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Concordia Student Union News

CSU survey: Financial security leads to better grades

The Concordia Student Union’s general undergraduate survey reveals that, for every $1,000 of debt, students see a five per cent decrease in their grades. Photo by Matthew Coyte

Council also debates CREM endorsement, increased funding for First Peoples Week

The consensus was clear at the last Concordia Student Union (CSU) council meeting: financial security seems to lead to higher grades.

A review of the May 2017 General Undergraduate Survey at the latest CSU council meeting revealed that for every $1,000 of debt, students saw a 5 per cent decrease in grades, and scholarships result in a 4.5 per cent increase in grades.

The survey also asked the student body to answer questions about income, food security, financial stability, and experience with sexual assault and violence, as well as discrimination.

Former CSU Loyola coordinator Marcus Peters presented the findings to the council, but stressed that the results are not completely representative due to students unsubscribing from the CSU Live newsletter, which is how the survey was distributed. Another factor to consider,  according to Peters, was the survey’s lack of questions regarding religion.

When students were asked if they had experienced any kind of sexual violence by someone within the Concordia community, two per cent of the respondents answered “yes.” An overwhelming majority of students who answered “yes” to questions about whether they had experienced discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity said the incidents had taken place in classrooms or other departmental spaces, such as lounges and libraries.

“That should be something that we’re addressing—there is discrimination happening, and mostly in the classrooms where we wouldn’t expect it to occur,” said Rory James, a councillor representing the John Molson School of Business.

According to Peters, a total of 2,991 students completed the survey. The goal of the survey was to “make accessible all information on student life,” he said.

Peters added that the lack of interaction between the general student body and the CSU made a survey the most efficient way to gather information about undergraduates at Concordia.

Another portion of the survey concerned student food security. The survey found that the People’s Potato was serving an average of 265 people per day, with the cost coming to 73 cents per plate.

Support for CREM

According to a report presented by external affairs and mobilization coordinator Ahmed Badr, the CSU council decided on Oct. 4 to support the eight recommendations presented to municipal electoral candidates by the Montreal Regional Student Coalition (CREM).

The CREM is a political coalition composed of various university and CEGEP student unions. According to Riaz, coalition members approached the CSU about supporting the recommendations. These recommendations covered topics the coalition hopes candidates will address once elected, including transportation and the consultation of Montreal’s youth on issues around the city.

This became a contentious point at the meeting, as some councillors voiced concern over the lack of communication between executives and CSU representatives on the matter. General coordinator Omar Riaz confirmed the executives met and decided to support the recommendations, but the rest of the council was not consulted.

Councillors Rowan Gaudet and Rory James, and Arts and Science Federation of Association (ASFA) President Julia Sutera Sardo, among others, questioned the legitimacy of the CSU’s support since the matter had never been discussed at a meeting.

In response, Badr stressed that the CSU had only supported recommendations that fell in line with the CSU’s beliefs.

“[The CSU] supporting the demands is essentially us joining the coalition,” James countered. He and others argued the issue wasn’t the recommendations that had been supported, but rather that the CSU was endorsing the coalition—something the entire council should have been consulted about.

Representatives motioned for the CSU to rescind its support of the CREM immediately until the topic could be properly discussed by the entirety of the CSU council.

Continuous support for First Voices Week

The CSU moved to increase its financial support for the First Voices Week, an “Indigenous-led initiative to acknowledge and celebrate local Indigenous peoples and communities at Concordia and within the Montreal area,” according to the event’s Facebook page. First Voices Week is held in January and hosts events including speeches, concerts and discussions.

Last year, the CSU spent $4,000 to finance the event, but will now commit an additional $1,000. The goal of the additional funding is to secure this money for future years, to facilitate the funding process for the event’s organizing committee and to ensure the event has “room to grow,” according to Riaz.

Photo by Matthew Coyte

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QPIRG Concordia to expand student resources

QPIRG Concordia focused on research stipends and expanding resources available to students. Photo by Kirubel Mehari

Organization turns focus to the future following annual election, fee levy increases

Following the recent election of new board members and an eight-cent fee levy increase, Concordia’s chapter of the Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG) is focusing on increasing research stipends and expanding their student resources.

The grassroots organization, which has historically focused on funding research and community-based projects aligned with their progressive political views, elected 12 members to their board of directors on Sept. 27 during their annual general meeting.

Since the organization works with both the Concordia and Montreal communities, it has two separate boards: one consisting of students and the other made up of community members. Any Concordia student with a valid student ID and all community QPIRG members (non-students who have donated at least $10 to the group or who volunteer 10 hours per year) were able to vote in the election.

Eamon Toohey, who was elected to the community board of directors on Sept. 27, said the board will spend the year developing and funding “radical, grassroots social justice initiatives” and will be prioritizing marginalized voices.

“I’m really excited to work with a whole new crop of board members to support the folks working for a brighter tomorrow in the city and beyond,” Toohey said. “Especially folks at the margins fighting for Indigenous sovereignty and migrant justice. Those two fights are brutally suppressed and forgotten, but absolutely vital.”

In addition to new board members, the organization recently received an increase to their annual student fee levy. According to the group’s 2016-17 financial report, between January 2007 and November 2016, the group received 31 cents per credit per undergraduate student, with the exception of students who chose to opt out in the first weeks of each semester.

Through a referendum vote during the fall 2016 Concordia Student Union (CSU) by-elections, the QPIRG was granted an eight-cent fee levy increase. Under this new model, undergraduate students pay 39 cents per credit per semester, or $11.70 annually for a 90-credit degree. The graduate student fee levy of 50 cents per credit was unchanged.

