August 4, 2020

Here’s what your SFSS Board of Directors has been up to during the month of July:

The SFSS Board of Directors had an eventful and productive month of July. The first board meeting of the month took place on the 10th of July. A motion was raised and passed regarding SUB space reallocation for student organization rooms in the 1000-level. The proposal was led by VP Finance, Corbett Gildersleve, after he viewed the spaces during the tour of the SUB. The proposed reallocation offered SOCA and Embark separate rooms as compared to the previous allocation which proposed the two student organizations to share a space in one suite. There were discussions about space changes regarding a mental health open space area for Hi-FIVE’s peer counselling program, but Hi-FIVE is not active in the summer so there will be no confirmation from the organization until Fall. The board also shared a discussion around important issue of exam invigilation. SFU administration will be allowing instructors to use exam invigilation software like Proctorio. Board members showed concerns and were against the use of such softwares as they are not only stress inducing, but also cause an invasion to privacy. Furthermore, the software will add additional stress to students in different time zones, especially those with low internet connectivity.

The board of directors met for the second time on the 24th of July. A motion was passed regarding the approval of $67,848 additional funding for building a second elevator in the SUB, which brings the total funding for the elevator to $267,848. The board also discussed around the important issue of Fall U-Pass where VP External Relations, Samad Raza, explained the situation. Our U-Pass survey had very close numbers as 51% of the students are in favour of reinstating the U-Pass while the 49% voted for continuing the suspension. The board members, along with VP External spoke in favour of reinstating the U-Pass as low-income students will be disproportionately affected if the U-Pass is not reinstated. Board members also suggested for an option of reimbursements for students who cannot pay for the U-Pass. The board also debriefed the Student Townhall that took place on July 7th. Around 300 people logged into Slido to submit questions for the livestream, and the Facebook stream in the C19 Coalition page had 3.5k views.

Our Events Committee will be hosting a two-part photography workshop. The first partwould be about teaching students to take better photos using their cell phone camera.While the second part would consist of photo editing using tools such as Photoshop,Lightroom etc.

The Finance and Admin Services Committee is currently working on two projects; audit & financial report for the annual general meeting and student group funding model review.

The BIPOC committee is working on anti-racism issues. The committee discussed ideas surrounding anti-racism campaigns, advocacy, hiring Black faculty, and removal of colonial art pieces in North AQ and statues of racist figure; Gandhi statue was mentioned. The committee is also working on a very important project of SFU athletics team name change from the C[k]lan.

Vancouver Campus and Surrey Campus Committees have application open for student at-large positions. You can apply via our website.

The SFSS has also launched the Food Hub program in collaboration with SFU Office of Community Engagement. The purpose of this program is to provide groceries to help relieve the financial burden of our students during the pandemic crisis. The package pick-up is available every Wednesday from 12pm to 3:30pm at the Burnaby campus. You can register each week for pick-up at following link:https://bit.ly/mbcfoodhub Also, a special thanks to Tara Flynn from SFU Office of Community Engagement for bringing forth this idea and working with us to carry out this project.

The SFSS also held a virtual concert where SFU Peak Frequency took over the SFSS events Instagram page (@sfss_events) on July 22nd. We also distributed SFSS Women of the Year Award amongst the winners. Congratulations to all the winners!

We would also like to welcome(back) our new SFSS Transition Manager, Lawrence Jones.

July Timeline:

First Board Development Session [3rd July]
Board and student staff meet & greet [8th July]
First Board Meeting [10th July]
Virtual meet & greet with GSS and Student Service Directors [15th July]
Second Board Development Session [17th July]
SFSS Council Meeting [22nd July]
Second Board Meeting [24th July]
Third Board Development Session [31st July]