AgBio Faculty Council | Grad Student Representatives

Faculty Council is part of the formal academic governance structure of the College of Agriculture and Bioresources. Its membership includes faculty, College leadership, student representatives and other members identified in the College's bylaws.

Graduate student representatives are voting members of Faculty Council. The bylaws place them among the student representatives who serve on Faculty Council and its standing committees and participate in discussions, except where discussions relate to individual students or faculty members.

The College normally holds Faculty Council meetings several times throughout the academic year. Representatives receive meeting notices and relevant information directly from AgBio. For 2026–27, the College advised the GSA that Faculty Council would meet up to five times during the year.

Representatives provide a graduate student presence within AgBio's formal governance structure. In practice, representatives should be prepared to:

• attend and participate in AgBio Faculty Council meetings;
• review agendas and meeting materials in advance;
• contribute graduate student perspectives to matters before Faculty Council;
• consider the interests and experiences of graduate students across AgBio rather than representing only their individual program;
• communicate relevant Faculty Council matters to the graduate student community where appropriate; and
• maintain communication with the GSA regarding issues affecting AgBio graduate students.

Important: The College bylaws establish the representatives' membership and participation on Faculty Council. Expectations concerning broader communication with the GSA or graduate community should be presented as GSA expectations for representatives, rather than as requirements imposed by the AgBio bylaws.

To satisfy the Faculty Council Bylaws, a graduate representative must be:

A graduate student in good standing
The student must be in good academic standing.

Registered in an AgBio postgraduate program
The bylaws specify postgraduate programs within the constituent departments of the College.

Selected by graduate students
The two positions are not simply appointments by the GSA Executive. The College's governing documents expressly provide that the representatives are “selected by graduate students.”

The bylaws identify the constituent departments as Agricultural and Resource Economics, Food and Bioproduct Sciences, Plant Sciences, Soil Science, and Animal and Poultry Science.

The GSA facilitates the selection process on behalf of the AgBio graduate student community.

The governing requirement is that the two representatives be selected by graduate students. Accordingly, the GSA administers the process in a manner that provides eligible AgBio graduate students with an opportunity to put their names forward and graduate students with an opportunity to select their representatives.

The GSA's administrative role should include:

1. Call for candidates
The GSA advertises the available positions and invites eligible AgBio graduate students to submit an application or nomination.

2. Eligibility confirmation
Applicants confirm that they are graduate students in good standing registered in an eligible AgBio postgraduate program.

3. Candidate information
Eligible candidates provide a short statement explaining their interest, relevant experience and priorities for representing AgBio graduate students.

4. Graduate student vote
Where there are more eligible candidates than available positions, the GSA conducts a vote among eligible graduate students.

5. Results
The two candidates selected through the graduate student process are identified as the AgBio graduate student representatives.

6. Notification to the College
The GSA provides the College of Agriculture and Bioresources with the representatives' names and intended terms of service.

If only two eligible candidates come forward, the GSA should establish in its written procedure whether they are acclaimed or whether a confirmation vote is still held. That detail is not prescribed by the AgBio bylaw provision we have located, so it should be expressly established by the GSA rather than attributed to the College's bylaws.

The GSA does not have record of these representatives prior to 2026.

The College has advised the GSA that representatives may serve for one, two or more years, including potentially for the term of their graduate program, if that is what the representative wishes. The GSA should inform AgBio whether a selected student intends to serve for one year, two years or longer.

This means a vacancy does not necessarily occur in both positions every year.

The GSA should therefore contact both the current representatives and AgBio each August to determine which positions require selection for the upcoming academic year.

The graduate student seats are established by the College of Agriculture and Bioresources Faculty Council Bylaws.

The current revised bylaws were approved by AgBio Faculty Council on May 13, 2025. The version presented through University Council's 2025–26 governance process retained the requirement for two graduate students in good standing from constituent departments, selected by graduate students.

Questions about the graduate student representative selection process can be directed to:

Graduate Students' Association
University of Saskatchewan
gsa.pres@usask.ca

Questions concerning Faculty Council meetings or College governance should be directed to the College of Agriculture and Bioresources.