The Concordia Student Union (CSU) came under fire during last Wednesday’s council meeting when some councillors criticized it for not having done enough in the fight to keep the tuition freeze and for putting up misleading posters as an electoral tactic.
Arts and science councillor Trish McIntosh said the CSU executive did not follow council’s mandate to release a press conference and to mobilize students against a tuition increase. She added people had to haunt the executive before the executive proposed the petition.
In response, CSU president Natalie Pomerleau said they will be putting together the campaign in the upcoming days. CSU VP Tyler Wordsworth said they talked to the administration and that they will continue to present their views.
In response to The Link’s editorial “CSU hasn’t gotten better” from a couple of weeks ago, the CSU put up posters in the Hall Building listing the union’s accomplishments during the year. The posters focused on student life, services and CSU clubs. They mentioned the $2.3 million project of expanding space, the largest orientation, movie nights and increased club space.
The posters also claimed that the CSU “gave the highest funding the CSU Advocacy Centre and Job and Housing Bank ever received,” when, in fact, council decided to increase the funding to that degree.
The posters also stated that the CSU “got rid of the annoying TBA in the university schedule.” This came up during the council meeting as councillor Doug Bastien asked why TBAs could still appear in the course calendar.
CSU VP Vi Hoang said that the TBA campaign had concluded successfully and that the TBAs found in the catalogue were because the printing of the calendars took place before the contracts with the teachers had been signed.
In response to the editorial, the CSU also bought an ad in The Link for $600. Many councillors felt that the money spent on the posters and the ad from CSU funds were an electoral tactic in support of New Evolution. The posters were posted before campaigning was officially allowed.
Wordsworth said the posters reflected the CSU’s accomplishments and were not printed to promote New Evolution. Pomerleau added that they took up an ad in The Link because they were unaware whether or not it would be published if it were written as a letter to the editor.
Council passed a motion giving an official reprimand to the executive, as well as preventing them from spending on public relation purposes for their own record until the end of election. As well, the executive agreed to write a letter of apology to the Canadian Federation of Student-Quebec, for comments made towards them in letter to the editor published in The Link.
Engler granted membership
Councillor Yves Engler was granted temporary membership under by-law 3.2, which states that council can by a two-thirds majority grant temporary membership to an individual who is not a member. Engler was banned from Concordia in a decision taken unilaterally by the rector. The motion passed by council clarified his member status for the upcoming election and his right to be a candidate and vote.
Keeping CARL?
A motion to stop the shutdown of CARL will be presented at the next general assembly (GA). Council argued that not all students have access to a computer readily, whereas most students have phones. The motion states that “Concordia should respect all students’ socio-economic status” and that “the last two years have shown that the new MyConcordia Portal to be vulnerable to system crashes.”
Motion on credit cards passed
A motion prohibiting credit card companies from advertising or soliciting on campus was also passed. The motion states that these companies “are aggressively pushing their product on students and are not providing adequate information about the terms and conditions of their product.”
Ads in washrooms debated
A petition brought forth by councillor Jonathan Woodworth questioned new advertisements in washrooms, especially those recruiting students for the Canadian Army. A GA will be called about washroom advertising as soon as the room requested is available.
Councillors appointed to committees
Mcintosh was appointed to the Space and Admin committee and arts and science councillor Tim McSorley was appointed to the academic committee.
