Presidential Debate: Democratic but Uneventful

Amidst what can be called a competitive election season for council, Wednesday’s was an uneventful debate on CJLO. With five of the six hopefuls for Concordia Student Union (CSU) president reiterating their main talking points, such as the need for increased financial transparency and student participation, the discussion often led the opposing parties to a consensus on what should be done to fix the CSU’s current problems.
The candidates, Kurt Reckziegel of Change, Joel Suss of Fresh, Amine Dabchy of Vision, Robert Sonin of New Union and Marouf Mahmoud of Decentralization, answered questions pre-approved by Chief Electoral Officer Oliver Cohen as part of an effort to inform students of each platform’s electoral promises. Tessa Star, the sole candidate from ATTENTION, declined to participate in the debate, which was moderated by CJLO radio host Karl Knox and broadcast live.
The first question involved changing the CSU’s currently tarnished reputation for the better, which generated similar answers from the debaters. “We want to be completely open and honest with students,” said Reckziegel, adding that the current council is “focused too much on petty politics.” Suss also raised the point of student awareness, “Only 10 per cent of students voted last year. The vast majority don’t know anything about the CSU.”
Another matter of quasi-consensus was the need for financial transparency. “We want our finances to be available online. You’re [fees-paying students] a shareholder, so you have the right to see your finances,” said Dabchy. “We also want an exterior financial audit.”
The one topic that created the most clashes in opinion was working with student groups on campus, with Reckziegel and Sonin taking up opposite positions. “We want to increase postering space. We want to help them with a newsletter,” said Reckziegel. “We have plenty of media on campus that groups can use. Printing out new posters [in terms of sustainability] isn’t the way to go,” countered Sonin.
As for the biggest academic issue facing students, “We have to lobby the university about the bookstore,” said Mahmoud. “The textbooks are overpriced.” The other debaters agreed, however Suss and Sonin advanced the alternate solution of increasing support to the Co-op Bookstore.
The candidates were also asked whether they’d support a separation of the CSU and the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS). The CFS’s main goal is to provide member universities “strength in numbers” when dealing with the government on issues like tuition fees – a service that’s relevance to Concordia students has recently come under fire. While Suss and Mahmoud said they’d support the motion, Sonin and Dabchy said they’d need to further analyze the situation, leaving Reckziegel as the only participant who said he thought Concordia’s relationship with the CFS to be beneficial.
The debate is available for listen online at www.cjlo.com/debate2009.mp3. Poles are open on March 24, 25 and 26.

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