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January 10, 2022 | Meeting minutes

Monday, January 10

Residence Affairs Committee

Present: Andrea, Bolu, Ciel, Dave, Eliza, Ishika (needed to leave early), Klara

Student Survey Results Presented

  • Comments:
    • Dining Hall has a lot of Asian food and Canadian food, but is lacking food from other cultures, with such a international community, it would be nice to see more diversity
    • Nice to see the overall positive responses from students

Residence Life Updates

  • Common Spaces are currently closed until January 26th pending updates for the province
  • Two new Dons have been hired: Salem (7th Floor) & Natalie (14th Floor)
  • Aaron Tsang has returned from secondment (RLC)
  • Aisalyn Templin has returned from leave (Administration & Communications Coordinator)
  • Programming still available virtually to students, but RLO physical office is currently closed

Administrative & Finance Updates

  • No major updates
  • SARG (Service Ancillary Review Group) meeting on January 28th – will approve student rates for 2022-23
  • Budget was submitted end of November and will be under review until April
  • PTAC Project has been completed
    • Student comment that unplanned visits by maintenance can be challenging, especially when during exam season
    • Suggestion to e-mail students in advance that a Building Operations staff will be visiting a student room
      • Unfortunately, this is not possible
      • Very challenging to do given the number of unexpected issues that arise
      • However, students can include their availability in work orders
      • Eliza to ask Kohen to create a social media post with this information

Building Updates

  • Building Operations have reduced service to limit exposure for students and staff as a response to the current COVID-19 situation
    • Will only be addressing urgent items – contact Front Desk or Security
    • Will not be addressing low-urgency items submitted via online work orders at this time (ex. broken shelf might need to wait)
  • Housekeeping has reduced service to limit exposure for students and staff as a response to the current COVID-19 situation
    • Will be focused on the bathrooms only (no longer vacuuming main space)
    • Students asked to stay in bedroom and wear a mask
    • Vacuums available at Front Desk for students to borrow
  • Note re: Work Orders in general
    • In the event a work order is prematurely closed and the student feels the issue has not been addressed – e-mail Andrea Nelson (Building Operations Manager) or resubmit work order
    • Students can see comments that the Building Operations team includes on StarRez (this can help in terms of work orders that may take longer to address, ex. when parts are on order).

Food Services Updates

  • Indoor dining suspended

Urban Crew Updates

  • Suspended until January 30th (date to be reassessed given any pertinent provincial updates)
  • Working on retaping the furniture blueprint
  • SPARK Meeting on January 15th

Residence Council Updates

  • Haven’t met this year yet, will be meeting virtually
  • Many members of council are still at home as well