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Concordia Student Union News

CSU president steps down

Photo by Madelayne Hajek
Photo by Madelayne Hajek

Story updated, click here to read more.

President Schubert Laforest officially stepped down from the Concordia Student Union citing health reasons Thursday night.

Laforest told The Concordian that due to a case of mononucleosis, he could no longer continue his duties as president of the CSU.

“This is really the only option,” said Laforest. “It’s just irresponsible for me to put myself at risk and put the CSU at risk by staying in that position — I have to put the wellbeing of the CSU before that.”

The executive discussed other options but Laforest said it was ultimately his resignation that would be best for the union and stated that it was the “hardest decision of his life.”

The resignation will be officially effective as of Tuesday, Feb. 12 at 5 p.m. so that Laforest can have the opportunity to tie up some loose ends of unfinished projects such as the ongoing information technology services issues and the search for a new general manager.

A new president will be appointed next Wednesday evening during the CSU’s regular council meeting. The executive agreed that VP internal and clubs Nadine Atallah would be best suited to fulfill the role of president issued in a letter by Laforest.

“I have already begun finalizing all the critical files I have been working on, after which, I hope Nadine Atallah, current VP Clubs and Internal Affairs, will take over my position and all my responsibilities with council’s approval. The team and I are very confident in her abilities to lead the union and to carry on with the team of executives through the remainder of the year,” the letter read.

Bylaw 7.4 states a simply majority from council must appoint a new president from the remaining vice-presidents and that should no vice-presidents take on the role, that a councillor may fulfill the position of president provided a two-thirds majority vote from council.

The executive issued a statement regarding Laforest’s resignation saying they were “saddened” he was leaving the team.

“Obviously, we’re very grateful to Schubert for all he’s done this year, including all the long nights and rough days. Struggling with health issues recently, he’s still stayed strong in his conviction to serving the Concordia Student Union, leading us as a team and helping us individually with our mandates,” the letter read.

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Winter orientation gets cold shoulder

The Concordia Student Union’s winter orientation consisted of a week of activities tasked by VP student life that many felt fell flat due to poor advertising and organization.

Although various events stretched out through the week at both campuses, including a sugar shack, Cultural Night and a night at Igloofest with the CSU, Mia Nesto, a first-year student claims she wasn’t aware of the winter orientation and if she had known about it, she would have attended.

“I may have seen signs at school but they did not catch my attention,” said Nesto. “I didn’t see any Facebook events about it either.”

This was also the case with second-year human relations student, Sabrina Marchei.

“They didn’t advertise the winter orientation enough,” said Marchei. “I don’t think I heard a lot about it at all.”

Former VP external Chad Walcott believes that although VP student life Alexis Suzuki brought in interesting ideas for the orientations this year, both initiatives were largely under-advertised.

“Orientation was not a success this year because it failed to reach students or create any real atmosphere on campus,” Walcott said.

Suzuki, on the other hand, said she believes that the winter orientation went well. She feels some events turned out better than others but claims the last two events were a hit with the couple hundred people who turned up.

“I got really sick during orientation, it was really tough for me to keep moving and I did as much as I could while I was ill,” Suzuki said. “I think there’s always things we could’ve done better but we did the best that we could.”

First-year student Meghan Birch, who attended several events last week, agrees with Walcott.

“I found it to be quite disorganized actually,” Birch said. “All the events I went to started late and the organizers were rushing around to get stuff done once they had already started.”

Walcott claimed he made suggestions about advertising and how to effectively use student media to spread the word about the events but was ignored. CSU Councillor Melissa Kate Wheeler stated that she contacted Suzuki to be put on the volunteer list for the orientation but was not put on.

Communication confusion

Last year’s VP student life Laura Glover claimed that she offered her full assistance to Suzuki after training her for the position but states that Suzuki never took up the offer.

However, Suzuki said “she never offered her assistance for winter orientation” and stated that she hasn’t heard from Glover in a long time.

