Those who would have been planning to attend the December 9 Board of Governors’ meeting would have been turned away as it was a closed session.
The decision to have a closed session was made public in the board’s agenda, posted online just four days before the meeting.
University Secretary and General Counsel Harriet Lewis says the executive committee, which sets the agenda for the board meetings, made the decision to have a closed session.
“The executive committee of the Board of Governors made the decision to close the December session because of the two previous meetings having been disrupted,” says Lewis
Students Against Israeli Apartheid attended the June 24 board meeting to express their concerns regarding the university’s decisions to ban York alumnus and activist Hammam Farah from campus and to revoke SAIA’s student club status. They also staged a protest about the same issue outside the September 30 meeting.
The situations were caught on camera, with the board deciding to walk out and relocate to a different room to continue the meeting in both instances.
Emile Wickham, the undergraduate student representative on the board, says the decision to have the closed session was unexpected and that this is the first closed meeting he has attended since becoming a representative.
“With my knowledge of the Board, I know it would not have been a decision taken lightly, and that there would have been some significant discussion on it. They made the decision they felt was appropriate,” says Wickham.
“Having been there for the past two meetings that were disrupted, I could understand the need to ensure that the business of the Board was not unreasonably disrupted.”
It has not yet been determined whether or not the next meeting, scheduled for February 24, will be closed.
Hamid Adem
News Editor
