By: Hannah Fraser, News Writer
On July 10, The Peak attended the bi-weekly Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS) Council meeting via Zoom. The meeting involved a presentation from The Forum on their wishes to collaborate with SFSS student groups, reports from the executive committee members, and more committee elections.
Presentation from The Forum
Max Qiang, founder of The Forum, and Ashley Kang, president of The Forum, discussed their organization’s wishes to work with SFSS student unions and clubs to better support SFU student life. The Forum is a student-run events organization focused on elevating SFU’s student life and engagement. Since its inception in April 2022, The Forum has hosted over 22 events, with over 30,000 SFU students attending in total.
Qiang explained that The Forum is not an official student organization under the SFSS and is fully self-funded through its events, not seeking profit. Qiang also explained that “there may have been some misunderstanding, miscommunication between the SFSS and The Forum in the past,” so his goal was to “establish better communication with the SFSS through this conversation and to improve our transparency in the future.”
Councillors and executive members voiced their questions and concerns about collaboration. Ariana Shamsuddin, molecular biology and biochemistry councillor, asked Qiang how The Forum would go about marketing events to students if they were to collaborate with Departmental Student Unions (DSU). “Some DSUs do prefer to keep their Instagram pages a little bit more on the professional side,” Shamsuddin began. “I was looking at some of the previous videos that you had from your most recent event, and I’m not sure how that would fly by, especially with the faculties involved.
“What are your expectations moving forward and how would that impact the total turnout if you were to change your marketing style?” she asked. Qiang assured the SFSS they would be able to successfully market events to students no matter which student group they would be working with. The Forum’s president, Ashley Kang, agreed, citing they recently hosted an all-ages event with an average turnout for The Forum.
Rishu Bagga, vice-president university and academic affairs, also voiced his concern about where the liability falls if something goes wrong, such as a medical emergency, at events. “At the end of the day, Forum is an external organization. We are in a tight budget so our priority will be supporting our own clubs and our own student organizations.” Qiang stated that the liability may fall on the venue where they host their events. Alternatively, Qiang noted The Forum purchases liability insurance if the liability was to fall on them.
“At the end of the day, Forum is an external organization. We are in a tight budget so our priority will be supporting our own clubs and our own student organizations.” — Rishu Bagga, vice-president university and academic affairs
The Forum and the SFSS did not formally agree to collaborate by the end of this meeting.
Reports from the executive committee
The executive committee mentioned their plans to start an SFSS TikTok for more student engagement around the SFSS. They also mentioned doing a Fall Welcome Concert at East Parking Lot for students. The Council approved a maximum budget of $65,000.
Read the full article with complete highlights on our website.
Elections for committee positions
Elections were held to appoint councillors to the Accessibility Committee, First-year Engagement Committee, Member Service Advisory Committee, and Vancouver Campus Committee. The open positions were a result of recent resignations and a few remaining open spots that had never been filled.
Henry Do, vice-chair and criminology student association councillor, nominated Ethan Fukuhara, resource & environmental management student association councillor, to the accessibility committee. Fukuhara accepted the nomination. Do also nominated Hamza Issa, economics student society councillor, to the committee, but no response was given. Do then nominated Kanksha Chawla, TSSU councillor, to the committee and they accepted.
Tulika Varma, residence hall’s association councillor, self-nominated to the first-year engagement committee and was appointed.
Elections to the member service advisory committee and Vancouver campus committee were postponed until the next meeting as no Council members nominated other members or self-nominated themselves. Each committee still has one more spot open.
