January Events

During the winter semester there is A LOT of events that take place. I have listed below the upcoming events for January (please note that this does not include Grawood/TRoom events or society events). And you can find out more about our events at the DSU's website.

21 - 24 - Winter Carnival

21 - Society Fair (10:30am - 2:30pm, McInnes Room, SUB)

21 - Council meeting (6:30pm, Council Chambers, SUB)

21 - Shinerama Open Mic (8:00pm, Grawood, SUB - cash prizes and Dalebrity judges!)

22 - Speaker Series - Sex with Sue Johanson (7:00pm, Ondaatje Hall, McCain Bldg - $5 advance/$7 at the door)

23 - DAL vs. UPEI Men's Hockey (7:00pm, Arena)

24 - Charity Ball (6:30pm, McInnes Room, SUB - tickets $25/each)

27 - Speaker Series - Richard Stallman on the Free Software Movement (McInnes Room, SUB, FREE!)

30 - Feb 1 - ANSSA Student Assembly (Cape Breton)

I will try to post each month's events in a timely manner.

Money Talks

Today members of the DSU executive met with the Dalhousie Budget Advisory Committee to discuss their recent discussion paper on the upcoming 2009-10 operating budget for the university.

Due to the Memorandum Of Understanding between Nova Scotia Universities and the Government of Nova Scotia, tuition is frozen (and Nova Scotia students will be receiving a bursary as well) and currently there are no increases in student fees for Dalhousie students. There is also new money coming to the university from the government due to the MOU and the new funding formula which will reflect the increased enrollment that Dalhousie has experienced over the past few years. This all sounds great - however, with the increase costs of items such as energy, fuel, taxes, and insurance (only to list a few of the items with increased costs for the coming year) the university is currently planning to run a deficit of $3,709,000.

The linked discussion paper is the first draft of the upcoming year's budget and more work will be done on it, including more consultations, over the next few months. The budget will be going to the Board of Governors Annual General Meeting in June for approval.

Dalhousie Presidential Review

A few months ago it was brought to the attention of the Board of Governors that Dr. Tom Traves (University President) would like to extend his term. I was selected from the student senators to be the student representative on the committee that would conduct a Presidential Review and would recommend if Dr. Traves should be permitted to extend his term. The committee has had a couple meetings and is now in the stage where we are seeking feedback from the Dalhousie community. For more information on the review please visit the News Section of the DSU website.

Ready to Rock'n'Roll

On Friday all 5 DSU executive and our General Manager went on a retreat. The purpose of the retreat was to reconnect with each other after the break, evaluate and revise (if needed) projects and goal, and plan for the transition of our successors.

The retreat was extremely successful and really opened our eyes to see the timelines were are all working with and how we can assist each other during our last few months in office.

I feel that this retreat really allowed us to have the opportunity that other executive teams have missed and because of the retreat we will be able to all work towards being a stronger and better union for our students.