“It was up to Concordia undergraduates to decide at the polls,” Toohey said of the referendum. “When voting closed, our fee levy was raised, allowing us to support social and environmental initiatives all over the city.”

While the group’s primary source of income is fee levy funding, it’s impossible for the QPIRG to predict how much funding that will be, as all students have the option to opt-out each semester. According to financial records from October 2016 to August 2017, the group’s total revenue for the 2016-17 fiscal year was $238,586 with approximately $220,000 coming from student fee levy funds.

The QPIRG insisted the increased funding will be put towards community-based programs and research projects. According to Hesser Garcia, a newly-elected community board member, the fee levy increase has already allowed the group to fund a $3,000 summer stipend, which they granted to Captive Minds.

According to the QPIRG’s 2016-17 annual report, Captive Minds is a Little Burgundy-based mentorship project that connects black, low-income youth with an adult mentor in the prison system. Garcia said this stipend is “the first in many to come,” now that the group has increased funding.

“We were also able to provide better support for our alternative agenda, School Schmool, and our alternative library,” Garcia said. School Schmool is a free student planner that features articles and resources, including food banks and low-cost mental health services in the Montreal area. The alternative library, in QPIRG Concordia’s office at 1500 de Maisonneuve Blvd., offers books, magazines and audio-visual media focused on environmental and social justice issues.

In total, the QPIRG invested $20,000 in community and campus projects in 2016-2017. Several board members said they are hopeful the increased fee levy will allow them to expand funding for these programs even further in the coming year.

Photo by Kirubel Mehari

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Concordia Student Union News

CSU coordinators issued formal warnings

Archive photo by Nelly Serandour-Amar.

General coordinator and finance coordinator accepted gifts: CSU council

The Concordia Student Union council issued formal warnings to CSU general coordinator Omar Riaz and finance coordinator Soulaymane El Alaoui during a regular council meeting on Sept. 20. The council learned the two coordinators were given plane tickets to Vancouver by Lev Bukhman, the CEO of Alliance pour la Santé Étudiante au Québec (ASEQ), which is the CSU’s insurance provider.

The CSU coordinators did not report the gifts to councillors in their executive report of the Student Union Development Summit (SUDS) conference that they attended at the University of British Columbia from Aug. 18 to 21.

According to CSU councillor and signing officer Rowan Gaudet—who motioned for the formal warning—the coordinators should have called a special council meeting in the summer to ask if they could accept the gifts, as per a motion passed by the council on Feb. 8, 2017.

Gaudet and fellow signing officer Rory James knew about the trip, but never got to sign off on cheques for plane tickets. “To go to B.C., I was assuming they hadn’t hitchhiked, therefore flights would be necessary [and] there were no flights expenses to the CSU,” Gaudet said.

According to Gaudet, ASEQ, also known as StudentCare, offered CSU coordinators plane tickets for the same event last year, but the coordinators refused.

The February 2017 motion read that “should the CSU or its coordinators be offered any benefits or gift […] the council will have final approval as to whether it can be accepted or not.”

Gaudet told The Concordian that “according to Quebec law, they have to declare any gifts from corporations they represent.” ASEQ renewed its contract with the CSU, worth about nine or 10 million dollars, on April 12, 2017.

“It’s absolutely a motion we didn’t oversight,” El Alaoui argued. The CSU finance coordinator said he didn’t consider the plane tickets to be a gift.

Riaz and El Alaoui have 90 days to individually pay the CSU back the cost of the flights and of a meal in Vancouver, according to the motion. The finance coordinator said this amounts to about $900 each.

“When we accepted the flights, it was an opportunity that we saw to reduce the cost of going to the conference because, at the end of the day, all these costs the CSU would have paid for anyway,” El Alaoui said.

During the council meeting, signing officer James told the council that Riaz and El Alaoui’s recommendation to bring health insurance services in-house—meaning creating a space for ASEQ services on-campus—would necessitate a “transactional relationship” between ASEQ and the CSU.

CSU general coordinator Omar Riaz and finance coordinator Soulaymane El Alaoui issued formal warnings by CSU council for accepting gifts. Photo by Etienne Lajoie

“If they receive the benefit of this company, they shouldn’t be involved in the future with this company: negotiations, contracts, nothing,” James told the council. “Regardless of what happened in the past, [going] forward they cannot negotiate on our behalf.”

According El Alaoui, a lot of students are unaware that they have an insurance plan as part of their fee-levies.

“There are 20,000 students enrolled in the health and dental plan. A lot of people that are enrolled are having difficulties and they come to [the CSU] reception to ask questions, but because the receptionists are not the frontline customer service providers, they have to redirect them to [ASEQ’s] customer service on the phone,” Riaz explained. The CSU general coordinator said that is why in-house ASEQ services would facilitate the procedure.

The contract signed by the CSU with ASEQ in April allows the union to bring some of the insurance company’s responsibilities in-house, according to El Alaoui. The CSU finance coordinator explained during the council meeting that one of the goals of the visit to UBC was to see how UBC’s Alma Mater Society (AMS)—the university’s equivalent of the CSU—operated ASEQ’s services in-house.

Riaz told The Concordian he and El Alaoui arrived in Vancouver on the evening of Aug. 15 to meet AMS executives.

El Alaoui explained that a meeting is scheduled on Sept. 26 where he, Riaz, Gaudet and James will discuss how the two CSU coordinators will move forward if they can’t be in contact with ASEQ.

Other points of contention

The paid flights were not the only problems Gaudet and James addressed at the council meeting. They also took issue with Riaz and El Alaoui’s report about the SUDS conference.

