CSU prez resigns as recall gathers steam

The CSU’s VP Finance Patrice Blais confirmed that CSU President Sabrina Stea resigned on Oct. 15 at 5 pm.
Blais would not provide more details or comment further until after the Council of Representatives’ meeting on Oct. 18. He stated that Stea would address the CSU council meeting about her resignation.
“Council will make a decision on who will replace her and I don’t know who will replace her, but it will be one of the vice-presidents. Once a president resigns, the bylaws call for new elections. Elections will be held whenever council decides they will be held,” said Blais.
For the time being, the current vice-presidents of Stea’s Access slate will
continue with their duties.
– Diana Thibeault

By Daniel Blouin
About 3,000 students have signed a petition to recall the present Concordia Student Union executives.
Under CSU bylaws, the CSU President may be recalled to election in a by-election if 10 per cent or 2,400 of all members of the student union-that is undergraduate students-sign the petition demanding such a course of action.
“Had we a couple of more weeks, we could have gotten 10,000 signatures,” said Ralph Lee, a former candidate for the CSU presidency. Lee began circulating the petition because he believed there is rampant discontent among students towards the CSU executives.
He added that he was pleased with the petition and looks forward to the upcoming election. “Students will come out and vote in higher numbers.” Lee pointed out that the number of people that signed the petition exceeded the number that voted in last year’s election.
Last March, Lee was the second runner up behind Chris Schulz slate and Stea’s Access slate. Should there be a new election, Lee and Schulz are thinking of running under the same banner.
The controversy surrounding the student handbook, the racism on campus and the outbreak of war were topics that Stea said were having an impact on students. “I think that these matters are present, and they’re boiling.”
According to CSU bylaws, the election to recall the executives must be held no later than thirty days after the chief electoral officer receives the petition.
Until that time, the current CSU executives remain in office.
Lee started circulating the petition calling for new CSU elections after
attending the CSU general assembly on Sept. 26. Once the petition was
introduced, it took on a life of its own, he said.
Cristelle Basmaji, president of the Commerce and Administration Students’ Association, supports the petition. “We’d like to see changes in the CSU.” She has made the petition available at the CASA office, but she did not want to get involved on a “super political” level. “We simply made the petition available to students that wanted to see changes in the CSU.”
Organizers for the recall campaign could not be reached upon the news of Sabrina Stea’s resignation.

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