“Instead of attempting to explain what her difficulties have been or even face the criticisms that we have put forth, she has chosen to avoid the issues and seems quite content to let her executive take the heat for her lack of performance,” Walcott said.

VP Loyola, Stefan Faina claims that the turnout at the Loyola campus was a success but that there is always room for improvement. “I personally would’ve liked a little more advertising,” Faina said. “I wish we could’ve had a greater variety of events.” He states that although some events couldn’t happen, they still had the chance to do the ice sculpturing and serve a large population of students as he planned.

Walcott went on to emphasize that part of Suzuki’s mandate as VP student life is to submit a post-mortem orientation report. He claims that council asked her to submit a revised report. In response to their request of a re-write, Suzuki stated she would submit a “how-to guide” on June 1, 2013, while the mandate of CSU executive ends May 31. When Walcott expressed to Suzuki that June would be too late, her response was that she would only submit it then.

Walcott claims that at the next council meeting, he will bring forth questions about the winter orientation as well.

“Part of being in executive is being accountable, and right now [Suzuki] is demonstrating very little will to be accountable,” said Walcott.

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A violation that led to a resignation

Councillor Ramy Khoriaty officially resigned from the Concordia Student Union less than an hour before a Judicial Board hearing following an allegedly unintentional violation of the standing regulations.

During the last regular council meeting, Councillor Chad Walcott brought forth the issue of Khoriaty’s employment as orientation director for the CSU’s two-week long orientation that starts off each school year.

The standing regulation 225 states that a member of council is eligible for disqualification for six reasons, one of which is being hired after they took office as a councillor. Khoriaty was elected in March 2012 and the current slate and councillors’ mandate began in June. Upon being hired by the CSU as orientation director, Khoriaty violated standing regulation 225, article C.

Khoriaty stated in his letter that he stepped down because “under no circumstance should the standing regulations be broken” and that he wanted to lead by example since he was in fact in violation of the rules that govern the CSU.

“… I would like to apologize to my constituencies and assure them that as ENCS councillor, my objective was only ever to use experience I’ve gained from my previous job as executive to try to improve the events of the student union; my actions were always in good faith,” the letter read.

Regardless of Khoriaty’s resignation, the JB still held a meeting to discuss standing regulation 225 and the position of orientation director during fall 2012.

Those present included Khoriaty, Walcott, VP internal Nadine Atallah and VP external Simon-Pierre Lauzon. The executives who interviewed Khoriaty for job of orientation director were not present. According to Khoriaty, the interview was conducted by VP student life Alexis Suzuki, VP Loyola Stefan Faina and VP sustainability Andrew Roberts, and possibly President Schubert Laforest.

It came to light during the meeting that Khoriaty was interviewed for the position on June 23 and that his last paycheque from the CSU was on Oct. 11; although he was unable to confirm, Khoriaty believes he received $470 every two weeks as a salary.

As Walcott confirmed he knew of the violation in October, he explained that he was waiting to bring the issue to the policy committee. When Khoriaty questioned why Walcott did not address the issue of Councillor Jordan Lindsay’s potential violation of the same standing regulation, Walcott simply replied that he voted against Lindsay’s appointment to oversee ongoing issues with the CSU’s information technology services.

“It was all in good faith and I never meant to take advantage of that position,” said Khoriaty. “One week before council I had no clue about standing regulation 225; neither did any of the councillors.”

When asked by JB if a hiring committee, which are often static, would be aware of Khoriaty’s position on council, Atallah confirmed that those interviewing applicants would have been aware.

While JB questioned the roles of the individuals in charge of interviewing and hiring students for jobs at the CSU, Khoriaty said he felt that the standing regulation severely limited the pool of applicants for any future volunteer or paid position.

“This is a waste of experience,” said Khoriaty.

Following the hearing, JB issued a provisional decision and recommendations regarding Khoriaty’s violation and the CSU’s hiring policy.

JB addressed the need for clarification of the word “employee” in the standing regulations and was concerned with the hiring process of students by the CSU including the lack of written formal procedure for the recruiting of non-unionized and unionized positions. Furthermore, JB formally reprimanded the individuals involved in the contracting of Khoriaty as orientation director.