“A lot of points were just three or four lines. I expect that you should get details out of this conference.”

Riaz explained the report was only to present recommendations to the council.

Gaudet also criticized Riaz and El Alaoui’s use of the Health and Dental Plan Premiums budget line for the trip’s expenses, arguing that “this [was] not just an expense line to just incur expenses for the trip.”

El Alaoui later told The Concordian that the money was put there as a holding because he didn’t have the authority to create a budget line without council’s approval.

“Since there’s [no line for the budget] and those costs were already coming in, we put it in Health and Dental Plan Premiums because it’s related to [that], and the [expenses] are not going to stay there,” El Alaoui stressed.

In addition, Gaudet was critical of a section in Riaz and El Alaoui’s report called “Number of execs.” In it, the two coordinators wrote that they “realized that the CSU is the only [union] with a large, even number of executives.” The report continued to say that the “main issue brought up with having an even number of executives is that [fewer decisions] can actually be made” because of the increased likelihood of a tie during votes.

Gaudet also took issue with El Alaoui’s arguments regarding the high number of executives at the CSU. “Technically the CSU could function no problem without a Loyola coordinator or without a sustainability coordinator,” Gaudet told the council. “But we’re greatly advantaged by having someone whose sole focus is sustainability [or] the Loyola campus.”

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Concordia Student Union News

CSU daycare set to open its doors in March

Concordia Student Union daycare to open in March on Bishop St. on Concordia’s downtown campus. Photo by Alex Hutchins

Waiting available as of December, according to CSU coordinator

The Concordia Student Union (CSU) daycare is set to open in March, according to the CSU general coordinator, Omar Riaz.

The daycare, which was first proposed in 2011, will begin construction at 1424 Bishop St. after the building contract is approved at the CSU council meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 20.

According to Riaz, the daycare will be able to care for 50 children at a time, and will accommodate newborns and toddlers. There will also be a study space on the upper floor for parents. The waiting list is set to open up sometime in December, Riaz told The Concordian.

Once open, the daycare will be subsidized by the CSU which will bring the cost below the government-subsidized rate of $7 per hour.

According to an article published by The Concordian in February, the daycare was scheduled to open this fall. However, Riaz said difficulties in obtaining construction permits and unanticipated structural work on the partially demolished building delayed the project.

Riaz said the project is still well within its nearly $1.5-million budget. This is despite the partial demolition of the original building having been discovered to cost $15,000 more than anticipated due to an incorrect quote for the project distributed within the CSU, according to an article published by The Link in December 2016.

The project is a welcome addition for many student-parents. While Concordia currently has a daycare located at each campus, the spaces are limited and the waitlists are long. Larissa Buss is an education student who has two sons, aged two years and three months.

She said her oldest son was on the waiting list for Concordia’s daycare service for a year and a half before being admitted. Waiting lists for other daycares are similar. “They tell you, ‘Put your name on the list when you’re pregnant,’” she said.

Like all international student-parents, Buss does not have access to subsidized daycare services. She said daycare services are “absolutely necessary” for any parent who wants to study.

Christine Manendez, who works at the Concordia University Student Parents Centre (CUSP), also testified to the difficulties of being a student-parent. She said Concordia daycare services never returned her call when she was a student-parent. She said many parents delay or forego their education because they lack the time and money.

The idea for the CSU daycare came about as the result of a study commissioned by Concordia in 2011, titled “Student-parents and their children: How can we help them? An analysis of the student-parent experience at Concordia University.” The study found that “many student-parents do not have access to flexible, affordable childcare that would allow them to attend classes,” due to limited daycare spaces and the students’ financial restrictions. Furthermore, the study stated that “student-parents frequently report missing class, missing exams, handing in assignments late and even dropping out because there are simply no timely, safe, flexible, affordable childcare options.”

Although Concordia does not track the number of student-parents currently enrolled, the aforementioned study estimated that student-parents likely represent about 10 per cent of the university’s student population, which is comparable to the national average of 11 per cent.

Photo by Alex Hutchins

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Concordia Student Union News

Construction of CSU student housing imminent

Demolition on the site of the future CSU student housing that will be built in partnership with UTILE with financing from the city of Montreal. Photo by Mackenzie Lad

Demolition of former funeral complex on land complete in “prime location”

The demolition of the building on the land where the future Concordia Student Union (CSU) cooperative student housing will be built is over, and the project’s construction is due to begin shortly.

Originally chosen for its location and value, according to CSU general coordinator Omar Riaz, the land is across the street from Lafontaine Park, on Papineau Avenue.

Laurent Lévesque, the general coordinator of Unité de travail pour l’implantation de logement étudiant (UTILE), the CSU’s partner in the project, described the land as “a prime location.”

Ben Prunty, who was the CSU’s president at the time of the first study into the feasibility of the project, said the initiative is “fulfilling all the fundamentals and moving forward as planned.”

According to the CSU’s original FAQ document about the cooperative housing, the plan was to have a location “likely […] in the southwest of Montreal along the metro system’s green line.” The plans changed when the location that was ultimately chosen became available.

Lévesque said UTILE and CSU considered using the existing building on the land, an old Urgel Bourgie funeral complex, but “concerns for the quality of life brought them to favour a new construction.”

In September 2014, when Prunty was CSU president, UTILE was commissioned to do a feasibility study into the possibility of building cooperative housing. In the October 2014 study, UTILE recommended constructing a new building “as the most viable development method.” The organization argued in the report that a new building “would have lower service costs and would be significantly more energy and space efficient than the old apartment stock of Montreal.”

UTILE’s two other recommendations were buying existing apartments or acquiring a non-residential building.

