CASA club fingered

Doug Bastien, a first year commerce student, had filed a formal complaint against an association that represents management information systems (MIS) students.
Bastien is a MIS student and he wants the Commerce and Administration Student Association (CASA) to look into the complaint. The association, Decision Sciences and Management Information Systems Student Association (DSMISSA) is under the umbrella of CASA.
Wanting to get involved in DSMISSA, Bastien was not happy when the student association failed to inform him about their meetings. He is also upset that he was interviewed twice for a vice-president position and was told later that the position was eliminated.
After getting a copy of DSMISSA’s constitution and counting nine breaches, Bastien submitted a formal complaint to CASA. He was not pleased that he did not get the immediate attention on the matter.
“They [hadn’t] made any commitment to support me in this matter,” said Bastien. “They [told] me how busy CASA [was and] there’s nothing that [could] be done. They proposed to me that I go to the Board of Directors.”
CASA president Cristelle Basmaji said when Bastien came to CASA a few weeks ago it was the first time they had heard of there being a problem with DSMISSA. “I’ve been looking into the situation for the past few weeks, but it doesn’t get done in a week,” she pointed out. CASA had been busy for the past little while with the cases competition and did not have the time to devote too much time to the situation.
Basmaji added that DSMISSA’s constitution from last semester is a bit different from this semester’s. She said that some of the things Bastien had a problem with deal with last semester’s constitution. Basmaji said DSMISSA is CASA’s weakest association this semester. “I myself realize this association is not handling itself the way it should, but it’s for certain reasons. Some circumstances are not their fault.”
One such circumstance was when DSMISSA was without a president for a while and had to get a new one. Also most of the students in the current DSMISSA are new to the association.
Basmaji said CASA has spoken with DSMISSA which wants to rebuild itself. “In the first semester, they wanted to plan a conference for MIS students, but we told them to push it to this semester.” An e-commerce conference for MIS students will be held on March 15.
Cheryl Gensaya, the interim president of DSMISSA, who has not seen Bastien’s formal complaint had no comment to make in reaction to it. “The CASA Board of Directors are aware of the situation and will contact him.” She added that the vice president position has not been eliminated and elections are currently going on. Gensaya said Bastien refused to run and in regards to DSMISSA’s meetings, she said only executive members attend them.
One of the nine breaches to their constitution that Bastien discovered was one that says the primary objective of the association is to provide activities of interest to DS and MIS students. He was not impressed with the fact that there were no activities for DS and MIS students last semester and none as of yet this semester.
Bastien was also not pleased that DSMISSA has failed recruit new members, establish ties, and increase awareness about their organization since the last semester, which goes against the constitution. He believes that students must know that there is an association that is out there representing them.
Due to CASA’s being busy, two weeks ago Bastien spoke to Sameer Zuberi, a CSU employee. There is little though that Zuberi can advise Bastien about since CASA politics and policies are not known by the CSU.
“I am aware of the situation, but it is not the CSU’s domain,” Zuberi said. “Maybe the CSU and CASA can work together.” He will speak to DSMISSA after he speaks to CASA this week. What he would like to see is a panel or group of people to come together to fix everything up.
“DSMISSA and CASA [must] recognize and admit the irresponsible conduct of DSMISSA by impeaching the president and ending DSMISSA’s current mandate until the beginning of the following term,” said Bastien. “[Also] a commitment from CASA to monitor DSMISSA to ensure an effort for involvement and representation of MIS students.” He intends to voice his concerns to the Board of Directors at their meeting next week.
“I think it will be resolved [this] week as soon as we speak to our chairman,” Basmaji said. “I know it will end up working out.”

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