“The CSU Judicial Board formally reprimands all those persons involved in the hiring of Rami Khoriaty, including both the orientation hiring committee and Rami Khoriaty, for violating standing regulation 225 C,” the provisional notice read.

Lastly, JB recommended that all councillors and executives take the time to read and understand the CSU bylaws and standing regulations in order to avoid such discrepancies in the near future.

With files from Robin Della Corte.

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Rules, regulations and red tape

Confusion over the Concordia Student Union’s bylaws and standing regulations has left council in an awkward position when it comes to enforcing its own rules.

Standing regulations

During a regular meeting Wednesday, it came to light that student representatives violated the CSU’s standing regulations when executives appointed Councillor Ramy Khoriaty as orientation director. In that position, Khoriaty was in charge of organizing Concordia’s two-week long frosh event that kicks off the start of every school year.

According to the CSU’s standing regulations, article 225 states that a member of council is subject to disqualification for six outstanding reasons. Councillors Chad Walcott and Melissa Kate Wheeler explained that Khoriaty broke article 225 when he took his position of orientation director. Point E states that a member of council must resign:

“If he or she becomes an employee of the student union after taking office,” standing regulations read.

Khoriaty is a former executive, who served as VP finance during the 2010-2011 academic year and, under standing regulations, cannot technically be employed by the CSU following his mandate.

Three executives of the A Better Concordia slate interviewed Khoriaty, apparently without realizing his employment was in violation of the standing regulations. VP Loyola Stefan Faina, VP sustainability Andrew Roberts and VP student life Alexis Suzuki interviewed him initially.

“I have to apologize that we missed that important standing regulation,” said Roberts. “But [Khoriaty] has experience and lots of knowledge.”

Council was torn over what to do despite the implications of the breach of rules. Walcott explained that while it may not directly be Khoriaty’s fault, council had to either follow its standing regulations or “ignore” them.

“This is the time to enforce the bylaws and not send it to the policy committee,” said Walcott. “All of these people should have known the standing regulations and bylaws.”

Councillor James Vaccaro expressed his disdain at the oversight and stressed the importance of reading and knowing the rules that keep council in check.

“This is the ultimate example of how this can go wrong if we don’t know our own rules,” said Vaccaro. “The CSU has failed its students.”

Since council was at an impasse over the potential to force Khoriaty to resign, the Judicial Board will take on the case and render a decision.

Councillor and former VP finance, Jordan Lindsay, resigned from overseeing a project for the CSU Wednesday in order to avoid the same situation. Council initially appointed Lindsay to address ongoing issues with the student association’s information technology services.

CSU bylaws

During the meeting, members of the Fine Arts Student Alliance and the Engineering and Computer Science Association emphasized that there was little communication going on between their associations and the CSU.

Council remained divided over Suzuki’s involvement with student faculty associations, an activity that is loosely mandated in the VP student life’s duties in the CSU’s bylaws under article 7.12.

“The vice-president student life is responsible for the organizing of student orientation and the major events related to student life on campus,” reads the bylaw. “The vice-president is also the liaison for faculty associations.”

While Suzuki was not present for the meeting, it became apparent that certain councillors feel she is not performing her duties to the best of her abilities, following a failed motion to appoint a liaison between FASA and the CSU. Councillor Veryan Goodship emphasized that Suzuki already neglected her mandate prior to Walcott suggesting a “dereliction of duties” which implies a failure to fulfill responsibilities.

Furthermore, while council solved the incomplete bylaw 10.2 regarding membership status, the bylaw itself wasn’t adhered to. The bylaw states that the chairperson of the CSU must verify the student status of the representatives and executives of the student union every semester. Chair Jean-François Ouellet failed to submit his report by the first meeting following the Did Not Enter date at Concordia. Ouellet did inform council that the verification would be completed for the upcoming meeting in February.