In December 2014, in a CSU by-election, students overwhelmingly voted in a favour of considering the new student housing with 1,598 “yes” votes and 182 “no” votes. It was the first of two referendum questions concerning the cooperative initiative. The second, in April 2015, asked students if they approved the reallocation of $1.85 million from the Student Space Accessible Education Legal Contingency Fund (SSAELC) to finance the creation of the Popular University Student Housing Fund (PUSH).

Students voted to create the PUSH fund, which finances around 13 per cent of the total cost of the approximately $14-million project. Funding for the initiative also comes from government bodies like the city of Montreal, which announced a $500,000 contribution in February and $1.5 million from the Chantier de l’économie sociale.

Limited number of spots available

There will only be about 150 spots in approximately 70 units available in the cooperative housing, according to Riaz. The units will mostly be studios, but there will also be 4 ½ and 5 ½ that will be shared. The CSU’s Housing and Jobs Office (HOJO) will be responsible for administering housings vacancies and finding the tenants.

“We will definitely make sure it goes to students that need the financial support,” said the CSU general coordinator. HOJO’s selection will be based on specific criteria it’s currently working on establishing with the student housing’s provisional committee, put together before the land was bought.

Lévesque stressed he didn’t want to compromise the housing’s quality because of its affordability.

The issue of affordability for the student housing units was always high on CSU and UTILE’s list of priorities. Riaz said students will be able to rent at a monthly-rate of around $400 to $440. In comparison, the cheapest available accommodation at Concordia’s Grey Nuns Residence–a small single room with no sink–is $731.46 per month.

To help build the best housing cooperative, UTILE and the CSU have been consulting the housing’s provisional committee–which will eventually become the board of directors–on a weekly basis.

The committee is made up of students from various faculties who have been studying the project and making recommendations to CSU and UTILE. Tenants from the housing will also join the board.

Sidney Bhalla, one of two civil engineering students on the committee, looked into making the most environmentally-friendly building possible. In addition to studying acoustics and lighting, Bhalla and other students from the civil engineering program tried to determine whether investing in a central air conditioning system or more isolated walls was more environmentally-friendly.

The group’s simulations confirmed that having a better building envelope–the components that separate the interior from the exterior–was the best option.

According to Riaz, the contract for the construction for the housing cooperative has not been given out yet, and the CSU is still looking for a construction consultant and a company specialized in property management.

Although the property management company “will take care of repairs that are not usually taken care of by tenants,” most of the decisions regarding the cooperative will be made by the board of directors.

“Whatever [the tenants] want to do with the building will have to be a decision by consensus or by a vote at the board,” explained Riaz.

Lévesque said UTILE will be collaborating with the CSU this year, now more than ever. He hopes  students will be able to start living in the cooperative by August 2018.

Photo by Mackenzie Lad

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Concordia Student Union News

A first look at the CSU’s 2017-18 budget

Archive photo by Nelly Serandour-Amar.

CSU Finance Coordinator Soulaymane El Alaoui explains the decisions

Two weeks ago, the Concordia Student Union’s new finance coordinator, Soulaymane El Alaoui, presented the finalized version of the 2017-2018 budget to the CSU council. It was approved in its entirety, save for three amendments.

El Alaoui was the VP of events for the Commerce and Administration Students’ Association (CASA) last year, in addition to being part of CASA’s finance committee, where he worked with the committee to look over and approve the CASA clubs’ budget.

The CSU’s 2017-18 budget is noteworthy because of its budgeted deficit of just over $46,200. “I budgeted for a deficit specifically so we can spend the previous year’s money and do more things,” El Alaoui explained.

However, the budgeted $46,219.16 does not take into account depreciation and amortization costs—the expenses for assets over time. According to El Alaoui, when those cost come into effect, the CSU will have a deficit. The accurate number for these costs have yet to be determined.

At the June 14 council meeting, the finance coordinator said he considered the student union to be in a “good financial position” if the deficit was over $45,000.

The three amendments made to El Alaoui’s initial budget proposal are as followed:

  • The first one concerned the collaboration—what the finance coordinator described as a “pilot project”—between the CSU and the associations of the university’s four faculties: the Faculty of Arts and Science, the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science, the Faculty of Fine Arts and the John Molson School of Business. El Alaoui’s initial proposal was a $4,000-budget ($1,000 per faculty). It was amended to $10,000, meaning $2,500 per faculty association.
  • A motion proposed by ASFA President Julia Sutera Sardo during the council meeting added $2,000 to the sustainability budget for the CSU to purchase menstrual products. On Jan. 30, 2017, Sutera Sardo and ASFA committed to offering free menstrual products to all Concordia students and community members.
  • Finally, the budget for conferences increased from $1,000 to $6,000 in the final version of the document.

Issues with the 2016-17 budget

El Alaoui said he saw numerous discrepancies when he looked at the final numbers for 2016-17 and compared them to the year’s corresponding budget. Even before he became finance coordinator, El Alaoui had looked over the numbers. “I got their budget from last year. I was just curious,” he said.

“We were way over budget on some lines, way under budget on others,” he explained. For example, during the 2016-17 year, the CSU only spent $10,000 of the $23,000 set aside for sustainability issues on campus.

Such issues include providing menstrual products to students. Sutera Sardo, who made the amendment to add $2,000 to the sustainability budget, told The Concordian in January 2017 that she wanted to provide more DivaCups for students because they are more sustainable.

When you make a budget, you talk to people to establish, ‘How much do we need to spend this?’ or ‘How much do we foresee spending on this?’ And then you have to actually, during the year, run after those people to hold them accountable.

