By Onosholema Ogoigbe
On May 30, during the second SFSS board meeting of the 2019–20 year, the board approved a motion to distribute SFSS president Giovanni HoSang’s June–August stipends between the SFSS’s vice-presidents (VPs). The motion came in response to HoSang leaving for co-op over the summer, delegating certain presidential responsibilities to the VPs.
On May 16, during the board’s first meeting, HoSang presented his mandate and goals for the 2019-20 Summer semester. This included his plans to handle his presidential responsibilities while simultaneously taking on a co-op with Microsoft in Seattle.
HoSang stated that he would waive his stipend for the time that he would be working remotely. A guest in attendance asked if it was possible to split the stipend amongst the executives who would take on extra responsibilities. For example, vice-president external relations Jasdeep Gill will be the primary point of contact for presidential matters during HoSang’s leave of absence. SFSS executive director Sylvia Ceacero replied saying that she would have to check whether this option was legal under the B.C. Societies Act.
During the May 30 meeting, applied science representative Nick Chubb questioned the lack of a proposed pay raise for faculty representatives, noting that HoSangs’s absence would affect them too.
He then went on to say that it seems “not completely fair to [him] that [representative members] don’t get any necessary increase, especially when [vice presidents] are already getting double what [representative members] get.
Rayhaan Khan, at-large representative, suggested that the motion be approved without the change because SFSS VPs have already planned to take on the bulk of the work. However, he continued that if faculty representatives do end up taking on more responsibilities, the motion could be revisited.
Ultimately, the motion to divide HoSang’s stipend amongst the five VPs from the months of June to August was carried. Each vice-president will earn an extra $175 per biweekly payroll during HoSang’s absence.
