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Meeting of the Dalhousie Law Students’ Society Board of Directors

March 10, 2009

1. Call to order – motion from Jade, seconded by Melissa 7:05pm

2. Roll call of members present
1.  Gord McGuire – President
2.  Adam Picotte – VP Academic
3.  Alia Rosenstock – VP Executive
4.  Frederic Perron-Welch – VP External
5.  Michelle McBride – VP Finance
6.  Michelle Black – DALSA Representative
7.  Jessica Upshaw – DBLSA Representative
8.  Melissa Grover – First Year Representative
9.  Jade Buchanan - First Year Representative
10.  Stewart Carstairs - First Year Representative – sent regrets
11.  Greg Gilhooly - Second Year Representative
12.  Brian Kuchar - Second Year Representative
13.  Erin Tolfo - Second Year Representative
14.  Dan McGruder – Third Year Representative
15.  Mark Leung– Third Year Representative
16.  Gill Carter – Secretary
17.  Sean Fraser – Chair

3. Adoption of Agenda – agenda adopted

4. Approval of Last Meeting’s Minutes  - motion from Michelle, seconded by Melissa, unanimously carried (subject to discussion).

5. Chair’s Remarks – nothing to report

6. Questions from Public
1. Shannon Zimmerman

-candidate for DSU president  - implementation of the new MBA across Canada may affect law students

-Academic Integrity Officer – try to resolve it at this level, if not, then sent to Senate for disciplinary hearing – this policy is not congruent for all, dependant upon faculty

-Memorandum of Understanding – benefitting from tuition freeze, however the province is no longer certain this will happen – need strong leadership in DSU to work with lobby groups to ensure that this does not happen

-deferred maintenance – more work needs to be done at the Board of Governors level and through federal government lobby group CASA

-coherent school wide policies for inclement weather

-www.voteshannon.com – voting next Tues, Wed, Thurs (17-19) – www.dsu.ca

2. Social Committee representative

-Law Ball tickets’ on sale 11-1 in lobby, will have DJ 9 –close, will have passed appetizers 8-9, 11-12

-same events at last year – Upper Year dinners (raised $1500), Pith & Substance introduced food this year

-suggestion to include LSS logo on events, given that LSS is the umbrella for these societies

7. Reports of the Executive
1. President’s Report

-constitutional amendment regarding Faculty Council and Studies Committee – if Faculty Council goes in camera, all students must stay, except for student on Studies Committee – will speak more to this issue later

-Faculty Council this Friday – motion sent to Elizabeth Sanford, making motion for ad-hoc committee to be struck, pitch on substantive merits of switch

-election update: all candidates agreed to withdraw applications to ensure that election would be contested

2. VP Executive Report-nothing to report

3. VP Finance Report-nothing to report

4. VP Academic Report – nothing to report

5. VP External Report

-running for Board of Governors

-with respect to DSU elections, given that Fred has a conflict of interest, Alia will send email to law students about this

8. Representative’s Reports
1. DALSA Representative’s Report – nothing to report
2. DBLSA Representative’s Report – conference well attended with profs and students, very successful with a lot of community involvement
3. First Year Representatives’ Report – nothing to report
4. Second Year Representatives’ Report – nothing to report
5. Third Year Representatives’ Report
1. Dan McGruder – had to postpone curriculum town hall b/c of Immigration Law Talk and Pro Bono event – searching for an appropriate date now
2. Mark Leung - nothing to report

9. Old Business
1. Curriculum Committee Suggestions

Motion to table this discussion for the next meeting (will entertain emails with regards to curriculum suggestions), seconded by Michelle – debate occurred

-suggestion for potential questions to be circulated, try to orient discussion around March 24^th debate – recommendation to look at Student Consultation document sent out by Dan

-motion unanimously carried

2. Review of Resolutions prior to AGM

-studies committee member within LSS does sit on Faculty Council and can stay during in camera discussions

-benefit of having a student voice during those Faculty Council discussions

-will lose the possibility of having continuity – because have discussion about precedents set in previous years

-suggestion from Gord to withdraw amendments, and discuss appointment for Studies Committee and reason why

-suggestion to do appointment for one of the student positions in March, and the other in September

10. New Business
1. New Courses

-academic committee bringing forward four motions to Faculty Committee – motions for new classes looking to add to calendar – courses 1) Elder Law – Faye Woodman, 2) Residential Schools – condensed course, Pass/Fail, likely to be taught by practitioner, 3) Law & Human Reproduction, advocated by chairs of the Law Students for Choice 4) credits for Dalhousie Journal of Legal Studies – Editor-in-Chief – other law schools provide credits for this role at their institutions – motion to provide 3 credits for this, will be decided by Faculty Advisor, may see a more polished journal

-what about legal studies journal? Where does it go? Can you access it online?

11. Announcements
1. AGM

-Tuesday, March 17 rm. 305, noon – also have Health Law elections and Domus AGM – need quorum – want to get as many people as involved as possible

-if want stuff discussed – send it to Sean by Friday at noon (will be sent out by Friday to student boy) – have exactly one hour

-may want to dress more formally, bring some professionalism to this meeting

-may wish to see if Domus would be willing to move theirs, would ensure that LSS members were in attendance

-food will be provided from the Asian Law Student Society, with LSS funding

2. Meeting Schedule for rest of Semester

-after AGM one more meeting for LSS – March 24

3. LSS Candidates Forum

-tomorrow at noon, rm 105 – will be getting pizza

12. Adjournment – motion from Jade, seconded by Alia, unanimously carried 8:30pm.