However, for matters such as handbook printing, the CSU overspent by $2,000 ($62,000 instead of the allocated $60,000), not to mention adding an additional line to the budget labeled “handbook” which accounted for another $6,000 in spending, for a total of $8,000 not budgeted for.

“[It’s] not necessarily a sign of mismanagement, but it’s just bad budgeting I guess,” El Alaoui said.

“When you make a budget, you talk to people to establish, ‘How much do we need to spend this?’ or ‘How much do we foresee spending on this?’ And then you have to actually, during the year, run after those people to hold them accountable.”

“The hardest part of making a budget like this,” El Alaoui said, “is that I don’t know why things were budgeted the way they were last year.”

Over the last 15 months, the CSU has had four different finance coordinators. In March 2016, Anas Bouslikhane resigned from the position before finishing his mandate. His replacement, Adrian Longinotti, was asked to resign by the CSU after the executive body deemed him unfit to act as a representative of the student union.

In November 2016, Longinotti was replaced by Thomas David-Bashore, who was the finance coordinator from December 2016 until the following CSU elections in March 2017 when El Alaoui was elected.

According to El Alaoui, it would be preferable if there were two coordinators. The second person would be an assistant for their first year, and would become the finance coordinator in their second year.

“In an ideal world, I think for all student clubs or student associations, it should be a two-year position, because otherwise there’s no institutional knowledge,” El Alaoui said. The finance coordinator, he added, does he what he thinks is best without training. A two-year mandate would be better because, “that way, you have a full year of training.”

CSU General Coordinator Omar Riaz said the idea of a two-year mandate hasn’t been discussed by the student union. The question of extending the student mandate would also have to go through a student referendum to be implemented.

Financial problems with the CSU Advocacy Centre

The CSU Advocacy Centre is budgeted to have a $53,000 loss in the upcoming year. This means it will break even, since it had a $53,000 surplus last year. El Alaoui said he wants the advocacy centre to spend that surplus.

The centre received $90,000 in additional funding from the Graduate Students Association (GSA) last year. According to El Alaoui, the GSA wanted to be affiliated with the CSU Advocacy Centre.

The $90,000 contribution was paid in full in 2016-17, but intended to be divided over two years. This accounts for most of the surplus in the centre’s budget by the end of last year.

However, El Alaoui said the $53,000 deficit could have been much higher, specifically $69,560, if it wasn’t for $16,060 in emergency funds given to the centre by the CSU as a support line to help finance student services.

Despite a reallocation of CSU funds to increase the centre’s fee-levy earlier this year, El Alaoui said he believes the fee-levy still needs to increase.

The $16,060, El Alaoui says, was a short-term solution, “kind of a Band-Aid solution.” He said he would like to see the CSU hold a referendum “to increase the student fee-levy because [the advocacy centre] is not getting enough to be able to do everything that they can.” He said he wants the centre to be financially sustainable in the long term.

A decrease in the advocacy centre’s funds, El Alaoui said, “would also mean reducing their potential for advocacy engagement for the students and their potential for projects.”

El Alaoui said the centre’s situation will be reassessed in the fall, once the centre has obtained its first fee-levy. “They’ll see how much it would need to be increased by at this time. The CSU is also looking at other solutions,” he said.

Increased transparency

The new finance coordinator said he wants more transparency within the CSU. Despite being labelled “budgets” on the CSU website, the only documents that can be found are audited financial statements. The latest is from 2015-16. However, none of these represent the actual budget, and no financial documents are available for 2016-2017.

At the June 14 council meeting, El Alaoui told members the CSU website will be “revamped” and, for that reason, the budget for website external labour is “going way up.” For 2017-18, the CSU doubled the previous budget for external labour, from $10,000 to $20,000. El Alaoui said the CSU wants to make the website more user-friendly and accessible.

He said he also plans to write up a document explaining every aspect of the budget, and make it available to the student body. He would like the CSU to publish a budget similar to the one put out by the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU), the McGill student association. The SSMU budget is 18 pages and offers clarifications for all the elements mentioned in the document.

 

This article has been updated for accuracy and clarity with regards to the fact that amortization and depreciation costs are not taken into account in the budget presented to the CSU council. The Concordian regrets the error.

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Pregnant Concordia student, Bissan Eid, prevented from leaving Gaza

Photo by Nelly Serandour-Amar.

Bissan’s father joined a Concordia professor and CSU official to discuss her circumstances and next steps

Concordia University held a press conference to discuss the circumstances and future of Bissan Eid, a pregnant Concordia student who has been stuck in Gaza for four months awaiting Israeli permission to leave, on Thursday, April 13.

The press conference, which was moderated by journalist Stefan Christoff, featured speakers Rami Yahia, the Concordia Student Union (CSU) internal affairs coordinator, Norma Rantisi, a professor in Concordia’s geography department and Hadi Eid, Bissan’s father. The three speakers made statements regarding Bissan’s circumstances, and laid out their plan of action.

According to Hadi, his 24-year-old daughter went to Gaza, where she was born, in June 2016 to visit family and get married. Under Israeli law, all citizens must obtain an exit permit from the Israeli government in order to leave, regardless of citizenship. Hadi said his daughter, who has been a Canadian citizen since 2005, first applied for the permit four months ago, but has yet to be approved. He claimed she has not been informed as to why she is being denied the permit.

Bissan is working towards her master’s degree in civil engineering, and is currently eight months pregnant. Hadi said Bissan wants to return to Canada before her due date in May, both to ensure she is surrounded by her loved ones and that she has the best possible medical care.

However, since she is in her third trimester, there is a high probability airlines will not allow her to fly for health reasons. Yet, Hadi said, if Bissan is given an exit permit, she will at least be able to give birth in Jordan, where he claims the medical care is better than in Gaza.