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Fine Arts representation still unresolved

An attempt by the Concordia Student Union to fix the lack of Fine Arts representation on council fell flat last Wednesday when it was discovered that the solution in question would violate the union’s own bylaws.

Proposed by CSU President Schubert Laforest, who was absent from the meeting due to illness, the motion would have allowed student faculty associations to appoint a representative to council if both annual general elections and byelections passed but resulted in no student filling any of the seats reserved for that faculty. This was the case after byelections in November left all Fine Arts seats empty on council.

Despite having been checked beforehand by the policy committee and discussed with the Fine Arts Student Alliance executives (some of whom attended the meeting on Wednesday), council quickly realized that the motion would be impossible to allow without violating bylaw 9.3.1 which states that vacant seats can only be filled through a byelection — a fact that left the FASA representatives unimpressed.

FASA VP clubs and services Erika Couto, who first brought the issue to light with a petition she brought to council following the November byelections, was not pleased that council shot down the proposed solution and then moved to suspend the issue indefinitely.

“We’re very angry,” she said. “This points to bigger problems within the CSU’s functioning.”

Couto also said that another byelection would have to be held to allow some Fine Arts representation on council or risk violating the CSU’s bylaws. Bylaw 6.2.1 states that council composition must consist of two representatives from each faculty.

Some councillors, such as Carlotta Longo, suggested that a byelection would be too expensive considering how little time there is left in the academic year.

After a fierce debate, council came to a motion that would allow three Fine Arts representatives to have ex-officio rights on council, which would allow them to sit in on closed sessions but not vote as council members do.

The motion will need to be voted on at the next FASA meeting before it can be accepted or declined.

Councillor Ramy Khoriaty told The Concordian that while the initial solution Laforest brought to council wasn’t viable, he considered the compromise to be the best possible solution.

“We’re having a lot of issues with councillors and executives not knowing the standing regulations properly. It was a mistake for [Laforest] to put forward a motion that was against the standing regulations, but I’m sure that he didn’t know that it was,” Khoriaty said. “The solution that we introduced after was a reasonable one. It was legal and in my opinion, it was the best that we can offer them.”

Khoriaty was also unhappy with the way that FASA approached the meeting, claiming that they blamed the CSU for the situation when it was caused by a lack of interest in the open position.

“I don’t know why people are so scared of saying it, but there was a position open, and nobody ran for it,” he said. “It’s true there were some problems with the other positions, but there was a position open. When it’s so important for them to have representation, somebody needs to run. If there was no position open I would totally understand, but there was a position open.”

In a statement to student media on monday, FASA VP Internal Communications Jessica Gilbert said that the solution proposed at council may not be a viable one.

“My personal understanding of policy is that by-laws cannot be changed in Council and therefore while this is a good idea for the future it does not fix the issue at hand,” she said.

Iain Meyer-Macaulay, a Fine Arts student who attended the meeting, said that overall he felt the meeting went as well as it could have, but that he was also disappointed with the outcome of Laforest’s motion.

“It is important to know the laws which govern your organization especially if you’re sitting at the top,” Meyer-Macaulay said. “When the resolution is presented, by proxy, and is illegal and impossible to implement, it sets a dangerous precedent. It also surprises me that it was the FASA reps who ended up bringing this up in council.”

Meyer-Macaulay also said that his expectations for the solution proposed to FASA were not high.

“The ghost seats are a compromise,” said Meyer-Macaulay. “They are a result of our original grievance falling on deaf ears, and a hasty ‘solution’ being pulled out of the tension in the air when we finally demanded some action out of the CSU in regards to our original grievance.”

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Students voice opinions at town hall

Photo by Madelayne Hajek
Photo by Madelayne Hajek

The Concordia Student Union held a town hall meeting with guest speakers Monday night, about the much-anticipated education summit that will take place at the end of February.

The CSU wanted to facilitate an open conversation about four major themes that will be discussed at the summit next month, and what quality of education means to Concordia students.

“Now it’s an opportunity for students to voice their vision on universities,” said VP external Simon-Pierre Lauzon of the CSU.

