CSU Update: Orientation Ends With Surplus

Also: Some Committees Not Reaching Quorum

NewsVince Morello — Published November 13, 2016

This was because Gauthier wants to organize another orientation week during the winter semester.

Events during orientation cost the CSU a total of $106,693.25, but they also gained $15,757.34 in revenues. The total cost actually came to $90,935.91.

Gauthier wrote in her post-mortem that the budget “is as accurate as possible,” but that they are “still collecting invoices and paying external contributors that are sending in their bills late.”

Although generally happy with the range of events planned, Gauthier said they didn’t spend enough time promoting events.

Plans for the winter orientation are now underway, and Gautier expects it to be smaller than the one during the fall semester.

Committee Absences

Academic and Advocacy Coordinator Sophia Sahrane mentioned during a council meeting on Nov. 9, that councillors have been missing some committee meetings. It was a problem during the summer, during orientation and also during midterms, she said.

“Now there’s not really any more excuses,” Sahrane said. “Some councillors take for granted that they are needed because often times we need to have informal committee meetings because we don’t have quorum.”

Councillors are required to be on at least one committee. Without quorum, the committees can not make any binding decisions.

The group that is having a hard time reaching quorum is academic caucus committee, which is where the CSU prepares for the upcoming Concordia University Senate meetings, and gives summaries of what happened at Senate.

As it stands now, there are not any consequences in the standing regulations for councillors that miss meetings.

“When an executive notices that a councillor is not showing up to their committees, we will talk to them directly and we try to figure out if there’s a way we can help them and if not, if there’s another committee that will suit their schedule,” Sahrane said.