Councillors vote for a special fee levy referendum
The fee levy committee will reconvene to reassess applications for an upcoming special election
During the latest Concordia Student Union (CSU) regular council meeting (RCM) on March 12, councillors voted in favour of a motion to hold a special fee levy referendum.
“Due to the time constraints of us trying to accept or review the applications during the SCM, some mistakes were made considering some of the applications, so they were wrongfully denied on the fee levy committee’s end,” said CSU student life coordinator and co-chair of the fee levy committee Moad Alhjooj.
Delayed motion to recess
The meeting began around 6:30 p.m. with the approval of the agenda. As it is the month of Ramadan, the passing of the agenda was followed by a vote for a 33 minute recess to allow councillors to break their fast at 6:56 p.m.
During Ramadan, Iftar is the meal enjoyed after fasting that begins at Maghrib (sunset) every day.
After a councillor motioned for council to take a 33 minute break, councillor Drew Sylver asked to amend the motion.
“I'm thinking a 33 minute break [...] is not sufficient, especially considering everyone who is fasting. So, just to consider, I actually wanted to shift to motion to adjourn,” Sylver said.
The chairperson clarified that both a motion to recess and to amend are non debatable motions so, after a councillor seconded Sylver’s motion, the council voted on the motion to adjourn.
The motion to adjourn failed three to 14.
Council then proceeded to vote on the motion to recess, which passed unanimously. However, due to the last minute confusion, the motion passed at 6:57 p.m., a minute after the start of Iftar.
Fee levy committee
Once council reconvened, councillors voted on appointing a councillor to the fee levy committee.
Three councillors nominated themselves for the position: Liora Hechel, Norah Finlay and Chana Leah Natanblut.
Councillor Aron Kessel asked council if they should take into account that the standing regulation recommends that each councilor sit on at least one standing committee when possible.
In fact, according to the CSU Policy on Executive, Council of Representatives, and Committees, “each Councilor, when possible, shall sit on at least two (2) standing committees.”
The chairperson answered that councillors should sit on a maximum of two committees, but that otherwise the policy serves more-so as a general recommendation.
Finlay was appointed to the committee with 15 votes in her favour.
Reading week motion
Following the appointments, Hechel presented her motion to change the start of reading week to the Saturday before reading week.
According to Hechel, the change in start date would be to avoid professors scheduling exams during the weekend, which can put students going home for Thanksgiving in a difficult situation.
Hechel shared how one of her midterms was moved to the Sunday before Thanksgiving two weeks prior to the start of reading-week.
“I had to postpone and pay a heavy fee on my flight home to Switzerland because I got the decision between either getting a zero or I'd have to move my flight,” said Hechel.
Ballantyne said that this motion would need to be brought to senate, as the CSU does not have jurisdiction over the academic calendar. However, Kessel said that, even if the motion is not binding, the CSU could still show support for the motion.
Following a successful motion to end debate from councillor Ali Salman, the motion passed unanimously.
Special fee levy referendum
The meeting ended with a motion by Alhjooj to hold a special fee levy referendum as soon as practical because of mistakes made by the fee levy committee.
“Once this is passed, hopefully we'll call for another fee levy committee meeting where we can discuss all the applications, hopefully not with the time constrained, go over everything in detail and then hold the separate elections just for fee levies,” Alhjooj said.
No fee levy questions were sent to the ballot for the CSU 2025 Winter Annual General Elections.
The motion passed 13 to six.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:14 p.m., with council agreeing that Hechel’s reading week motion could be included in a future fee levy referendum.
