The CSU’s broken promises exposed

Sprinkled among the hoards of posters of CSU executive hopefuls are some new posters from the students currently in office. The campaign posters for this week’s election display the promises and goals of the battling slates; the ones from the current executive boldly and proudly state they’ve met every single one of their campaign promises.
Well, that’s news to us.
The first item on the poster declares they gave out subsidized passes for Le Gym. In reality, during their campaign last year they promised cheaper gym passes for all students. Instead, they gave out a small handful of half-price passes. Handing out a few dozen passes does not equal success when you promised the reduced price passes to all.
They also claim to have “initiated research for online course packs.” Online course packs were one of the key points of their campaign. But we were expecting the real thing, not “research.”
During her campaign, current CSU president Keyana Kashfi said, “One of the big things we want to do for students is putting course packs online.”
They also brag about negotiating a better student health plan. What they’ve actually done is hire someone to find a new plan. They haven’t negotiated with anyone. And what’s “better” anyways? Better coverage? Better price? I guess we’ll figure that out once they actually pick a plan. If there are any negotiations going on, they’re being done behind closed doors. Far from being a campaign promise, this CSU exec tried to cover up the fact they were even looking at a new plan. They only came clean when the owner of the company that provides the current plan complained publicly.
And what happened to expanding the subsidized tutoring centre?
“The tutoring centre’s expansion, as one of Unity’s main platform points, has been pushed time after time,” wrote The Concordian’s Ben Ngai, in an editorial published at the time.
During the campaign VP external Colin Goldfinch also proposed offering students a database of certified tutors to complement the existing tutoring service. He added that students might qualify as tutors, which could be a potential source of employment for students. A recent check of the tutoring database shows only four ads for math, physics and commerce.
Maybe that promise fell through when VP university affairs Samantha Roberts resigned before even taking office.
They also planed to establish a “CSU info line” where students could ask question via text message.
“It could be as basic as where do I go to register, or it could be what do I do if I get accused of plagiarism,” VP student life and Loyola Natalie Mai said during the campaign, “anything to do with your Concordia experience we want to be able to answer,” said Mai.
She also promised a concert series and “afternoon cartoons” at the Hive. Mai resigned in November.
Another promise that’s not on the poster is a “transition in, transition out service.”
During the campaign José Garcia, candidate for VP services said he wanted to establish a “transition-in, transition-out service.” He said this service would be primarily geared to international and out-of-province students. The “transition-in” program would include guided tours conducted by students, in multiple languages. “We want to give a student’s perspective of what it’s like being here at Concordia,” he said.
The “transition-out” program would help graduating students improve their CVs and teach them “how to rock in an interview,” said Garcia.
He’s still around, so what happened?
Although they did meet some campaign goals (opening a new computer lab at Loyola, the food and clothing bank), they’re far from keeping “all” their promises.
By plastering these posters everywhere, it’s pretty clear that after being criticized by every single slate in this election, this is a last ditch effort to redeem their unpopular reign at the head of the CSU. But what’s even more pathetic is that they’d lie about things that are only a Google search away.