By Lexey Burns, Editor in Chief

As Lambda’s editor-in-chief, it’s my job to continuously watch the transparency of the Students’ General Association. In 2020, this has been particularly difficult.

To my knowledge, the SGA has not advertised any of their meetings this year. They have also neglected to post any minutes from prior meetings, dating back to 2019.

My first email from the SGA in September was for “frosh kits.”

Minutes can be found on the SGA’s website “Governance” and “Meeting Minutes”. There, the records from meetings since 2015 have been published in both French and English.

There have been no minutes published in 2020. 

In the SGA’s Constitution Bylaws (which are available to the public under the “Governance” page on the SGA’s website), “Executive meetings are considered closed door meetings, but will have published minutes,” (page 16).

Their Governance page, which contains the names, programs, year of study, and contact information for each staff member of the SGA has not yet been updated this year as well. It currently lists Tomas Antolin Grant as Vice President of Student Life and Katlyn Kotila as Vice President of Education. 

Both were part of last year’s staff. 

Eric Chappell, President of the SGA, is in his second year as president after a messy election this past spring. He runs the SGA office with other executive members, Benjamin Mackenzie, Vice President of Student Life, and Malek Abou-Rabia, Vice President of Education. 

In October, I asked Malek Abou-Rabia about the minutes of the September meeting. 

Abou-Rabia said that “It gets approved at the next board meeting,” and that once they approve the minutes, they will post them. 

As for last year’s minutes, Abou-Rabia said that he is “working on getting as much of last years [sic] minutes to post on the website” and that he was working with the chair to do so.

The October Meeting

In order for me to be able to attend the SGA’s October meeting, I was told to email SGA senator Justin Pappano, Chair of the Board of Directors, so I could be added to the list of people the meeting’s Zoom link would be emailed to.

In an email, Pappano said that “the Lambda is always welcome at the meetings of the SGA.”

I was then sent an email to join the meeting, one hour before it started. 

During the meeting, I can recall there being approximately 5 people (6 including myself) in the meeting. The executive then delayed the meeting half an hour in case more members joined. 

No one did.

Abou-Rabia also said that currently, board members answer a Doodle Pool to prevent absences and ensure that most can attend the meeting. 

As stated in the SGA’s Constitution Bylaws, “Quorum at any General Meeting shall be 20 members of the Association. 5. Should the General Meeting arrive and quorum is not met, the meeting shall adjourn and be rescheduled. For a rescheduled General Meeting, the notice shall be at least two days. If at a rescheduled meeting quorum is not present, the Board shall assume the duties of the General Meeting,” (page 9). 

In the meeting, the attending members decided that they would reschedule the General Meeting to Sunday, November 1st, giving the members not in attendance 2 days notice. 

That Sunday, Pappano emailed me an hour after the meeting was supposed to begin saying “that due to the 14 days notice required for constitutional changes, we have to reschedule tonight’s special meeting to the night of the 15th; this was a procedural oversight on my end; due to the meeting adjourning sine die and not fixing a time to which to adjourn.”

This confused me as they had given the 2-day notice that was required by the bylaws. 

The extra 2 weeks seemed unnecessary and it seemed unprofessional at best to have a monthly meeting at the very end of the month, in case they needed to reschedule. 

It is against the bylaws to have done so as “There must be at least one meeting of the Board per month from September to March, excluding December,” (page 16).

I had replied saying I would very much like to attend this meeting on the 15th.

I never received a response.  

The December Meeting

On November 22nd, an email was sent out to all members of the SGA, inviting them to join a meeting Sunday, December 13th at 4 pm via Zoom. 

In the email, it says that all students planning on attending the meeting have to register 3 days in advance, having proper verification (your student number and Laurentian email.) 

They ask all students attending to arrive at the Zoom meeting 15-20 minutes before the start of the meeting to confirm registration. 

I believe that the upcoming general meeting is promising. The SGA has done a very good job advertising the meeting and encouraging students to attend by sending multiple emails and posting the meeting on their social media. 

Transparency is key when running such a critical association like the SGA and I am glad that they are finally allowing the students to see what goes on in the meetings. 

I am very excited to see how this meeting will progress and hopefully positively impact our small student community.