However, another point is that there is nothing dysfunctional about the way that the three representatives from my department (and I suspect many other departments) interact with the council, each other, and the students in the department. There are over 200 students in our department, and we each have direct access to unique subsets of that group. Our three councilors coordinate communication to the rest of the students. We talk with each other before meetings. We trust our system. Reducing our number of representatives from 3 to 1 will not make our one representative more engaged; it will overwork that person.

Large departments being allowed multiple councilors is not the reason council is inefficient. Large departments require multiple councilors to effectively engage the student body.

Regarding inefficiencies, the graduate secretary will reduce those, even in meetings. The new councilor orientation sessions will also reduce inefficiencies and increase engagement.

And yes, GSS quorum rules for general meetings mean that only 50 people need to vote in favour to pass these changes (as long as a majority are in favour, of course). Rather than lowering quorum for council meetings, maybe they should be raising it for general meetings?

However, you didn’t mention anything about how they only need 50 people to pass this?