Old Purple Horizons

Yesterday evening, after putting in my dinner order at the Wave, I overheard University Students’ Council communications officer Eliot Hong saying he was pretty sure last night’s meeting would wrap up by 9 p.m.—well, he was almost right.

To be fair, last night’s meeting wrapped up after a fairly reasonable three hours, especially considering the amount of ground covered. The exec kicked things off by beating that dead horse we like to call the retreat, taking time to make sure councillors had a chance to raise any lingering questions or concerns and highlighting two things each VP learned from the trip (none of which were interesting or surprising enough to bother listing here). I applaud them for making good on their promise last meeting to give everyone a chance to read the report and react last night, but I think council is over it—at least for now.

The exec then gave their portfolio updates, including a mysterious “big event or concert” in the works, and the naming of the student lounge in the renovated UCC gyms (“mustang lounge” got the most votes, straying from the tried and true “purple ______”). Vice-president university affairs, Patrick Searle, announced he will be sitting on a working group to discuss the possibility and merits of a fall reading week, something students seem to casually question around this time every year.

Oh, and they had a jack-o-lantern competition. Vice-president student events Nicole D’Alessandro won. Just for the record.

Laurence Batmazian, science councillor and student events chair, delivered the good news that “students care!” The student events committee sent out a survey to get feedback regarding this year’s homecoming and actually received a 50 per cent response rate. Batmazian was maybe more thrilled about this fact than the rest of council, although, to be fair, he admitted to having “half a steeped tea” before the meeting.

Mostly the updates were looking ahead at upcoming projects and possibilities—from the new USC website to be linked to their old domain soon (check out their new digs here), to cell chargers in the UCC and a USC app—but nothing is set in stone or ready for reveal as of yet. Stayed tuned to the news section of the Gazette for all the updates.