On Wednesday evening, AMS Council met for the first time in 2022, returning to a virtual format amid the spread of the Omicron variant.
Items on the agenda included a presentation on a recent survey of AMS clubs, a discussion on elections planning and confirmation that the Sexual Assault Support Centre (SASC) will be able to distribute naloxone.
Clubs report trouble finding storage space, privacy concerns with CampusBase
Associate VP Admin Ben Du presented the results of a month-long, optional survey of AMS clubs, intended to identify how supported clubs felt during the pandemic and how they felt about the AMS club platform CampusBase.
The survey received 137 responses from the representatives of 91 clubs.
According to the survey, 38 per cent of respondents rated finding storage space for club belongings and equipment as “very” or “extremely challenging.”
Du recommended that the AMS evaluate how well clubs space is being used. “Quite often times we see a lot of space being used inefficiently,” Du said in the meeting.
Clubs also expressed majority support for the AMS bringing back its video conferencing grant and the recent change to provide new clubs with $500 when they launch.
In the section of the survey regarding CampusBase, respondents rated privacy as their most important concern with the platform. Just seven per cent of respondents said they were “extremely confident” that CampusBase protects users’ personal information. CampusBase has previously experienced public privacy breaches.
Twenty-three per cent of clubs said they logged onto CampusBase once a year or less than once a year, while an additional 44 per cent said they logged onto CampusBase once a month.
SASC to distribute naloxone
According to VP External Saad Shoaib, SASC has received approval from the BC Centre for Disease Control to distribute naloxone. Student Services Manager Mitchell Prost added that SASC’s position as an official naloxone distributor would be used “to supply [the AMS’s] naloxone training and distribution initiatives across campus.”
BC is currently in the midst of an overdose crisis. Last year, the Social Justice Centre distributed fentanyl test strips to students ahead of Halloween weekend.
New CEO hired ahead of elections season
With AMS elections season looming, President Cole Evans announced that the AMS had hired a new chief electoral officer, Shania Muthu, after the previous CEO requested termination.
Councillors also discussed potential referendum questions. Evans said the AMS was considering a fee restructure referendum, an increase in funding for SASC, some by-law and governance changes, asking students about the future of the AMS brewery project, asking students if they want to be able to opt-out of fees digitally and potential changes to the AMS/GSS Health and Dental Plan.
Some councillors expressed concern about the fee restructuring, cautioning execs to do this with care and not couple a SASC fee increase with other fee changes.
Evans said the AMS is currently engaging with resource groups about a fee restructure, and would not put anything to a referendum that wasn’t approved by those groups.
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