“Doctors have said that it is a difficult pregnancy,” Eid said. “If airlines deny her, that’s one thing … but we would prefer for her be in Canada to give birth.”

Efforts to bring Bissan home include a petition calling for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to intervene in the situation, and a social media campaign using the hashtag #BringBissanHome intended to raise public awareness about Bissan’s situation and put pressure on the Canadian government to act.

The CSU has posted on their website a list of ways Concordia students can help support Bissan. The list includes a link to the Change.org petition to be sent to Justin Trudeau, a letter template students can use to mail to their provincial and federal MPs, and Concordia President Alan Shepard’s contact information which can be used to implore him to play an active role in calling for the government to help Bissan. The CSU has also asked students to share Bissan’s story on social media to increase awareness and support.

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Concordia Student Union News

CSU holds special council meeting to approve expenses

Council approves to allocate funds for renovations and new IT Software

The Concordia Student Union (CSU) held a special council meeting on April 5 to discuss a motion regarding renovations to the seventh floor of the Hall building and a motion to approve the financing of an IT transition from the software company VMWare IT to Google Apps.

Aloyse Muller, the CSU’s external affairs and mobilization coordinator, motioned to have the CSU council approve an expense of $25,300 for the Student Space, Accessible Education and Legal Contingency fund (SSAELC) to renovate the CSU’s legal information clinic and the seventh-floor lounge.

Muller presented a powerpoint, which included graphics to give an idea of what the final product would be following the renovations. According to him, the entrance of the legal information clinic will have a window added on the side, which will make the clinic more welcoming. As for the CSU student lounge, the space will be rewired to become a multimedia-friendly space that students can use for student-run events and presentations.

CSU’s coordinators and executives during the special council meeting. Photo by Nelly Sérandour-Amar

CSU finance coordinator Thomas David-Bashore motioned to have the council approve the allocation of $32,848.70 to transition their IT structure from VMWare to Google Apps. In his motion, it was also specified that the hardware costs, which are estimated at $27,557.09, would be spent over a period of five years.

According to David-Bashore, the current CSU IT infrastructure, which hosts their website and CSU e-mails, isn’t user-friendly and comes with technological glitches which compromise the CSU’s capacity to operate efficiently. According to David-Bashore, it is a good investment, since the hardware would last many years.

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News

The Concordia Student Union’s brand new council of executives

Graphic by Florence Yee

Newly-elected coordinators discuss their plans for the next school year

The Concordia Student Union (CSU) has a new council of executives for the 2017-2018 school year.

The elected students are Omar Riaz (general coordinator), Leyla Sutherland (student life coordinator), Soulaymane Al Alaoui (finance coordinator), Devon Ellis-Durity (sustainability coordinator), Maria Gabriela Polanco (Loyola coordinator), Veronika Rydzewski (internal affairs coordinator), Asma Mushtaq (academic and advocacy coordinator) and Ahmed Badr (external affairs and mobilization coordinator).

Riaz, Al Alaoui and Rydzewski took the time to speak with The Concordian about their upcoming mandate and projects within the CSU.

The incoming general coordinator has been involved in student politics for as long as he can remember. “I remember being a student ambassador in elementary school, which is when I got interested in being involved in the decision-making process that affects students and everyone around,” Riaz said. This passion continued in CEGEP, where he became president of the Vanier College Student Association during his second year. “For my time as president with my team, we were able to accomplish great things that are still incorporated at the CEGEP,” he said.

Omar Riaz (general coordinator) Photo courtesy of Omar Riaz.

Riaz joined the CSU team this year as a councilor, while also sitting on Concordia’s Senate. “My experience has been positive enough that I wanted to stay with the CSU. I think they do a lot of great things,” he said. “I also think that you have to be part of the decision-making to help make a change.”

For the upcoming school year, Riaz said he is aiming for more transparency. “I think that everything we do and decide should be available to students,” he said. He intends to create a new Facebook account dedicated to publishing CSU-related content, such as finances and summaries of meetings. “The CSU has an account already, but it’s just to make it more personal towards the students,” Riaz said. He also mentioned he would be holding Facebook Live events in order to answer students’ questions and concerns.

“[During the campaign], the first Facebook Live we did was in a staircase, which shows that no matter where we are, we will make ourselves accessible to the students,” Riaz said.

He and Al Alaoui, along with Polanco and Badr, originally ran together as part of Team Embrace ConU, but both said they are absolutely looking forward to working with members of Team Connect. “I am more than happy to support them and help them accomplish their goals,” Riaz said, adding that he no longer represents Team Embrace ConU, but rather all of the students at Concordia.

Soulaymane Al Alaoui (finance coordinator) Photo courtesy of Omar Riaz.

Al Alaoui said win or lose, he and Riaz want to speak with everyone who ran about their platforms. “Everyone has their ideas of what makes things better,” he said. He plans on meeting with the other candidates to implement their ideas. “It would be a shame for these ideas to go to waste. We want to foster the idea that, even if you lose an election, your ideas don’t end there.”

The newly-elected finance coordinator has already contacted the current finance coordinator, Thomas David-Bashore, to learn about the position in more detail when it comes to budgeting and finances in general within the CSU. “I just want to have a better understanding and take his insight, to grow the position, if you will. Tweak it to make it better,” Al Alaoui said.

He also plans on working alongside the Senate. “They are the highest academic body at Concordia, and we have the same goals to make everything better,” he said. “It wouldn’t make sense for there not to be a collaboration.”

Veronika Rydzewski (internal affairs coordinator) Photo by Ana Hernandez.

