This past week’s regular meeting for the Brandon University Student Union was one for the record books.

As the meeting opened there was an astonishingly high attendance with all executive, staff, and directors present either in person or via phone call in the cases of Health Studies Director Megan Stade and International Director Saint Osaretin. Also of note was the fact that while President Nick Brown typically chairs the regular meetings, this job was passed on to Office and Services Manager Corey Norton for the meeting.

The first item on the agenda for this meeting was originally titled as the “Dismissal of Lisa Mizan” from her post as Women’s Director. This was changed during the meeting to read as a “Discussion with Lisa Mizan” with regards to her council position. In support of Mizan, associate professor of anthropology Dr. Emma Varley attended the meeting as well.

I cannot, unfortunately, report on any of the other goings on of this meeting as the council voted immediately to enter into a closed session. This meeting then stayed in closed session for approximately three hours, ending at 9:17pm. As I was unable to stay and wait for the meeting to be open to the public, I cannot say whether or not the meeting then continued in open session or if the remaining agenda items were delayed to a future meeting.

While I was unable to attend the closed session the council did make a motion to allow Dr. Varley to be present. Such a motion is within their by-laws and requires a positive vote of two-thirds council in support. Dr. Varley and Mizan did not stay for the full duration of the closed session and were witnessed leaving the meeting room before 7:00pm.

The next regularly scheduled council meeting is to take place on Thursday, October 12, at 6:00pm in the CLC Boardroom located on the second floor of the Knowles Douglas building.