Zero nominations submitted for
vacant education council seat

> Coquitlam campus short one student representative since November

Jake Wray
News Editor

 

byelection to select a new student

epresentative from the Coquitlam
campus to sit on the Douglas College
education council has stalled because
no candidates have been nominated.

The education council is an elected
body consisting of two students from the
Coquitlam campus, two students from the
New Westminster campus, two support
staff, and ten faculty members. The
responsibilities of the education council
include defining curriculum content,
setting various academic policies, and
advising the Douglas College board.

One of the Coquitlam student
representative positions has been vacant
since November, when Meredith Graham
stepped down from the position, according

to Douglas College registrar Rella Ng.

After Graham stepped down,
the registrar’s office put out a call for
nominations, Ng said in a phone interview
with the Other Press, but no nominations
were submitted. Ng said the lack of
nominations might be due to bad timing.

“Tt was probably timing of the year,
because it was in late November,” she
said, adding that the Coquitlam campus
might have a smaller pool of students
interested in student politics. “We
maybe just didn’t have many students
from the Coquitlam campus that
wanted to be on education council.”

A student must be taking at least 50
per cent of their credits at the Coquitlam
campus in order to be a Coquitlam student
representative on the education council,
according to the Douglas College website.

Ng said there will be another call
for nominations for the vacant seat in

approximately two weeks, but she is
not sure if there will be any change.

“Given that it’s so late, we don’t
know if we're actually going to get any
nominations,” she said. “Because it’s
a new term, we might have some new
students who may actually be interested
in putting their name forward.”

The seat might have to remain
vacant if no nominations come in
during the second call, Ng said.

“If we actually can’t get any more
nominations, if we've attempted
twice, I think we may need to
leave that vacant,” she said.

The DSU has raised concerns
about the vacant seat as well,
according to Ng, and both parties
are strategizing about the issue.

“Tt is a conversation I’ve had with the
Douglas Students’ Union, they’ve raised
the question about the election process as

well, and so we are actually taking a look
at what can we do together collectively
to encourage more students [to be] more
involved,” she said. “Is there something in
our procedures that we need to change? So,
we are looking at what we can to do try to
encourage more students to come forward.”
McKenzie Hutchison, a New
Westminster student representative
elected to the education council in
October, said she’s had a positive
experience serving on the council so far.
“You have students providing
an alternative voice around a table of
administrators. The council is very
welcoming and encourages as much
student participation as possible,” she
wrote in a Facebook interview with
the Other Press. “It’s great to see the
strength [of] a student voice, and all
the various perspectives it holds, being
taken seriously at an important level.”

New Westminster council proclaims
January Alzheimer’s Awareness Month

> Mayor Cote shares his family’s struggle with Alzheimer’s

Colten Kamlade
Staff Reporter

 

his month is now Alzheimer’s

Awareness Month in New
Westminster after Mayor Jonathan Cote
proclaimed it so at a New Westminster
city council meeting January 8.

Cote opened up about his own family
and their experience with the disorder, and
commented on New Westminster’s role
in helping those affected by Alzheimer’s.

“T think it’s hard to find anyone
whose family isn’t some way touched
with dementia or Alzheimer’s. I know
our family is struggling with a family

member who has got Alzheimer’s, and I
think we're all quite proud that the City
of New Westminster is leading the way in
terms of becoming a dementia-friendly
community,” he said. “[We] are continuing
to do our policy work to say what [that
actually means] from a community
standpoint, but as cities continue to age
and the demographics begin to age, I
think it’s going to become more critically
important for communities to make sure
they're being inclusive and accessible.”
Cote read off the proclamation,
which sketched a picture of what
Alzheimer’s is, and how the city
should respond to the needs of those
suffering from such disorders.

“All British Columbians need to
be better informed about Alzheimer’s
disease and other forms of dementia
and work to create more supportive and
inclusive communities ... the City of New
Westminster is committed to achieving
meaningful outcomes for people with
dementia and their caregivers that are
person-centred and effective,” he said.
“And ... the Alzheimer Society of BC
is committed to building a dementia
friendly BC, where people living with the
disease, the caregivers, and their families
are welcome, included, and supported.
Now therefore I, Jonathan Cote, mayor
of the City of New Westminster, do
hereby proclaim the month of January

2018 as Alzheimer’s Awareness Month
in the City of New Westminster.’

According to the Alzheimer
Society of BC website, the New
Westminster city council has also
received training from them, and is the
first local government in BC to do so.

“Tn January, 2015 the City of New
Westminster became the first council to
become dementia-friendly by receiving
dementia friends education from the
Alzheimer Society of BC,” says the
website. “Since then the society has been
working closely with the City of New
Westminster to support the development
of a dementia-friendly action plan”

DSU to hold annual general meeting

> Students have chance to participate in governance of students’ union

Jake Wray
News Editor

 

he DSU is set to hold its 2018

annual general meeting, which is
open to all students, on January 25.

Virtually all students are members of
the DSU and the annual general meeting
provides students with an opportunity
to review the DSU’s finances, pose
questions to DSU board members, vote
on proposed changes to DSU bylaws and
policies, and, of course, devour free pizza.
A total of 75 members must be present
in order for the meeting to proceed.

Aran Armutlu, director of finance
for the DSU, said there are a number
of exciting proposals to be voted on at
the annual general meeting. Perhaps
the most important, he said, isa

proposal to add another member at
large to the DSU board of directors.
“The rationale behind that is we
have a board of 12, and as the population
of Douglas is growing a lot over these
past few years, we just—we need more,”
he said in a phone interview with the
Other Press. “Instead of having our 12
representatives doing more work, we're
just going to add another representative’
Directors at large are “jack-
of-all-trades” board members who
support the work of executive board
members, according to Armutlu.
Armutlu said there will also be
a number of motions to update the
language of various DSU policies,
including changing the titles of
some roles within the DSU.
“We have one where it currently
says ‘aboriginal students’ representative,

>

and we're going to change it so it says
‘Indigenous students’ representative, and
then the other one: It’s currently ‘disabled
students representative’ and we're going
to change it so it says ‘students with
disabilities representative,” he said.
Members will vote on a number of
other motions, Armutlu said, including
motions to keep DSU policies in line
with the new BC Societies Act, which
compels organizations like the DSU to
be transparent with their membership.
There will also be an annual
report on the DSU’s finances.
Armutlu said his favourite part
of annual general meetings is the
portion where members can pose
questions to the board of directors.
“Question period is my favourite
part because it’s the time when you get
to see the average student come up for

themselves and put an inquiry to the
board,” he said. “T enjoy that part quite a
bit because we [on the board] really get to
see what the average student cares about.”

Armutlu said he encourages
all members to attend the
annual general meeting.

“They get to engage with the student
union, they get to learn about the work
that the reps have been doing for [the
membership], they get to have their voice
heard, and they get to vote on decisions
that are being made, so it’s an interesting
and a good way to have an active role
in the students’ union,” he said.

The annual general meeting will
be held in the Aboriginal Gathering
Place at the New Westminster campus
and it is set to begin at 2:30 p.m.