Carleton Academic Student Government (CASG) held its first meeting of the school year on Oct. 14 where councillors and coordinators established their roles and passed the annual budget.
Council held an in-council vote to break the tie for the sole contested seat in the election and vice-president (internal) Dakota Livingston proposed new responsibilities for the faculty coordinators.
The only contested seat during the councillor election in September resulted in a tie between second-year students Anthony Valenti and Francesca Lepore, who each received 37 votes.
Council amended the CASG electoral code during Thursday’s meeting to allow for an in-council vote to determine the winner in the event of a tie. Previously, the code did not include a solution to a tie where there are only two competing candidates.
The motion to amend the electoral code passed with 78 per cent of voting members in favour, then each candidate was given a minute to introduce themselves and their platform prior to the vote.
The seat was filled by Valenti who received 39 per cent of the votes in the in-council vote for the Bachelor of Global and International Studies (BGInS) seat. Lepore received 37 per cent of the votes, while 24 per cent of councillors abstained.
“I hope we can work very well together in the next year,” Valenti said following the vote.
The additional funds came as a result of an accumulation of unused funds from previous years, according to vice-president (operations) Vanessa Buecking.
Livingston introduced a motion to amend the CASG Terms of Reference Policy to add two additional roles for faculty coordinators moving forward.
Faculty coordinators are responsible for supporting CASG’s internal operations and organizing monthly meetings with their faculty councillors.
The new responsibilities for the coordinators include leading councillor training sessions in the fall semester and sharing a coordinator report at each council meeting.
Livingston said the new responsibilities for faculty coordinators were introduced to address issues of lack of structure and oversight, empower coordinators and increase accountability and communication.
“These new additions provide a new level of accountability through mandating the coordinator reports at each council meeting, just to ensure there is constant and clear communication from everyone involved on council,” Livingston said.
The amendment passed with overwhelming support, with 85 per cent of the votes in favour and no votes in opposition.
CASG president Jennifer Ramnarine and each of the vice-presidents gave a recap of CASG’s projects and accomplishments over the last few months during the meeting.
This included the extension of the compassionate grading policy for the fall 2021 term, updates to the CASG constitution, bylaws and ethics code and the all-new Academic Initiative Fund (AIF) scholarship started by vice-president (academic) Pierce Burch.
Buecking facilitated the launch of CASG’s new website in early October which aims to provide easier access to students while running more efficiently.
Ramnarine said CASG’s focus for this year is to work with its largest council ever to introduce long-term grading policy measures and added that CASG will be evaluating the need for a further extension of the compassionate grading policy for the winter 2021 term.
The next CASG council meeting is scheduled for Nov. 11.
Featured graphic by Sara Mizannojehdehi.