The four main topics that will be discussed at the summit are quality of education, accessibility of education, governance and finance, and research and contribution to society. These main themes were the main points on the agenda to discuss throughout the town hall meeting.

Lauzon stated in the meeting that he has decided to hold an online vote before the summit so that students can vote on different student perspectives and choose the views which best represent them. The website itself is not yet online.

Lauzon clarified that this meeting wasn’t just an information session, but to hear students’ opinions and to incorporate their ideas into what will be brought to the summit.

The floor was open, allowing students to ask questions or raise discussion points throughout the meeting.

“In my opinion, education should be accessible for everyone in Quebec,” Lauzon said.

The topic of having accessible education came up several times, in regards to the rights of students with disabilities, gender, race, age and financial state.

The Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec President Martine Desjardins was one of the guest speakers at the meeting. Desjardins discussed the pressure she is putting on the government with her concerns on tuition and the quality of education.

“We are not in favour for inflammation. We want the government to set back from their position and realize they can’t keep asking students to pay more and pay without a proper evaluation,” Desjardins said.

She went on to say that Concordia students aren’t represented enough through the Board of Governors, which she sees as a major issue.

Lauzon stated that for the next eight days he will be campaigning and open to hear student ideas on a range of topics.

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Concordia has strength in numbers

The Concordia Student Union and the Canadian Federation of Students are back at it again.

The CSU called a special meeting last Wednesday to address the ongoing lawsuit between it and the CFS, the nation’s largest student association that works at a federal level.

The meeting, with a brief introduction from former CSU President Lex Gill, was conducted in closed session to discuss the potential joining of the separate cases filed by the CSU and the university’s Graduate Students’ Association against the CFS.

Both student groups have been trying to leave the CFS unsuccessfully for years, resulting in a slew of accusations from the CFS that both the CSU and the GSA owe unpaid and mounting dues.

On Friday, Jan. 11, the GSA unanimously voted in favour of collaborating with the CSU pending the undergraduate association’s approval.

CSU President Schubert Laforest said the CFS has been notified of the motion.

“After a lengthy discussion where council weighed the pros and potential cons of joining the cases, council decided unanimously to join the cases,” said Laforest. “The CFS is aware of this but we haven’t gotten any response about it as of yet.”

This Wednesday, a motion will be brought before the courts to allow the merging of the two cases against the CFS so they can be tried at the same time.

In March 2010, the CSU held a referendum where an overwhelming percentage of students voted to leave the CFS. The association in turn claimed the process was illegitimate and barred the CSU from leaving. Similarly, when students voted for the departure of the GSA from the CFS in April 2010, the CFS refused to acknowledge the referendum.

Approximately a year later following failed negotiations, the CSU filed a lawsuit for the organization to officially recognize the results and allow them to leave.

In response, the CFS countered with their own lawsuit against the CSU in early 2012, claiming that the union that governs the undergraduate student body owed them close to $2 million in unpaid fees. Since 2010, the CFS has been claiming that the student association have an obligation to pay $1 million.

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A motion to ensure Fine Arts representation

Photo by Madelayne Hajek
Photo by Madelayne Hajek

A motion due to be proposed at the upcoming meeting of the Concordia Student Union will attempt to resolve the lack of representation on council for Fine Arts students, one week after the Fine Arts Student Association met to discuss possible responses to the situation.

At their first meeting of the year, FASA debated possible actions to be taken in response to the lack of representation on the CSU.

Where the faculty would normally have three representatives, a recent byelection in which no Fine Arts student ran and two councillors were forced to resign means that Fine Arts students have been left with no one to represent their interests on council. In late October, Laura Glover, a councillor and former VP student life and sustainability, stepped down citing a heavy workload as her reason for leaving.

At the meeting, FASA VP clubs and services Erika Couto brought up the issue and opened the floor to possible suggestions. Executives and councillors expressed a variety of responses, including informing Fine Arts students of the situation via newsletter, attempting to withdraw themselves from the CSU in protest and even the possibility of seeking the impeachment of certain councillors.