Rydzewski, who was originally part of the Team Connect alongside Sutherland, Ellis-Durity, and Mushtag, said she is “excited to be working with [Riaz] and [Al Alaoui]. I think that when you look at their platforms and their campaign, they did a wonderful job.”

Rydzewski is currently a CSU councillor, and sits on the student life committee, the clubs committee and the policy committee. “As internal affairs coordinator, I will help out students with their clubs by improving them, and also I will be bringing new clubs,” she said. “I plan to create more student spaces on campus as well.” She also insisted it was important that students participated in the elections and said she is grateful for everyone who voted. “I encourage students to get informed in any ways that they can,” she said.

The Concordian also asked Riaz about his thoughts on the sanctuary campus referendum question that passed. “I think the CSU did a great job this year when the [Canadian Border Services Agency] was on campus. [The CSU] questioned them and found out what was going on and why they were there. I would love to continue to increase our efforts into making both campuses safe,” he said.

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News

UPDATED: Official Results: Concordia Student Union elections

Graphic by Florence Yee

CSU CEO announces the official results to the elections this morning

UPDATED:

The official results for the Concordia Student Union elections were posted on the CSU CEO’s Facebook page this morning. According to Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Stephani Moukhaiber, 1076 students voted.

The executives elected for the school year 2017-2018 are:

  • Omar Riaz (general coordinator)
  • Leyla Sutherland (student life coordinator)
  • Soulaymane Al Alaoui (finance coordinator)
  • Devon Ellis-Durity (sustainability coordinator)
  • Maria Gabriela Polanco (Loyola coordinator)
  • Veronika Rydzewski (internal affairs coordinator)
  • Asma Mushtaq (academic and advocacy coordinator)
  • Ahmed Badr (external affairs and mobilization coordinator)

Riaz, Al Alaoui, Polanco and Badr were all running as part of Team Embrace ConU.

Sutherland, Ellis-Durity, Rydzewski and Mushtag were running within Team Connect.

All referendum questions also officially passed. Students agreed for the council of executives to have non-hierarchal positions, meaning that the general coordinator will have the same authority as the other coordinators. Students also voted for Concordia University to become a sanctuary campus, meaning that the student body will not be collaborating with the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) to give out information on any past and current faculty, staff and students.

The fee levy proposals for the fall semester of 2017 which passed include:

  • A decrease in the CSU Clubs fee of six cents per credit
  • An increase in the CSU operating fee of five cents per credit
  • An increase in the undergraduate Housing and Job Bank (HOJO) fee of three cents per credit
  • An increase in the Advocacy fee of two cents per credit
  • An increase in the Concordia Greenhouse fee by 12 cents per credit for undergraduate students
  • A decrease in the Student Space Accessible Education and Legal Contingency (SSAELC) fee of four cents per credit.
  • To transfer four cents per credit from the Student Space Accessible Education and Legal Contingency (SSAELC) fee to the CSU Operating fee to pay for the operations of the Dish Project. This project is a student-run service at Concordia that provides free dishware to student and community around Concordia.

The Concordia Student Union have also been mandated after the elections to work with the Concordia University Administration towards integrating sustainability and indigenous studies courses in all undergraduate programs.

ORIGINAL:

The unofficial results for the new Concordia Student Union (CSU) representatives were published this morning on the CSU’s newly-elected Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Facebook page.

The  executives elected are:

  • Omar Riaz (general coordinator)
  • Leyla Sutherland (student life coordinator)
  • Soulaymane Al Alaoui (finance coordinator)
  • Devon Ellis-Durity (sustainability coordinator)
  • Maria Gabriela Polanco (Loyola coordinator)
  • Veronika Rydzewski (internal affairs coordinator)
  • Asma Mushtaq (academic and advocacy coordinator)
  • Ahmed Badr (external affairs and mobilization coordinator)

The results are deemed unofficial due to the winning margins being by less than 50 votes. Due to this, the votes will be subjected to a recount in the presence of the CSU’s judicial board.

For the referendum question, “Do you, as a member of the CSU, approve of the by-law changes that will render the executives to a more non-hierarchical structure?” the majority voted yes. Since the vote passed, the new council will be acting as a non-hierarchal union.

Approved fee levy changes include (as of fall 2017):

  • An increase of the fee levy for the Concordia Greenhouse by 12 cents per credit
  • A decrease in the CSU clubs fee by six cents per credit
  • An increase in the CSU operating fee by five cents per credit
  • An increase in the undergraduate Housing and Job Bank (HOJO) fee by three cents per credit
  • An increase in the advocacy fee by two cents per credit
  • A decrease in the Student Space, Accessible Education and Legal Contingency (SSAELC) fee by four cents per credit

In addition, both Concordia campuses will officially adopt the “Sanctuary Campus” status, meaning the university will not disclose any information about its current or past staff, faculty or students to the Canadian Border Services Agency, to protect them from the threat of deportation.

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Concordia Student Union News

Meeting the candidates of CSU Elections

Team Connect for CSU

Concordians will vote for their next CSU representatives on March 28, 29 and 30

Undergraduate students from the university will be able to cast their vote on either campus for their new Concordia Student Union representatives between March 28 and 30. Most candidates are teaming up to bring their mutual ideas to life. The Concordian spoke to them about their plans.

