Illustration: Samantha Bullis/The Dialog
An emergency meeting left the Student Association’s (SA) board of directors in confusion when a grey area in the bylaws was discovered; can someone who is not currently a member of the SA sit on the board of directors if they are registered as a student for the next semester?
A meeting was called for Nov. 7 after Patricia Bonnaud, who is not a full-time student until January, asked for an exemption to run in the fall byelections, as she did not meet the requirements to be a board member. However, the board granted her the opportunity to run in the fall byelections.
On June 25, Bonnaud had previously been appointed by the board as the liberal arts and preparatory studies educational centre representative.
The confusion of board members was due to the election policy, which the board has the authority to change. The election policy states, “Only Student Association members who have paid the SA Student Activity Fee for the current term of study or belong to a category of students in respect of which the corporation has accepted a grant in lieu of such fee will be eligible for nomination as candidates in the elections of the Student Association.”
As only full-time students pay the SA student activity fee, only current full-time students are members of the SA.
Bonnaud, who is not a full-time student for the current term, was granted an exemption by the board due to already having paid her activity fee for the upcoming winter term.
A motion by Julia MacKenzie, the SA’s director of internal affairs, stated, “Patricia Bonnaud would be exempted from membership requirements for the 2013 elections provided that all other requirements are met.”
As there were no other candidates running against Bonnaud for Ryerson campus director, the exemption by the board resulted in her acclamation.
Two other candidates were also acclaimed due there being no opposing candidates. They are: Alessia Provenzano for waterfront campus director and Antonella Savino as the health sciences representative.
Two candidates are running in the election for GBC’s board of governors. They are Mohammad Ali Aumeer and Shivam Kumar Khullar. Voting concludes Friday Nov. 15 at 4 p.m.
