The third official CSA board meeting of the 2015/2016 school year should have been a fairly exciting event. First, at-large representatives from three colleges were scheduled to vie for a seat on the board—in accordance with the CSA’s new audition process for filling empty board seats. Moreover, the human resources and operations commissioner, Matthew Campbell, was expected to have ended his 30-day suspension and return to the board. As such, he was expected to be present at the meeting.
However, the board’s Nov. 4 struggles began early, with the absence of Matthew Campbell. According to a conversation held with Sarah Cooper outside the meeting room on Nov. 3, 2015, Campbell’s required remedial action committee had to sign off on his return, explaining his absence.
“In relation to the HRO’s current absence, please feel free to reference the motion passed by the Board of Directors [on Sept. 21, 2015],” suggested Sonia Chwalek, the communications and corporate affairs commissioner, in a Nov. 7, 2015 email response.
The motions indicated that Campbell was suspended for 30 days, and until his required remedial action is complete.
The meeting’s troubles continued when Chwalek attempted to pass a motion that moved up an agenda item regarding board vacancy appointments, in order to ratify new board members as soon as possible.
This decision was met with criticism from other members, like College of Biological Sciences Student Council representative Meghan Alyssa, who felt that the newest additions to the board should not be given the opportunity to discuss existing board issues—as the newly appointed directors would theoretically have been asked to vote on board matters without ever having attended a previous meeting.
Sonia’s motion in no way affected the remainder of the meeting, as College of Arts representative Zoey Ross motioned to move an in-camera discussion item, simply titled “Pineapple,” up to the top of the agenda. In spite of a minor effort on the part of academic affairs commissioner Peter Miller to prevent the immediate discussion of Pineapple, it was moved to the top of the agenda.
What followed next was surprising. Pineapple, owing to its in-camera nature, became a private item of discussion. As such, all guests—including me—were asked to leave the meeting until the board returned out-of-camera. Pineapple entered camera at approximately 6:30, and was not resolved until approximately 10:15 p.m.
“The agenda item ‘9.10.10.1 Pineapple’ was an in-camera item and, as such, I am not in a position to disclose any related information,” explained Chwalek in the same Nov. 7, 2015 email response. “All motions passed by the Board of Directors under that item will, however, as always, be available to the public once the minutes are approved by the Board.”
A brief aside to discuss board meeting minutes: the CSA has yet to hire a full-time scribe. As a result of this vacancy, the meeting minutes for both the Oct. 6 and Oct. 8, 2015 meetings are unavailable at the time of publication.
Pineapple was not an entirely unexciting piece of board legislation, however. This is an inference made due to the observation of a member of the current CSA executive committee—who will remain unnamed—aggressively departing the meeting room mere moments after the introduction of Pineapple as a topic of discussion. The executive member left the room in tears, slamming the door shut behind them.
That particular executive was not the only individual to leave the meeting. Throughout Pineapple’s approximately three-and-a-half-hour discussion time, several members left the meeting, visibly exhausted from the experience. However, not enough members left during Pineapple’s discussion to force the board out of quorum. The motions passed during the Pineapple discussion—if any—will be revealed in two weeks, once the board approves the minutes from the Nov. 4 meeting.
Once the board left camera, the remaining items on the agenda, almost 20 in total, were discussed. No items were of particular note, though the motion to have board directors undergo board training in the winter semester was met with a small amount of resistance. Considering that, at this point, the meeting had progressed for almost four hours, small amounts of bitterness and cranky attitudes were to be expected.
Following the final out-of-camera business item—to pledge CSA solidarity with university custodial workers—the board’s chair, a returning Joshua Ofori-Darko—adjourned the third scheduled meeting of the 2015/2016 academic school year.