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Council in conversation with SOCA to provide funding for Black wellness retreat

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PHOTO: Krystal Chan / The Peak

By: Eden Chipperfield, News Writer

Editor’s Note: This article was updated on July 20, 2023, to correct that SOCA’s budget is not $100,000 but rather they receive $65,000 per year from the SFSS. 

The Peak acknowledges we did not reach out to Emilio Da Silva for comment on the struck motion to censure and impeach him.

On May 24, The Peak attended the Simon Fraser Student Society’s (SFSS) bi-weekly council meeting. The meeting discussed the proposed Students of Caribbean and African Ancestry (SOCA) retreat, SFU Surge’s StormHacks grant reimbursement, and the censure of history councillor, Emilio Da Silva. 

SOCA presented proposal for a wellness retreat

Yaye Seydi Balde, internal revenue officer of SOCA, presented to Council a proposal for a wellness retreat that focuses on Black healing, including mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health. The initiative of the Black healing space was facilitated by Tiara Cash, a graduate student at SFU and formally SOCA’s graduate representative on their executive board during 2021/2022. 

Amina Hassan, SOCA’s representative for the SFSS council meetings, said the retreat would be held in Chilliwack for four days in July. Attendance plans include five SOCA executives and 28 SOCA member attendees. 

SOCA requested $10,000 for accommodation, roundtrip transportation, food, and facilitators. The application was met with concern regarding the amount of money requested. Vice president of university and academic affairs, Thomas Lueth, stated SOCA already receives a budget of $100,000 per year so having the SFSS contribute additional cost for the retreat was concerning. However, SOCA confirmed with The Peak they only receive $65,000 per year from the SFSS.

Hassan responded to Lueth by explaining the budget SOCA receives is for the whole year and is allocated towards events and initiatives; the retreat is separate. Hassan elaborated that hosting the retreat is meant to further increase engagement with Black students. The wellness retreat aims to encourage more interested parties to join the retreat, and SOCA, for the following year.

The discussion continued to go back and forth, leading president Liam Feng to propose postponing the matter to the next meeting. The Council voted unanimously to postpone the discussion. 

SFU Surge’s StormHacks grant reimbursement 

StormHacks is a beginner-friendly hackathon event hosted by SFU Surge, open to hackers worldwide. The previous hackathon event was held at SFU Burnaby from May 20–21. SFU Surge submitted a grant request to Council. However, due to issues occurring within the SFSS when the request was submitted, a vote never happened to approve the budget, meaning SFU Surge was forced to pay for the event using their funds.

Council voted to reimburse SFU Surge for the StormHacks event. President Feng referred to the situation around the reimbursement as a “special” scenario. “Normally the process of such a grant, especially ones of this magnitude, they would not go through processes like this but in this case we’re making a special scenario for this one.”

Censure and impeachment of history councillor Emilio Da Silva is striked 

The SFSS Council discussed the motion to censure, impeach, and remove history councillor Emilio Da Silva from the SFSS. Society of Arts and Social Sciences (SASS) representative Hilary Tsui proposed that the movement be struck.

Tsui felt it was better to “move into the new year with a fresh perspective, a fresh start. One that doesn’t carry a lot of the hurt and distrust and chaos that happened last year.” Vice president of events and student affairs, Ayooluwa Adigun, agreed with Tsui to strike the discussion. Council voted unanimously to strike the motion. 

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Simon Fraser University’s independent student newspaper since 1965.

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© The Peak Publications Society

Simon Fraser University’s independent student newspaper since 1965.

For advertising inquiries: [email protected]
For promotional inquiries: [email protected]

© The Peak Publications Society