Here’s a quick breakdown on what to expect on the ballot
The Concordia Student Union’s 2015 byelections are underway on Nov. 24, 25 and 26. On this ballot, undergraduates can vote to fill part of the 11 empty seats on the CSU council of representatives as well as six different referendum questions. Take a look at this election’s referendum questions below:
Accessible Education
This question is asking students if they want the CSU to add a stance to the organization’s positions book supporting an accessible education policy. This policy states the CSU would support high quality, universally accessible postsecondary education as a human right, oppose any increase in tuition fees and institutional fees for students, call for a public reinvestment in postsecondary education and call for the elimination of all financial barriers to a high quality postsecondary education.
Social Economy Incubator
This question is asking students if they want to support using resources to establish what it calls a social economy incubator. This incubator would work to engage students through the support, development, study and promotion of democratic enterprises. These democratic enterprises include various co-op such as the Hive Cafe on campus.
Community-University Research Exchange
CURE is an group currently part of the Quebec Public Interest Research Group at Concordia that helps bring students and grassroot research groups for social justice together. CURE coordinator Cassie Smith told The Concordian earlier this month that allowing the group to become independent from QPIRG would allow CURE to hire coordinators, increase the number of events they hold and match more students with community projects for credit.
Association for the Voice of Education in Quebec (AVEQ)
Voting yes on this referendum question will authorize the CSU to officially become affiliated with AVEQ, a newly-formed student association. This would also mean students will be paying $3.50 per semester indexed to inflation towards AVEQ instead of the old fee for the Fédération etudiante universitaire du Québec, which the CSU will be leaving.
CSU daycare and nursery
This question will let the CSU redistribute money from the fees they already collect to go towards the new CSU daycare and nursery for student parents. The daycare, which the CSU hopes to have open by Fall 2016, will hire 11 staff member and be able to take in more than 70 children a day. This redistribution of funds will pull from the CSU’s Student Space, Accessible Education, Legal Contingency Fund.
Bylaw changes
The sixth and last referendum question of this byelection asks students to approve changes to the CSU’s bylaws. Many of the changes update the bylaws to be gender neutral but also change the organization of the CSU executive into a system with coordinators instead of a hierarchical executive led by a president.
Polling booths are present on both campuses; the Hall building lobby, Library building atrium, EV building lobby, MB building lobby and VA building lobby on the downtown campus; and the AD building lobby, SP building lobby and Vanier Library lobby on the Loyola campus.
