Name: Chris Palmer

Faculty: Haskayne School of Business

Email: haskayne2@su.ucalgary.ca | palmercm@ucalgary.ca

February 2011 Monthly Report

1. Student Legislative Council Meetings

SLC 68/27 February 1, 2011

• Hardave Birk noted that there had been discussions at the CAUS/ASEC
meeting regarding the letters that had been sent out by the UofA ESS
regarding market modifiers, with incoming SAMRU President Megan
Melnyk requesting them. I expressed some concern over this as it would
not be in the best interests of any Calgary students for one organization to
write a letter in support of fee increases.
• Council approved an excusal motion for GFC for Vet Med Representative
Carli Chalmers and Nursing Rep. John Saieed. I voted in the affirmative
for both resolutions, as they were due to academic conflicts that could not
otherwise have been avoided.

SLC 68/28 February 8, 2011

• David Johnston, the Associate Vice Provost Enrollment and Registrar, and
Alan Harrison, the Provost and Vice President Academic came to council
to answer a number of questions regarding market modifiers and
mandatory fees.
• The focus for much of the discussion was on Haskayne market modifiers.
How would they be used, who would pay them, and how they are being
rolled out. There are a lot of details here, and as such, I have given a
detailed account of this on my website at ChrisPalmer.info.
• SLC entertained a discussion with Mustafa Al-Saiedy, a student who is
also manager at a vendor that was not approved for Macewan Hall as part
of the expansion. Much of this discussion was in camera due to the
sensitive nature of contractual obligations, but we discussed with Mr. Al-
Saiedy his concerns with the overall process.

SLC 68/29 February 15, 2011

• I missed this meeting, as I was in attendance at Presidents’ Circle on the
same day. I will detail the activities and discussions had at that meeting
below.
• Council had a discussion with Denis Sumara, who discussed the
Institutional Teaching & Learning Plan, and Dr. Keith Dobson, who
discussed the ongoing Project Next initiative. There were detailed
question and answer sessions that followed both of these presentations,
which can be found in the minutes for the meeting.
SLC 68/30 February 17, 2011
• I voted to approve the second reading of an initiative by Hardave Birk
surrounding SU funding for a poll of wards in which the city councilor is
either undecided or against secondary suites. As this has been a major
SU initiative this year, it is imperative that we assess public support for the
changes.

2. Faculty Work (and connecting with constituents)

Presidents’ Circle (February 15, 2011):
• This may have been the single best attended Presidents’ Circle of the
year. Each president brought to the table what their unique plans were
going forward.
• THUS President John Entwistle brought forth a discussion surrounding
building a tighter-knit community between the clubs, and with their
members, as opposed to each existing in a silo, as is often the case now.
• AMIO representative Courtney Tanaka offered up a suggestion regarding
printing for the clubs, which would significantly reduce the costs
associated with the printing of exam review packages. The Presidents’
Circle as a group are going to investigate this further.
• We had a lengthy discussion, and moved forward with nominations to the
Haskayne Student Awards committee. The voting to select the members
of this committee is currently underway.
• The group had a discussion surrounding the upcoming (Feb 18th) Strategic
Plan Students Town Hall, which was organized by Lucibelle Tan and
Nickolas Meehan. The Presidents were urged to attend and have their
executives attend this event.
Strategic Plan Students Town Hall (February 18, 2011):
• Lucibelle Tan organized this event along with Nickolas Meehan and
Leonard Waverman. The event featured a round circle-style format, in an
effort to facilitate casual discussion.
• I made the suggestion early on that we look at each of the 3 E’s in the
Strategic Plan and discuss how we would like to see them implemented (if
at all). Dr. Waverman agreed and we passed the microphone around with
each student giving their input and administration taking notes. My
position is pretty well known, as I believe each of the 3 E’s mentioned in
the strategic plan can be integrated into existing course materials (as I
discuss at ChrisPalmer.info).
• We also took a look at how we better engage students at orientation and
on a general/clubs basis. We are going to be having further discussions
about this going into the summer, with a group of students likely being
gathered to act as a sounding board.
Haskayne Faculty Council (February 18, 2011):
• Council received a detailed presentation on the Disability Resource
Center. Interestingly, 11-15% of DRC users are from Haskayne, which is
 higher than the population of overall students that we represent. This
shows how valuable a service this is to Haskayne students.
• We were given an overview of the state of applications to the Haskayne
School of Business, with overall undergrad & MBA applicants up
significantly over this time last year.
• A short update surrounding the AACSB accreditation process was held,
with this re-accreditation occurring in January of 2012.
Haskayne Alumni Board (February 10, 2011):
• Discussed student engagement. The age old question regarding how we
get more students involved was a central topic for some time. I suggested
an innovative use of the Dinos kickoff football game in which we hold a
faculty BBQ for all students outside Scurfield Hall, hand out Dinos tickets
and Red Haskayne shirts, and attend the game in one section as a group.
This is an idea that will be fleshed out as time passes, but one that has a
low cost, and a high impact if done right.
• We also discussed alumni engagement, and some of the more notable
alumni of the Haskayne School, including the new CEO of Mozilla Gary
Kovacs.

3. Committee Work
Clubs Committee: The committee sanctioned a number of clubs, some of which
had been to the table in the past, and others that had not. This was a relatively
uneventful meeting, as the majority of the applications contained well written
constitutions and filled a well identified student need. I support to sanction each
of the clubs.

4. Other
Business Day (February 11, 2011):
• Had a number of discussions with students and faculty members
regarding the strategic plan, and what I would like to see changed. These
positions were the same as what I have emphasized in the past, with the
aim to simply gauge what the support was like on the part of students.

School of Public Policy Breakfast (February 25, 2011):

• I attended this event on the invite of the Haskayne School of Business. I
was seated at a table with a number of key members of the Haskayne
administration, faculty, and support staff including Justine Wheeler,
Director of the Haskayne Library.
• My discussion with Justine surrounded the possibility of an extensive
TFDL tour for Haskayne students/clubs members, and another with
Students Union executives. I have been in touch with her and will likely be
organizing the tours on her behalf.
5. Goals
Clubs trailer project (Executive Lead – James Delaney: As with January, this
project is at a standstill right now. I have put together a small team to push this
project forward, but many have/had major prior commitments including the
annual Business Day Conference, and the midterm period at the beginning of
March. This project should see progress in the month of March.