Connect for CSU

Team Connect for CSU (pictured above) consists of Asma Mushtaq, Alex Milton, Marcus Peters, Devon Leigh Ellis-Durity, Leyla Sutherland, Veronika Rydzewski, Mustafa Bokesmati and Thomas David-Bashore. The team believes they have a very strong platform that speaks to the immediate needs of students. Projects such as updating the CSU website and advocating for international students are very important to them. Divesting and reinvesting in sustainability is also one of their main focuses. “Our projects will improve student life while continuing to implement sustainable and transparent practices within the union and updating documents and practices so that we are able to better serve students,” the team told The Concordian. The team plans to advocate for international students on campus, and prevent future tuition hikes. They hope to improve student engagement within the union by having stronger, more accessible and transparent communication with students.

Team Unity

Amina Chemssy

Team Unity for CSU consists of two candidates so far: Eddy Kara, who is running for the position of general coordinator, and Amina Chemssy, who is running for the internal affairs coordinator position. The duo believe diversity is an essential part of Concordia’s student community. “It is important to welcome and be open to diverse insights and opinions,” they told The Concordian. “Only together can we achieve things for Concordia.” They plan on putting a Social Transparency Plan into effect, which they said will help with communication between students and the CSU. They will also put forward an Act of Concordian Equality which will ensure they are inclusive to all students at the school—everyone will be treated as equals. They also want to build trust between the CSU and students. They will do this by creating different projects to motivate students to believe in their own future. They hope to strengthen relations between the student organizations.

 

 

Agunik Mamikonyan

Agunik Mamikonyan

Agunik Mamikonyan is running as an independent candidate for the general coordinator position. “I didn’t want to make this election too political by being in a team,” she said. “I really want to make it about the students.” With the experience she has attained over the last few years, including being the general secretary for the School of Community and Public Affairs Students’ Association (SCPASA) and currently holding the position of vice-president of external and sustainability for the Arts and Science Federation of Associations (ASFA), she believes she is qualified for the position. “The role I had with the SCPASA definitely helped me with building my leadership role. I can offer direction, facilitation and I guarantee that my team will be well-organized,” she said. Mamikonyan wants to be further involved with the co-op housings, and bring more diversity and structure to the student union. If elected, Mamikonyan said she will be transparent and dedicated to her work, her team and all students.

 

 

Embrace Con U

Embrace ConU

Embrace ConU consists of candidates Omar Riaz, Soulaymane Al Alaoui, Gabriella Polanco, Carlos Vasquez, D’Anté Hanna, Émilie Leduc and Ahmed Badr. The group of students came together with the goal of representing all students from the Concordia Student Union.“What makes us stand out is that we have a big stance on the lack of [faculty] representation in the CSU. We believe that, for the last three years, for example, the students from the John Molson School of Business have not been represented well by the student union,” said Al Alaoui, who is running for the position of finance coordinator. Embrace ConU is focused on three particular projects, which they call “pillars.” First off, the team has a strong focus on students and wants to make the university a more welcoming space for students by funding more clubs, student projects and faculty associations. The second pillar focuses on the university community and creating a sense of belonging for everyone at Concordia through different events and ensuring more open communication with heads of departments about student needs. Finally, the group plans to concentrate on economic and ecological sustainability, and building partnerships that will help the CSU grow, according to the team.

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Opinions

Concordia’s plight against HIV

Graphic by Florence Yee

This past week, students and staff were able to get tested for HIV at the Concordia Student Union (CSU) office on the seventh floor of the Hall building. A rapid HIV testing clinic was set up with the help of the CSU, the Concordia University Psychology Association (CUPA), Queer Concordia and Concordia Health Services. This is the second testing session put together by these organizations.

For this test, a certified nurse takes a prick of blood from your finger and, using a special kit, can tell you whether or not you are HIV positive or negative. The whole process, which takes around 20 minutes, includes going over your risks and sexual history, and the nurses can give you advice on how to improve or continue your safe sex practices. If the result comes back positive, the nurses would be able to put you in contact with various HIV-related resources in the city of Montreal as well as provide psychological support.

While we understand that many students might have been wary about getting tested at school, we think this issue is critical, and we applaud all four organizations that facilitated this testing clinic.

Let’s face it, students are sexually active while they’re in university and many are not properly educated when it comes to having safe sex and HIV prevention. In Canada, one in five people with HIV are unaware they’re HIV positive, according to Community AIDS Treatment Information Exchange (CATIE). Over one-quarter of all new HIV diagnoses in 2015 were in youth, according to the same source.

The Globe and Mail reported in 2014 that a person is infected with HIV every three hours in this country. In Saskatchewan the rate is nearly three times higher the national average, with 71.4 per cent of cases happening because of intravenous drug use. These figures are absolutely startling to say the least, and reveal the challenges our society has in addressing the epidemic.

One key role these rapid testing sessions fulfill is to help fight against the taboo of HIV. HIV and those who are HIV-positive face a lot of stigma, even criminalization, for having this virus. According to Sarah Schulman’s book, Conflict is Not Abuse, Canada was the country in the world to charge someone with murder for transmitting the disease. This country’s harsh criminal pursuit of HIV-positive individuals actually creates a fear around being tested. By making the testing process public and providing students accurate information about HIV, this project at Concordia helps dispel misinformation and allows the community to better understand and face HIV head-on.

Although we’ve come a long way in terms of scientific research and awareness, we need to press further and forge a discussion. We applaud the CSU, CUPA, Queer Concordia and Concordia Health Services for being progressive and open-minded about this issue and we encourage the school to hold more rapid clinics. We also encourage the student body to get tested for HIV and to properly educate themselves on safer sex practices and harm-reduction strategies like needle exchanges, which help reduce new cases of HIV. If we’re to eliminate HIV/AIDS in the near future, it’s time we start tackling this issue head on and minimize the risk of this virus being transmitted.

Contact Concordia Health Services to get tested for HIV or to speak with a medical specialist.

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