Finally it was decided that members of FASA would attend the CSU’s next regular meeting to raise the issue and voice their concerns. The executive would also invite VP internal and clubs Nadine Atallah to attend FASA’s next regular meeting to help explain why the byelections were not better advertised to Fine Arts students, a factor that led to no candidates running for the one seat available.

On Thursday, however, CSU President Schubert Laforest contacted Couto to explain that a meeting had been held to come up with possible solutions, and that after consulting with the policy committee, one had been decided on.

Laforest explained that the idea involved changing the standing regulations of the CSU in order to allow the faculty to appoint a representative to council in the event that no student from that faculty is sitting on council.

“Basically it would be to add a new stipulation to the Senate regulations whereby in the event that after both annual general elections there was still no faculty representation from any given faculty, the corresponding faculty association would be given the ability submit someone to be appointed to council to represent the faculty,” he said.

Laforest explained that the way a representative would be chosen was left purposefully vague, to allow the student faculty association freedom to decide the matter in their own way without any involvement from the CSU.

“It’s not for the CSU to impose precisely how that ends up being chosen, that’s for the faculty association to determine themselves,” Laforest said. “They are independant and it would be a step too far if the CSU were to dictate how exactly that would happen.”

The motion, which is due to be discussed and voted on at the upcoming CSU meeting this Wednesday, would allow for some kind of representation for Fine Arts students on council, a fact that Couto says she welcomes.

“I think that [Laforest]’s proposal is a good one,” she said. “As students, we all deserve the opportunity to be a part of the CSU’s framework, and this will hopefully help alleviate this ever happening to any faculty in the future. I really appreciate the effort that he took to get in touch with me and make sure that it was a reasonable solution not just for us but for the future of the CSU and Concordia students at large.”

Couto also said that many FASA executives had reacted positively to the proposal, and that they would attend the upcoming meeting to see the motion debated.

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The CEO of the Concordia Student Union resigns

The Concordia Student Union is officially looking for a new chief electoral officer following the resignation of Justin Holland early Monday.

Citing personal reasons, Holland will not be taking courses at Concordia University during the winter semester and therefore stepped down from the position with only two months to go before the general elections in March.

In accordance with the CSU’s bylaws, only individuals who are undergraduate students at Concordia are eligible for the posting. Therefore, not taking classes renders Holland ineligible to keep his employment with the CSU as he is no longer qualified for membership under bylaw 3.1.

Holland also clarified that he will finish his CEO report and reimburse by-election candidates for their expenses by Jan. 22 at the latest.

President Schubert Laforest said the departure was announced Monday morning in an email from Holland.

“Being that I will still be in Montreal during this time, and I will be, in a fashion—auditing courses for future reference, I will be making myself available for an orderly handover with my successor,” the email read.

Laforest told The Concordian that he was pleased with Holland’s work thus far.

“He learned quickly and managed a good election and he was always professional,” said Laforest. “It was a loss for us.”

The CSU listed the CEO posting the same day and already started advertising online through social media platforms in order to attract potential applicants. Some of the responsibilities of the CEO include ensuring that elections run independently and fairly, issuing directives on the carrying out of the standing regulations and training election officers.

Laforest said that while the timing is tricky he is “fairly confident” that his team will address the situation responsibly by hiring a new CEO quickly.

In order to be eligible to apply for the posting, applicants must be registered as an undergraduate student for the current semester and must possess a good knowledge of the CSU’s bylaws and standing regulations.

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New position sparks tension at CSU council meeting

A controversial job posting for a communications co-ordinator by the Concordia Student Union created a divide on council last Wednesday during the first regular meeting of 2013.

The position advertised on the CSU’s website states that for $14.75 an hour this part-time employee with be “responsible for the public relations aspect of the CSU,” as well as for promoting awareness of the CSU’s various events, elections, campaigns and meetings. The position is aimed at spreading the word to the student body about what the CSU is spending its fee-levy generated funding on. It also aims to improve social media visibility through upkeep of the council’s Facebook, blog and more.

