The Quality Service to Students (QSS) committee met last Wednesday to elect a new QSS chairperson, review the Student Services fees budget, and provide updates on the Student Services advisory groups.
The only nomination for the QSS Chairperson was put forward by UTMSU president Atif Abdullah, who nominated Salma Fakhry, a former UTMSU president and Campus Council committee member.
“I think she’d be a great fit,” said Abdullah. “She obviously has a huge passion in making sure the quality of student services are as good as they can be. She’s done a lot of that work in the three years she’s spent at UTMSU and I know she’ll continue to do that.”
Fakhry became the new chairperson of the QSS with a unanimous vote.
Dean of Student Affairs Mark Overton went over the student services fees budget from the previous academic year and its budget structures in order to prepare the committee to vote on the updated budgets in January.
The departments provided updates on their meetings with their advisory groups and the feedback they received.
Jessica Silver, director of the Centre for Student Engagement (CSE), said the Career Centre had met with their advisory groups twice in the past month in collaboration with the International Education Centre (IEC) and the CSE.
“We started by presenting on sort of the overall supports that the IEC and CSE provide, but with an emphasis on academic categories,” said Silver. “And then [we] asked the group of students what academic barriers they see students facing.”
Before adjournment, the departments discussed important announcements and events that will be coming up in the following weeks.
“We are desperately trying to get the flu vaccine,” said Erin Kraftcheck, director of the Health and Counselling Centre (HCC). “We’ve had a number of students asking us about it.”
“Unfortunately, Peel Public Health is the slowdown on this, it’s not us,” continued Kraftcheck. “We’re trying really hard to get it, but at this point they said that it’s possible we won’t get it until the first week of December.”
The next QSS committee meeting will be on December 11.
