Councillors are elected annually during general elections in March. Candidates are divided by faculty, and each student in the faculty of their major votes for the number of seats their faculty holds. For instance, Engineering and Computer Science students may vote for up to three (3) candidates. Those candidates with the most votes become Councillors for the coming year.
COUNCIL OF REPRESENTATIVES
The Council of Representatives is the CSU’s legal Board of Directors, composed of a maximum of 30 undergraduate students. This body is responsible for overseeing and directing the work of the Executive and ensuring that the interests of students are being properly represented. Council is able to pass mandates in the interests of students, which the Executive is bound to fulfill to the best of their ability.
Being a Member of Council is a big responsibility. Not only do they oversee and direct the affairs of a multi-million dollar not-for-profit corporation, they are also tasked with faithfully representing the interests of their constituents. That’s why Councillors are elected by students in their faculties, and why they have stringent requirements to attend and participate; to make sure they are fulfilling the roles entrusted to them by their membership.
Council’s Responsibilities
The CSU By-laws specify what responsibilities and abilities Council has. In general, these include: making and changing the Student Union’s policies, the guiding directions for the administration approving the budgets of the Student Union and its affiliate organizations approving the assignment of positions of power in the Student Union seeing to it that decisions made by students in a referendum or special general meeting are respected.
For digital copies of the CSU By-laws and CSU Standing Regulations please visit our Resources page.
Who is on Council?
The seats on Council are split proportionally between the four faculties and Independent Students based on the number of students enrolled in each. Council is made up of the following individuals:
Thirty (30) Councillors: (13) for Arts and Science, (6) for Engineering and Computer Science, (6) for John Molson School of Business, (3) for Fine Arts, and (2) for Independent students.
ASFA
- Adam Mills (amills@csu.qc.ca)
- Salma Bannani Khir (Sbkhir@csu.qc.ca)
- Riley Cooke (Rcooke@csu.qc.ca)
- Moad Alhjooj (alhjooj@csu.qc.ca)
- Sona Sadio (Stsadio@csu.qc.ca)
- Noor Al Afranji (nafranji@csu.qc.ca)
- Zina Chouaibi (zchouaibi@csu.qc.ca)
- Giancarlo Laurieri (glaurieri@csu.qc.ca)
- Ken.dra Downe (kdowne@csu.qc.ca)
- Dave Plant (dplant@csu.qc.ca)
- Guillermo Sebastian Anderson-Diaz (gsdiaz@csu.qc.ca)
- Chana Leah Natanblut (clnatanblut@csu.qc.ca)
- Salma Hashem (shashem@csu.qc.ca)
FASA
- Carleen Loney (cloney@csu.qc.ca)
- Isabella Providenti (iprovidenti@csu.qc.ca_
- Gabriel Makinde (gmakinde@csu.qc.ca)
JMSB
- Michael Lecchino (Mlecchino@csu.qc.ca)
- Nassim Boutalbi (Nboutalbi@csu.qc.ca)
- Diana Levitin (dlevitin@csu.qc.ca)
- Salma Abuaysheh (sabuaysheh@csu.qc.ca)
- Abdullah Al-Kabra (akabra@csu.qc.ca)
- Ouswa Ben Rejeb (orejeb@csu.qc.ca)
ECA
- Omar Hassanein (ohassanein@csu.qc.ca)
- Rohan Kumar (rkumar@csu.qc.ca)
- Nizar Sukah (nsukah@csu.qc.ca)
Independent
- Kareem Abdeen (Kabdeen@csu.qc.ca)
- Baskaran Abishana (babishana@csu.qc.ca)
A Chairperson, elected by Councillors, who presides over meetings. The chair has no vote except under special circumstances allowed by Roberts’ Rules of Order.
A Minute Keeper, elected by Councillors, who is responsible for taking the minutes, a legal document which describes the events and actions that occur during Council Meetings.
Members of the Executive, without voting rights.
Motions are presented by Councillors to the chairperson before a Council meeting. They are usually submitted by e-mail and then distributed to the Councillors three days before the Council meeting, during which the motion will be discussed, amended as necessary, and voted on. Motions can be on any aspect that concerns the CSU or Concordia students. Students can propose motions to Council through their elected Councillors.
Sometimes decisions need to be made before the next meeting of Council is scheduled. In those cases, a special meeting can be called. A special meeting can be called either by the President of the Executive or by at least three Councillors. Three days notice must be given to all Councillors before the special meeting is held. Special meetings can only discuss the business at hand for which said meeting was called. The agenda is strictly followed; no new business can be introduced.
Council meetings are where decisions get made. Meetings must reach a quorum (minimum attendance) of at least one third of Councillors for decisions to be made binding. Meetings are open to the public to attend, however, Council may discuss issues in closed session (privately). Such privacy is usually reserved only for issues regarding hiring or dismissal, when private information could be disclosed. Before Councillors take their seat on June 1st, they have an introductory meeting known as Council-Elect, which takes place annually on the third Wednesday of May.
Following their election, Councillors are required to regularly attend and participate in Council meetings. In addition to attending council meetings, Councillors are encouraged to participate on a minimum of one committee. The attendance record is administered and enforced by the CSU Chairperson and applies only to regular Council meetings. Should a Councillor be absent from Council three (3) or more times, they are deemed to have automatically resigned and lose their voting rights. In exceptional circumstances, Councillors may received an excused absence when emergency situations arise. Possible reasons for such absences can be found in the CSU Standing Regulations.
Because Council only meets once a month, and because there is much business to go over, issues are often brought to a committee before they are voted on by council. These committees convene between regular meetings of Council to discuss issues and make recommendations on how Council should act. There are two kinds of committees: standing committees are permanent committees set up to study many of the normal things Council has to decide on, such as budgets or events to be held. Council can also choose to create a temporary, ad hoc committee to investigate something special or important.