The communications co-ordinator would also operate under the direction of VP student life Alexis Suzuki and provide periodic reports as part of their duties.

The position has not been met with universal acclaim from council with some executives lauding it as a much-needed improvement while others deriding it as an attempt to shirk their elected duties. A fierce debate took place over the merits of the job before ending in a failed motion to close the job posting altogether.

The debate came down to a disagreement over the intentions and the outcome of hiring a communications co-ordinator. Critics like councillor Chad Walcott said that the work being described in the job posting was part of the executives’ duties as elected officials and that hiring a new person to take on those duties would be giving away responsibilities that the executive had not attempted to do in the first place.

Those defending the posting, including CSU President Schubert Laforest, claimed that the position exists in almost every group and corporation of similar size and smaller to the CSU. It was argued that having an additional person to add to the promotion already being done might help fix the lack of promotion that has left attendance at events and student awareness low all year.

Speaking to The Concordian, Walcott said that he felt that the executive was hiring someone for a job that they had not yet tried to do.

“I just don’t feel as though the executive has made enough of an effort to promote their events and initiatives themselves,” he said. “I think it would be more justifiable to hire an extra person to do promotions if they had demonstrated that they had tried promoting their events themselves and were overwhelmed as a result.”

Walcott added that the position of a campaigns co-ordinator was already responsible for promoting events, something which he claims was utilized to great effect for the promotion of last year’s events.

Laforest, whose arguments in defense of the posting helped bring the matter to a close at council, believes the job was about improving the efficiency of the CSU when it comes to communicating with students.

“I don’t believe we should content ourselves with doing enough and saying that’s good,” said Laforest. “I think that there needs to be someone who is looking at this from a more pragmatic standpoint and not just limiting communications to the circles of the executives and the council, someone who is finding other ways of reaching out to students who may not be connected to student life.”

Laforest also said that the decision to create the job came after reviewing models from other universities, where they found almost every group like the CSU had an individual solely responsible for communications.

Melissa Kate Wheeler, the councillor who added the item to the agenda in order to voice concerns over the wording of the job posting, told The Concordian that she could see both sides of the debate.

Wheeler said she believes that while the CSU currently does not have an employee whose specific responsibilities are communications, she thinks that the executive haven’t curated enough events or initiatives to “warrant the creation” of the position.

“I think I would prefer to see things being done by a part-time employee at the CSU office than tell the executive they can’t create this job and then have them continue to not do the job,” Wheeler said. “To me the most important thing is that the job gets done.”

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What to watch out for this January and February

Following the volatile year that was 2012, the new year is bound to bring some interesting issues to the table in terms of higher education in Quebec and at Concordia as well. Here are some events and associations which students should remember to keep an eye on.

The education summit in February
The education summit promised by the Parti Québécois is fast approaching, but no official date has yet been set for when the government will meet with universities and student organizations to discuss issues concerning higher education. It has been loosely set for mid-February, but no official date has been given in the four months since the PQ first took office. In pre-summit talks held last month at McGill, student leaders with the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec and university officials disagreed over which subjects were important to discuss at the summit or what solutions were viable. The Concordia Student Union’s findings from their own consultation are due to be submitted to the FEUQ in order for them to be presented at the summit.

ECA accreditation drive
A campaign seeking accreditation for Concordia University’s Engineering and Computer Science Association will begin Jan. 14, with voting carrying on between Jan. 28 and Feb. 15. The ECA must achieve at least a 25 per cent turn-out for the votes to earn them accreditation, meaning that approximately 900 students must come out and vote ‘yes’ in order for the association to earn accreditation. Not having accreditation places the ECA in a difficult position, as they have limited powers to represent their student body, and the university is not required to grant them funding stemming from fee levies if they so choose.

