Sidhu sworn in as VP external at Oct. 23 SLC

By Ashar Memon, October 26 2018 —

The Oct. 23 meeting of Students’ Legislative Council saw Anayat Sidhu be sworn in as the Students’ Union vice-president external following her byelection victory. SLC also discussed a new Student Academic Misconduct Policy.

After Sidhu’s Oath of Office at the beginning of the meeting, vice-president operations and finance Kevin Dang motioned to table a report by University of Calgary Board of Governors student representative Frank Finley until next week. Dang did not clarify the motion.

During announcements, engineering representative Ahsen Imran asked SLC to follow an Instagram account for the SU engineering representatives, which he recently created alongside fellow engineering representative Iona Rontu.

SLC then invited U of C legal counsel Deborah Book and vice-provost student experience Susan Barker to discuss a new Student Academic Misconduct Policy proposal. Barker said that the policy will ensure better application of the already-existing rules and regulations for student academic misconduct at the U of C.

Several SLC members asked for clarification about some of the terms defined in the policy. Dang, speaking on behalf of vice-president academic Jessica Revington, who was absent from the meeting, urged Barker and Book to revise the definition of academic misconduct presented in the proposed policy, which uses the word “dishonest.”

“Not all academic misconduct is dishonest, sometimes it’s unintentional — it kind of paints all cases with the same brush,” Dang said.

During executive reports, Dang reported co-organizing a welcome dinner for refugee students and meeting with regional staff of Gallivan Health and Dental, the SU’s insurance provider.

In her first report as vice-president external, Sidhu reported transitioning to her new position and attending a childcare meeting for undergraduate students with children. She said there are currently 515 individuals on the waitlist for on-campus childcare — a wait that she said would last about four years.

President Sagar Grewal, vice-president academic Jessica Revington and vice-president student life Nabila Farid were not present at the meeting. Dang read Revington’s report for her in-absentia, in which she reported working on selecting abstracts for the Undergraduate Research Symposium.

During committee chair reports, Dang reported that the Refugee Student Board had its first meeting on Oct. 16. Dang said the Operations and Finance Committee also met on Oct. 16 and were given a quarterly financial update. Kinesiology representative Matthieu Chin, filling in as chair of the Clubs Committee in Farid’s absence, said that the committee approved one last-minute funding request.

The evening concluded with brief votes on three resolutions, all of which excused faculty representatives for past and future absences.

The next meeting of SLC will be on Oct. 30 at 6:30 p.m. in the MacHall Executive Council Chambers. Access elected official reports, trimester reports, minutes and all other SLC documents here.