Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology Students Association
Meeting Minutes
Monday February 16, 2015
Opening:
The meeting of the BPKSA was called to order by Loryn at 12:30 pm in the BPK Conference Room
In Attendance:
Ian, Ashly, Loryn, Shaila, Garveen, Matt, Erina, Steven M, Josh, Bogdon, Sam, Steven O, Ashley, Foster
Open Issues:
TSSU:
-represent the TA’s, TM’s & sessional instructors; most of these are students @ SFU, graduates or externals from nearby universities
-Ashley & Foster (TSSU representatives) came to the meeting to talk about what is going on in the TSSU and give us updates
-talked about the Collective Agreement negotiations which are rules of conduct the university has to play by so the employees are treated better
-they are again back in negotiations with the university; their goal is to reach out to students to figure out the needs of departments so they know what to bargain for
-Have 9 ½ demands:
-job security for sessional instructors (paid as much as a TA; have to reapply
for their position every semester & have no guarantee that the will be hired again)
-TA/TM: access to work for qualified people; TA & online TM roles are merging, so also want to merge language for TA’s and TM’s in collective agreement
-want a more cohesive system where the positions for TA’s are all open at the same time so those qualified can apply for all the positions they want
-want to bring standards up to BC Labour Code standards; better infrastructure at Harbour Centre and Surrey campuses to make them less like satellite campuses
-want to make sure cameras & microphones aren’t used for surveillance
of the TA’s and also want an explanation as to how this surveillance is used
-English language & interpretation are mainly at Harbour Centre and have really bad benefits with lower pay than the provincial baseline; therefore want to improve benefits & close loopholes that allows them to lose their jobs
-want to build in a system that allows the people with the right qualities can be hired
-want everyone to by paid the same wages for the same job
-Half Point has to do with wages, since TA’s were underpaid
-bargaining is not going well and is super slow; the half point hasn’t even been brought up yet
-the TSSU wants the undergraduates to know what is going on and want to give updates to them unlike last time when everything was all of a sudden
-Questions asked on our behalf:
-Is there a possibility of strike soon?
-Answer: they will be holding a vote on job action, but a full on picketing strike isn’t for sure yet
-don’t want to strike again and therefore are communicating with the DSU’s to gather support
-if anyone has any questions, we can ask the TSSU
Kin Cup
-Best Date: Monday March 23rd from 5:30-7:30 pm in the East Gym
-will be in the same week as BPK Research Day
-we want to start promoting this soon; Matt will make the Facebook event, Sabrina is updating the posters and will get them up soon, Steven M will talk about it in the department meeting
-will also do class visitations the week before; Loryn will email the faculty to figure out what days work best for this week for their classes
-although attendance is variable, we are estimating about 100 people coming
-Equipment Rentals: soccer nets, basketballs, soccer balls, dodgeballs
-Matt will be buying the food from Costco; includes: brownies, gogurt, mandarins, granola bars, cookies, juice boxes
SFSS Meeting Update:
–Sam attended the SFSS meeting before the reading break and gave us an update
-talked about Open Textbook Program
-will be voting on this soon
-is a data base of textbooks that will be available to students so they won’t have
to buy them; will only be allowed to use the textbook for the semester they are
taking that particular class
-cheaper; will be a school wide thing if implemented
-Opinions on Open Textbook Program:
-okay for lower divisions courses, but some people like to keep their upper division textbooks
-also not okay for upper division courses if courses don’t need textbooks; then students will be paying the fee for no reason
-might not work for BPK since textbooks for BPK courses tend to be very specific
-might be a good idea to make this an optional program
-link for more information: open.bccampus.ca/find-open-textbooks/
-COG SCI Students Association: the representative brought up that FASS is firing their only advisor to the department of Cognitive Science and is delegating all academic advising to the Psychology advisor
-they have written a formal letter and want to gather support to stop this; Sam will forward the letter to us
-they want to send the open letter out as much as possible, more open dialogue
and more say in the process
Clothing
-Shaila made up the order form & sent the form to Loryn which she sent to Josh for approval
-Josh administered a survey to all of the students participating in the Peer Mentorship Program and found that they would like class room visits that promote the clothing
-so we can let people know about the clothing sales in class visits & could book a table in the AQ to showcase the clothing
-students can fill out the form and drop it off with the money to the office; Josh will handle all of the orders
Year End Party:
-the date is TBA, but possible will be on April 2nd, 2015
-Ashly will negotiate with the manager of Club Ilia; Loryn will forward old email to Ashly which had the details about last years party
Future Meeting With Dr.Glen Tibbits
-Josh will set up a websurvey & have Sophie send it to the entire department
-they will be asked to write one good thing about the program and one thing they don’t like
Adjournment:
The meeting of the BPKSA was adjourned by Loryn at 1:30 pm in the BPK Conference Room. The next meeting will be held on Monday February 23rd , 2015 in the BPK Conference Room at 12:30 pm.