Administrators join the fray

Last Friday, the university decided to cut off funding to the student union.
“In my opinion and in the opinion of my collegues, we found the CSU council’s decision to be wholly undemocratic. The election results show that students voted for Chris Schulz’s team,” said Rector and Vice-Chancellor Frederick Lowy.
He added that it was Concordia’s moral responsibility to do something about the latest developments. “For the past three years the CSU has put the university in a bad light, we disagreed with them… but they were the elected representatives. They should be respecting the democratic decision of the students.”
CSU Interim President Patrice Blais said that he had appointed the Representative Union to take over from the interim executive at 2 p.m. on Friday. Later in the day, Rector Lowy called Blais to tell him about the press release, which was already being sent out.
Once Blais learned about Lowy’s decision, he said that he was shocked. “I told the rector that I had intended to appoint RU as the interim executive, but once the councillors found out and after I had thought about it, there was no way I or council would vote someone in because the university was threatening us with the cut of funds.”
He added that what the university did was inappropriate. “Council was ready to reconsider its decision and now they won’t. After the university’s decision I decided to rescind my decision of appointing the RU, since council won’t ratify the slate under this kind of pressure,” he said.
Blais said the CSU sent out a lawyer’s letter asking the university to revoke its decision or the CSU will seek legal recourse. More details will be known at a press conference today.
“I thought that I had a happy resolution to this problem, but that was thrown out the window on Friday. I hope the university can swallow its pride and admit that it made a mistake,” Blais said.
Jonathan LaBerge, a VP candidate for the RU (speaking for himself), said he understood Concordia’s decision and agreed that the CSU is illegitimate. “The press release indicated a lot of frustrations on the part of the university. The timing of the decision was inopportune, since Blais was in contact with me that to inform me about his decision.”
He added that he was not sure whether the university took the best course of action and would not comment further, except to question the legality of the university’s move.