• Service Learning at the school is being increased: Similar to a co-op or a practicum, service learning will allow students to apply what they learn in the classroom to the community.
• Social Sciences faculty representative Chris Kalantzis announced that the communications media budget has been slashed by 20 per cent.
• B.A. in Art History has been suspended at the school. The program is attempting to get up and running again for the Fall semester. Academic commissioner Ola Mohajer expressed frustration that the student rep on the committee was not attending the meetings.
• The co-curricular record has now moved into its second phase. Student services now offers workshops on how students can add the CCR to their resume for interviews.
• Rez rent is going up across the board by three per cent. Exceptions are family housing which will rise by 4.6 per cent and two per cent in the older buildings: Norquay, Brewster and Castle.
• Tuition and budget numbers at the university were discussed.
“Nobody seems interested in giving us anything,” said Students’ Union president Charlotte Kingston.
• The tuition consultation has been split between a forecasted 1.5 per cent increase to all programs which will proceed as planned and market modification for Business, Engineering, Law, and Medicine, along with compulsory fees to be negotiated in late April with the SU. Kingston suggested as many people as possible attend a U of C presentation on the fees Tuesday Feb. 2 in the council chambers.
• Education faculty representative Patrick Tomczyk spoke up about the reduction in services due to financial constraints at the Centre for Gifted Education, including the elimination of direct services to children.
• SU businesses have been left out of the university’s “Keep it on Campus” services initiative.
“We were told explicitly that we were part of the campaign, as was the GSA,” said Kingston. She went on to say that two months ago SU services would have been found on the “Keep it on Campus” website, but due to turn over in university administration SU services are being ignored.