aims to clarify the public’s right to access committees. Wallace said the procedure ensures that any committee’s terms of reference would supercede the procedure itself.
Following a recess, SLC returned to discuss plans to renovate the MacHall Ballroom. SU general manager Jeff Marshall, director of operations Barry Dyck and project manager Brian Bolding were also present and answered SLC members’ questions about the renovations.
After the discussion, resolutions to approve SLC committee transparency procedures, authorize extra-budgetary expenditure for the Ballroom renovations and excuse nursing representative Jessica Revington from SLC meetings on March 20, April 3 and April 10 due to a program requirement all passed unanimously.
During executive reports, Cave and vice-president external Puncham Judge said they attended the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations annual general meeting in Fredericton last week. Both said they will also be attending the Council of Alberta University Students advocacy week alongside current kinesiology representative and incoming SU president Sagar Grewal.
Vice-president academic Tina Miller said she completed preparations for the Teaching Excellence Awards ceremony. Vice-president student life Hilary Jahelka said she bought more period products for the SU’s free period product program.
During announcements, Jahelka reminded SLC about her Stepping Up workshop on healthy relationships. Engineering representative Chinmoy Ayachit announced that the Schulich School of Engineering is having their annual capstone project fair. Science representative Omer Mansoor announced that over 150 people have registered for the Faculty of Science year-end gala.
The next SLC meeting is on Tuesday, April 3 at 6:30 p.m. in the MacHall Executive Council Chamber. All meeting documents can be accessed here.