May 26th, 2021
Office of the Vice President Internal Affairs
ISA Transparency Report
To whom it may concern,
This report aims at discussing the transparency mechanisms that the International Students’ Association (ISA) has in place. These mechanisms will be described in further details under several sections.
Open Governance Mandate
The ISA has most of its advocacy meetings and initiatives public. These are the areas that the ISA currently has in place already:
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Meeting minutes (Link)
All board meetings, Council Meetings and Referendum Task Force meetings are recorded/documented. These meetings have agendas which are first completed and then transcribed to the public meeting minutes. The meeting minutes of Council, Board and Task Force are made publicly available within 7 business days of the meeting on average. ISA’s meeting minutes are one of the most detailed documents compared to organizations of our comparable size. ISA Annual goals and year ending reports are also made publicly available. Council and Board monthly updates are also shared on social media.
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Finances (Link)
The audit of the ISA and its accounting books are made available to the public to be completely transparent. The finances of the ISA are audited by the SU Audit Committee.
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Open invitation to advocacy
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The President has a Calendly(meeting schedule platform) link on the ISA website for one on one meetings to help address concerns of students.
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Open invitation to students to bring their concerns/discussion points to the Councils. The Councils have given the right to every interested student to speak and bring forward their concerns/suggestions.
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The Board meetings are open for consultation and advocacy upon request.
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ISA occasionally hosts public meetings to address major student issues, for instance, asian hate, refugee representation, ISAF, etc.
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Independent and Transparent Hearing Board (Bylaw 800.2)
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The ISA has established an independent, and transparent hearing board to address all complaints or concerns accessible on ISA website.
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The Hearing board is open to all international students to formally file a case for a very broad scale of cases.
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The Hearing Board makes ISA legislatively take students' concerns seriously and hold board/councils accountable.
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Most cases are publicly held with all international students eligible to attend case hearings.
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ISA Listens (link)
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Our public anonymous feedback form is accessible to students around the clock, and we take all suggestions very seriously.
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ISA Listens provides students with an anonymous platform to tell their ISA about what they want.
Work in progress
In addition to the 5 main points above, the ISA is currently working towards 4 more goals to help further our transparency mandate;
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Having department meeting minutes publicly available.
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Calendly link on ISA website for students to schedule meetings directly with other Executive members.
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Council meeting to be livestreamed in addition to being recorded.
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The Governance Overview AdHoc Committee shall introduce more measures for achieving our open governance mandate.
Legal Compliance: ISA Bylaw 500, Section 2: Open Governance
500.2) Public Records:
i) The ISA shall make its Council, and board meeting minutes public within 7 days or otherwise timeline decided by the respective Councils/board with exception to in-camera meetings;
ii) The ISA shall make its annual budget and financial statements public to all its members;
iii) The Bylaws, political policies and standings of the ISA shall be public to all its members;
iv) Once a record is public, it shall never be removed from the public domain.
v) The ISA website or any other publicly available source shall serve the purpose for all documents being made public to its members; and,
vi) The ISA shall operate in an accountable and transparent manner.