An open conversation on the budget
A series of sessions that will be held this month at Concordia welcomes the community to be apart of conversations regarding the significant cut to the university’s operating grant for this fiscal year from the provincial government. Lisa Ostiguy, interim provost, and Patrick Kelley, chief financial officer, will host a community session this Monday, Jan. 14. Following an issue from the government on Dec. 11, the university’s operating grant was slashed by $13.2 million for the last four months of this fiscal year. The sessions will be small but the university does want to encourage people to register and attend these sessions. Senate will also have an opportunity to discuss the issue in their meeting Jan. 18. Registration opens Jan. 9 and more details will come from Concordia this week in the NOW e-newsletter.

The Concordia Student Union’s new council
The Concordia Student Union will have a fuller council this semester however will lack representatives from the Fine Arts faculty. The the CSU held byelections at the end of last semester to fill spaces due to the amount of resignations and empty seats. Caroline Bourbonnière, Patrick Lefebvre, Benjamin Prunty, Hardial Rosner, James Vaccaro and Ashley Walling all were elected to represent Arts and Science on council. Anja Rajaonarivelo, Pierre Tardivo Martin and Eugene Gusman were elected to the vacant JMSB seats since there were four open spots during the byelections. There are more than 30,000 students in the undergraduate student body and only 465 Concordia undergraduate students cast their votes. Although the byelections did allow the council to grow, the seats for Fine Arts on council remained empty.

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CSU looks to education summit

The Concordia Student Union will start campaigning for student involvement in order to hold a vote related to the provincial government’s upcoming education summit scheduled for mid-February.

The CSU will launch a website within the next two weeks that will allow students to pitch their concerns with higher education and specifically the governance of Concordia. In order to reach out to as many students as possible, the CSU chose to have undergraduates participate online and vote on positions proposed by fellow students.

To submit a position, students must support their claims with academic research consisting of three articles. According to VP external Simon-Pierre Lauzon, who is co-ordinating the initiative, the CSU will help individuals with research if they request it.

The website will also allow for discussion of the proposals put forth on the four themes to be discussed at the summit including quality of post-secondary education, the accessibility of higher education, the governance and financing of universities, and the contribution of research establishments to the development of Quebec. Then students will have the opportunity to vote on what they believe should be conveyed to the provincial government at the summit.

The Parti Québécois promised the education summit would address the concerns and issues that arose during the student strike movement. Lauzon hopes the CSU will compile 10 proposals per theme, allotting for a total of 40 positions to represent the opinions of the undergraduate student body at Concordia.

One concern is the participation of students. In order to meet quorum, at least 450 students must participate in the vote and it must be done by the end of the month. The CSU will encourage students to participate by campaigning in classrooms, buildings, online, with posters and purchasing advertising space.

“Everybody is going to hear about it if they are anywhere on campus,” said Lauzon. “We’re hoping two to three thousand people participate.”

Student Senator Wendy Kraus-Heitmann said she is worried about the details of the campaign proposal, stating it posed “major problems as written” and that she is concerned with time constraints. In an email to Lauzon, she suggested that the CSU hold a series of town halls and bring positions and stances by the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec to students for them to vote on. The lack of time will make it less likely to hold a “meaningful” consultation according to Kraus-Heitmann.

Lauzon said that certain student faculty associations, specifically the Arts and Science Federation of Associations and the Engineering and Computer Science Association have already taken steps to contact their students to voice opinions. In September, ASFA’s executive took a strong stance in ensuring Arts and Science students would be heard in the upcoming conference.

While the CSU will not be present at the education summit itself since it is invite-only, Concordia students will be represented by the FEUQ. The results of the vote will be communicated to the university association so that Concordia-specific concerns may be voiced at the summit. Lauzon clarified that the CSU may also send a memo to the organizers of the summit if there is something they feel wasn’t addressed by FEUQ.

Some students like Mike de Sévigné, an independent student at Concordia, don’t have any concerns he wants brought to the summit.

“I’ve always been happy with what I have,” said de Sévigné. “But I do hope they [the government] listen to the concerns of other students and fulfill those needs.”

The PQ has not yet set a date for the summit.

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