On November 20, AMS Council met to appoint two interims VPs, amend policies and hear presentations.
Here's what you might have missed.
Interim executives
On November 6, Council approved a motion to remove previous VP academic and university affairs (AUA) Drédyn Fontana six months into his term, effective immediately, due to performance concerns including non-confidence to complete his goals and “misrepresentation to Council.” However, The AMS has not specified what misrepresentation to Council means. The AMS released a statement which said the society cannot release “further information on this decision … due to privacy reasons.” VP Finance Gavin Fung-Quon took a leave of absence, which began November 12, due to “personal reasons,” according to a statement from AMS President Christian ‘CK’ Kyle to The Ubyssey.
- AMS Council vote to remove VP Academic and University Affairs
- AMS to hold a by-election for VP AUA in coming weeks
- AMS VP finance taking a leave of absence for ‘personal reasons'
During a private in-camera session, Council appointed Zarifa Nawar — previously AVP university — as interim VP AUA and Amber Dhaliwal — previously AVP finance — as interim VP finance.
A motion was also passed by council to defer the VP AUA by-election to January and is when Nawar’s term will end, while Dhaliwal’s employment will last until the end of the VP finance’s term in April according to the job posting.
Several amendments adopted
The Governance Committee also presented an amendment to the AMS's record policy (SR2). This amendment was to allow the AMS to share all records with the society’s lawyers.
“We noticed that this isn’t explicit in the policy ... but it’s good to have it in a policy for governance,” explained Governance Committee chair Eshana Bhangu. The amendment was approved.
Two other amendments were also presented to amend the AMS’s Respectful Community and Workplace Policy (PC1) and the Sexualized Violence Policy (PC2).
CK said in April a motion to direct the HR Committee to implement a robust alternative investigations process to remove the AMS Ombudsperson from an investigative role in the policies. He also said the HR Committee decided in the summer the best path forward would be to pilot outsourcing investigations for the year until August 2025. CK said afterwards, a review of the data would be done to see if outsourcing should continue to be done.
The motion also included that these amendments would not be counted towards the annual review of the policy.
Both amendments to PC1 and PC2 were approved.
Presentations on renovations
Council also heard a presentation from AMS Designer Michael Kingsmill on the Norm Theatre Renovation. The theatre is located in the Life Building which was the previous student union building.
Kingsmill said this "is a real legacy project," as the Norm is on original AMS facility first constructed in 1967.
The renovations began in 2019 and now in 2024, Kingsmill said they are on phase three of four for the renovations. This phase include stage improvements which is expected to cost around $622,000.
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