November 24, 2022, 7:00 pm-8:00pm
Zoom Virtual Conference Room
Present: Tinson Chen, Gillian Irwin, Sarah Greene, Griffin Kinzie, Flynn O’Dacre, Jessie Chan, Phoebe Newton, Anthony Cherubini, Oyin Aderibigbe, Luna Quail, Sydney Wisener, James Esemu-Ezewu, Ishmeet Johal
Regrets: Monica Yeom, Hanna Rao, Ian McMillan, Maya Verma, Rachel Mery, Caroline Bredin, David Kanter Eivin, Sadie MacDonald, Natalie Chu, Sanjana Shah, Alex Harris, Priya John, Charlotte Johnston, Ally Kortes-Miller
TL;DR:
We talked about Agora and the TA Strike
Preview of end-of-semester reports and meetings
Progressive dinner next week!
Oyin: Planning for Agora has been happening for about two weeks now. The theme was going to be displacement and diaspora. The tricky thing is emailing profs about attending with the strike happening. We were thinking we could shift to strike focus and no profs. But would have to be reframed, as it’s not a traditional Agora. The other thing is that it’s such a busy time. What does everyone think?
Tinson: I like the idea of shifting focus and having a more student-led conversation.
Phoebe: I think one on labour strikes would be a really good topic, but I’m worried about the timeframe.
Oyin: So, we could do two next semester and cancel this one given the multiple obstacles.
Phoebe: Yeah, really concerned about strikebreaking if it happened anyway
Tinson: I had figured this would be off-campus event.
Oyin: That would involve EOHSS I’m not sure we could get approval quickly enough
So the options are unofficially:
off campus
two next semester and cancel with a statement
continue on as usual with a regular Agora
Tinson: Not enough to vote on this. Oyin: Was supposed to happen this weekend, but that’s just not feasible.
Sydney: I trust you and David. Online would be fine too but it’s also not necessary to do this.
Tinson: Here’s a thought. What if we did something like a bar night with a topic of conversation? There would be a lot less planning involved.
Oyin: I would like it to be formalized through because it happens so infrequently. I will run it by David though. Would be good to word it that we are putting aside our opportunity for this conversation in support of the TAs whose needs are not being met by the university
Tinson: Next item of business - put together our Welcome Week committee. That will be me, our prior two organizers and then first come first serve 3 other members from SASSEx.
Information about the application will go out over the winter break so that people can make up teams
Next on the agenda is to fill out the form of SASSets for Griffin and I. We would like to have a sense of what resources we have and where they are currently being stored.
The end-of-semester report in the general stream. This is not really for distributing at large but more of a transition report checkpoint. Record information that you have in regard to events like how many people attended, general costs, how you are breaking down those costs, what you could’ve done better, etc. Will put a mini report for general SASS for transparency purposes.
I was also thinking it might be good if we set a goal of weekly meetings.
Griffin: I am a fan of weekly meetings.
Phoebe: I don’t think that weekly meetings would be the most productive use of time. It’s also harder for people who need to commute to campus just for the meetings.
Tinson: The reason that I bring it up is that I find a lot happens between meetings and is resolved before next which is not able to be tabled.
Luna: I feel weekly meetings would be better, as well as provide more flexibility.
Informal vote on meetings:
Yes: 5
No: 4
Abstain: 3
Sydney: Some of the things that come out through the week might only be applicable to smaller groups, which might not necessitate more meetings.
Tinson: Maya, Gillian, and I are planning to meet with admin before next term. Big items: getting email lists back (already insecure emails in mac junk), how welcoming ArtSci space is in LRW.
Phoebe: I like the email plan. Give us back the lists. The admin thing is a problem. You’re only welcome in LR if admin likes you.
Tinson: If there’s any particular instances you want to talk about I would be happy for people to share their experiences.
Phoebe: I’m so pro the new space but yeah LR won’t be used if it is approved.
Sydney: Point of persuasion would be the restricted access. I don’t believe that a lot of non-ArtSci students are trying to use the LR space in my opinion.
Phoebe: The only times I’ve seen people be kicked out was when they also had food and Shelley was addressing them about that.
Tinson: One big concern I have is that I’ve heard this kind of issue was rampant in other faculty spaces. I know with humanities space it’s a pass that they let people in. Some Engineering spaces have a key card. It prevents more people from, just like, wandering in.
Sydney: Even if there was a code on the door of LRW then maybe they wouldn’t have to police it so closely.
Tinson: So yeah if anyone has any input about how LR might be dysfunctional or can be done better or any points that you want brought up with admin, let me know by next week. I’ll put this in the follow-up as well. Flynn do you want to give an update on progressive dinner!
Flynn: All our houses are booked, you can register as an individual or with one other person to promote more mixing between the years. It’s all coming together.
Phoebe: In other news, merch is also coming together! We have the design, it’s very classy, and the form is being drafted as we speak
Jessie: Everything has to be paid for by December 9th.
Anthony: Can I still design ArtSci athletic merch?
Tinson: I like that! Though I don’t like the purple all over everything. We could branch out with future merch!
Sarah: I had a question about the gift exchange. If the strike goes on, what should we take into consideration?
Luna: We did it in person in inquiry last year.
Sarah: GCI and Writing are online, everything else is in person.
Tinson: I would suggest doing it online just to support the strike. I can get you in contact with the people that organized it for the fully online year.
Luna: We’re combining a second-year gift exchange with a movie night event.
Tinson: I like that.
Sarah: Sounds like a cool thing! We’ve definitely heard an interest in a movie night type of event, so that might be a good idea for first years as well.
Tinson: Dares could be captured by video and done asynchronously. Yeah, get in contact with me, we can chat about it. Next meeting will be our last meeting of the semester. Hoping to combine with a bowling night in Dundas! See you there, hopefully!
[Meeting adjourned.]
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