Editorial

As a university newspaper, it is indisputably our mandate to write about student politics. Normally this should generate a few stories per month, but in no case should it swallow our entire news section. It’s a bad sign when the Concordia Student Union (CSU) and the Arts and Science Federation of Students (ASFA) should be deserving of six headlines in a single week.
An act as simple as electing a new chief electoral officer (CEO) should not create so much scandal. It should not be newsworthy. When the federal government of Canada picks a new CEO, barely a drop of ink reaches the page.
But since the current executive has taken office, the media has had to call them out on several occasions, whether for blatant disregard of their own bylaws that led to a council referendum or for concealing their debt from students.
Perhaps the CSU should confine itself to a few simple tasks: providing legal council, advocacy for students and maybe even throw a few parties. The CSU is not a service provider after all – they’re not the government. Most of the services they offer should already be provided by the university anyway.
As students, we know the university’s population doesn’t care about the weekly happenings, however illegal, in the realm of student politics. Still, we are called upon to report on such issues; perhaps simply because of the small amount of money we each contribute to the CSU along with our course credits every semester.
If you’re a member of the CSU and you’re reading this, read closer: just be straight up. Stop with all the backroom politics. Doing the strict minimum is all we really ask for. Stop thinking the world revolves around your lengthy, meaningless meetings. If you want to make a name for yourself, you have not been doing it the right way. All you’ve accomplished so far is souring your reputation. Think about what will happen when people type your name on Google. Think about it.
We still have almost an entire semester to go through. There is time, there is hope.