The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) held its first Board of Directors (BoD) meeting of the academic year on Sept. 16.
The meeting began with Deputy Speaker Yasmin Beeai adopting the meeting agenda with zero opposition. Susan Aloudat, SSMU Vice-President (VP) University Affairs, successfully moved to postpone Beeai’s approval of the minutes until the next scheduled BoD meeting, as the minutes were not posted early enough for the Directors to review them in advance.
Next, SSMU President Dymetri Taylor announced that Director Dylan Seiler resigned from the BoD the week prior, without reason for his resignation. Taylor also reported that VP Internal Zeena Zahida resigned from her position on Sept. 12, and a subsequent discussion on hiring a replacement will occur during the SSMU Legislative Council (LC) meeting on Sept. 25.
The BoD then moved to discuss three motions, brought forward by Taylor, for approval.
The first was about the 2025-2026 standing rules for the BoD, which outline the Board’s meeting operations and regulations. After the motion received no questions or debate in response, Beeai put the motion to a vote, which was unanimously approved.
Taylor next introduced a motion disallowing the LC’s motion to appoint Councillor Meghan Lai to the BoD. SSMU regulations require BoD members to have completed 18 months at the university before joining, disqualifying Lai, who has only completed a year at McGill.
Aloudat spoke on Lai’s promise as a candidate.
“Councillor Lai would have been a great Director on the Board,” Aloudat said. “She’s been super engaged so far on [the] Senate Caucus, and she has been really responsive and great over the summer. So, if any of you are in SSMU in the future and you see that name, Meghan Lai, definitely keep her around.”
The disallowance motion was then approved unanimously.
The Board moved to the third motion to approve building protocols for the University Centre. Taylor explained that these protocols are meant to ensure that the building has “rules regarding its usage, access rights, operating conditions, […] space agreements, tenancy, renovations, et cetera.” This motion was, again, approved unanimously, with no questions or debate.
The BoD spent the rest of the meeting in confidential session.
A previous version of this article stated that Dylan Seiler resigned from the SSMU Vice-President Finance role the week of Sept. 8, 2025. In fact, Seiler was never the VP Finance of SSMU, and instead resigned from his position on the Board of Directors the week of Sept. 8. The Tribune regrets this error.
