The UWaterloo/FEDS Science Society voted last night to increase transparency and fix constitutional concerns as well as enfranchise Coop students by allowing them to run for president of the society. The Science Society is the science student representation to the Faculty, Departments, and Federation of Students. These changes make a more open and accessible Science Society and allow a more transparent future.
Changes included...
- allowing the board to offer seats to non-undergraduate students to increase involvement of HeForShe and FemPhys in the Science Society and Faculty of Science,
- allowing the Board to dismiss coordinators hired on executive perogative (particularly the Financial Associate and Administrative Coordinator),
- allowing the voting of Senators and Councillors on the Board, and allowed proxy voting (ad abstentia) for board members.
The Board also agreed to reduce spending caps and make those in existence more flexible for departmental clubs allowing better savings and fiscal responsibility with student dollars, overturning a 5 year old one-size-fits-all policy.
The Science Society Executive additionally agreed to a Board mandate on the distribution of voting authority by the executive.
But perhaps the most important aspects of this general meeting was the motion to allow running of off-term co-presidents for the Society enabling coop students to participate more in Faculty and University student governance.
The most contentious change decided was the removal of a one term old member, Biomedical Student Association (BMSA), from the Board due to overlap with Biology's departmental club, BUGS, and the Faculty-level interdepartmental Biochemistry club, BSA. After much deliberation, the Board resolved that the BMSA over-represented life sciences on the board, giving an unfair excess in spending on Biology Students (under which Biomedical students fall) and set an unreasonable precedent for specific programs, rather than the departments and the faculty only, to have Board representation. Note: the primary argument for maintaining BMSA was the under-representation of Biomedical students; however this was noted as not the case as 3 of the Executives on Science Society and 2 Board members (5/11 seats) are held by Biomedical students. The Board recommended that BMSA as a separate program club incorporate under FEDS as a registered club and seek Science Society external funding in the future.
For Board resolutions and minutes visit the Science Society website.