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Gord McGuire – President

Adam Picotte – VP Academic

Frederic Perron-Welch – VP External

Michelle McBride – VP Finance

Michelle Black – DALSA Representative

Melissa Grover – First Year Representative

Jade Buchanan - First Year Representative

Stewart Carstairs - First Year Representative

Greg Gilhooly - Second Year Representative

Brian Kuchar - late

Mark Leung– Third Year Representative

Gill Carter - Secretary

Sean Fraser – Chair

 

            Regrets:

Alia Rosenstock – regrets

Jessica Upshaw – regrets

Erin Tolfo - regrets

Dan McGruder – regrets

 

3. Adoption of Agenda

• All in favour of adopting agenda.

 

4. Approval of Last Meeting’s Minutes

• Amendments necessary re: typos, incorrect date for Federal Election.

 

5. Chair’s Remarks

• No remarks

 

6. Questions from Public – N/A

 

7. Reports of the Executive

 

7.1. President’s Report

·         Sending emails to school to watch/participate in LSS meetings

·         Alumni meeting –125^th anniversary of school coming up, not till next fall

·         Alternative careers initiative – two positions: Mark Wolf, alternative careers project coordinator, Yee Htun – research coordinator à start doing cross-jurisdictional research of law schools

·         Mid-term report from LSS, room booked January 13 (in committee hour) for members of exec, year reps to address what has been done this year/questions 

·         Course selection forum for first year students – series of third years discuss choice of courses/field questions – comment from Fred: book in LSS office w/ this year’s course evaluation (not meant to leave office), have results w/ student comments, might be useful in spring

·         Authority to clean up office – food to food drive (organized by Michelle/Jade)

·         library strategy – not necessary at present moment, hold off of approach to this – e.g. what students want (concern of undergrad students, etc), will consult later

Motion to amend agenda by Gord, seconded by Stewart – under new business, schools

 

7.2. VP Exec Report – N/A

 

7.3. VP Finance Report

·         Social committee has enough money to cover the $1364 owed for McGinnis room, will have cheque shortly

·         in touch w/ 98% of societies – overwhelmingly positive, fine with getting cheques in January, agreed to meet one on one (a couple having financial trouble) – would like to discuss two-tiered funding (one in fall, others in winter – when 2^nd half of DSU funding comes) at some point in the future

 

7.4. VP Academic Report

§  summary from teacher evaluation committee – looking to put forward OTL evaluation – in email in next few weeks

 

7.5. VP External Report

§  democracy process – sent out emails for federal and municipal elections

§  last DSU meeting consumed by referendum issue – NS public interest research group, currently funded by referendum grant, initially authorized approx 20 years ago, but goals/research orientation has changed substantially – not being approved as a society, issue of concern to DALSA b/c need to draft constitution put forward referendum through the school

§  looking into sitting on meetings w/ NS Barrister’s Society, Canada Bar Association – most effective way to gather information, to know what is going on in legal community

 

8. Representative’s Reports

 

8.1. DALSA Report

·         Nothing to report

 

8.2. DBLSA Report – N/A

 

8.3. First Year Representatives

Melissa (Section A):

·         Concerned with rolling evaluations and lack of intermediary step – prof may recognize handwriting, concern that professors responding differently to them based on feedback given

o   Response from Adam: idea of them is for professors’ to understand how students are responding to their teaching methods, going back to professors = time issue, professors typically leave classrooms while students are filling out forms

·         Interest in meeting people from other professional faculties e.g. faculty mixer

·         Concern with lockers labeled, but not used - Alia to be contacted in this regard

·         Section A Domus Rep asked to bring topic of an event for students to learn formal manners to use in interviews and dinners w/ firms – approach career development office for partnership, or social committee – talk to CDO Edward Wang (Jade to work on this along w/ Melissa)

·         Legal Who – photos in but wrong name, or some people not in it – have individuals to contact the committee, Jillian Brown Chair: brownj3@dal.ca

