January 28th, 2020

Kingston, ON- In a meeting held earlier this evening, the Senate voted in favour of an amendment brought forward by AMS President Auston Pierce and Student Senate Caucus Chair David Niddam-Dent, to set the sessional dates for the 2021-2022 academic year.

The main goal of the amendment was to attach the 2021-2022 Fall Term Break to Thanksgiving long weekend. The original motion, put forward by the University, would have continued the current Fall Term Break structure until 2021-2022. This recommendation was put forward in accordance with the overwhelming student feedback collected in a survey created and conducted by AMS Market Research Manager, Ewan Harris.

“This successful amendment represents the power of a collective student voice in bringing about change on our campus,” said Senator Niddam-Dent

The senate also mandated that the University begin a full review immediately, as opposed to next fall, signaling the prioritisation of this matter.

The AMS would like to thank Ewan Harris, our Faculty Society Presidents, and the students who took the time to fill out our survey. We are grateful for the support from Student and Faculty Senators for listening to our concerns and voting alongside us.

“We are privileged to have the responsibility to voice the concerns of our peers and hopefully our efforts show that we do not take this responsibility lightly,” said President Pierce.

Please direct all media inquiries to Ananya Chakraborty, AMS Director of Communications, at communications@ams.queensu.ca or (613) 533-6000 x 75850



BACKGROUNDER

Alma Mater Society (AMS) – //www.myams.org

The central undergraduate student government at Queen’s University, the AMS represents over 18,000 students and is the oldest student government in Canada. There are over 1,000 student volunteers and 700 paid staff.