 

Jade (Section B)

§  Willing to help with Melissa’s work on formal manners session

§  Updated information to Garnet, if see anything incorrect on website let Jade or Garnet know

§  Legal Who – would like to have access to it for photos on webpage

§  Apparently dentistry switched to digital text, after hearing from Dean Saunders on subject, will speak to dentistry about this

§  JD/LLB – looking for short history (save discussion to JD/LLB debate)

 

Stewart (Section C)

§  Hot water decanter in LSS office – ask Margaret about this, behind counter

§  Email sent out about student anonymity – how do you ensure that students are not writing exams for others? Dal Card and signature before writing exams

 

8.4. Second Year Representatives

Greg - nothing to report

Brian – N/A

Erin – N/A

 

8.5. Third Year Representatives

Mark

·         Career development office puts on session for third years without employment, invite individuals in same position but did subsequently get jobs, going to be doing it again this year – tentative date: November 4

·         Up to 3^rd year reps to advertise

·         Canvas thoughts as another idea on how CDO can better serve interests (if the CDO session does not give enough information)

 

Dan – N/A

 

9. Old Business – Minutes passed.

 

10. New Business

10.1 Events Calendar

§  Events calendar somewhere to list events being held  (weekly, daily, monthly) from the different societies

§  UWO Law Society has an events calendar – maybe email to ask about it

§  Bulletin boards in lounge may be an option, but logistics may be an issue

§  Melissa to look into options, to bring to next meeting

 

10.2 JD-LLB Debate

§  January 15^th – debate, plebiscite the following date

§  UWO has excellent resource/brief history of debate – may be good idea to put on website and maybe in newspaper

§  Opposition to making change to JD – comments from section C

§  Idea of providing a de-brief – a one-pager from each side of the debate, could be provided in advance of the meeting, as well as links to articles from Canadian legal magazines about this

§  Could send links to articles now, hold off on de-brief till early January

§  No debate at Dalhousie prior to this, but since schools across Canada have made the switch to JD, it is important to discuss it (trying to pre-empt what is occurring across the country), referendum at Western in early 2000 – overwhelmingly turned it down, but in recent referendum 70% of students did want it. Gord to work on this de-brief, who will keep us posted.

§  1^st year reps to bring up in section

Motion from Jade – preliminary email/status update re: why now, background reading, etc. seconded by Mark. To be sent out by Gord. Motion carried.

 

Arrival of Brian Kutchar 7:55 p.m

 

10.3 Food Drive

• Library wants to know when food drive is going on, Jessica Upshaw wants to be involved volunteering and know how others get involved (Christmas holiday food drive)
• Michelle B, Stewart and Jessica to take the lead on this
• Will contact people from last year – Olga and Jessica Iverson to discuss this
• Framed as competition between the sections – donate to food bank

 

10.4 Exam Schedule Report

·         Looking into extending/creating some exam break for law students, or changing space of exams (for year 2012)

·         Melissa, Stewart, Brian, Gord – contacted various schools across Canada

·         Heard from U of T – same, except that for April exams had two days

·         Osgoode – very similar to us, but two days spacing in April, and break of two/three days before starting in April

·         U of Ottawa – taken inquiry and will respond accordingly

·         UBC – before winter exams couple of days, and 6 days break between end of terms and spring exams, with same schedule for first years and upper years, exams take place every other day

·         U de Moncton – two days break between fall session and December exams, and 5 day break after April courses (including weekend), orientation in August, so classes start right after labour day, have a fall study break of four days

·         Manitoba –similar to Dal, classes end on Friday, exams start Monday (first years)

·         To report back with additional information next week – Brian, Stewart

 

11. Announcements – next week planning on dealing w/ budget, will likely be longer than usual, keep eyes open in email for budget, please look before hand.

 

12. Adjournment – meeting adjourned at 8:10, motion by Fred, seconded by Jade.