The farmers’ market presented as part of the Concordia Student Union’s back-to-school orientation to promote sustainable and healthy living took over Reggie’s terrace Wednesday, Sept. 6.
Students and community members from local and university-based initiatives gathered from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. to participate in the farmers’ market on the first official day of semester. The event started off with breakfast for new and returning students at 11 a.m. by offering regional produce such as organic apples.
Different booths pushed ecological awareness by selling local produce from Concordia and other provincial organizations, cooking displays that used fresh, unprocessed and local foods, and different artisans who fabricated their own products.
CSU VP sustainability Andrew Roberts organized the event to encourage new students to pursue a sustainable lifestyle and to join campus initiatives.
“It’s good to promote this growing urban agriculture sustainable food movement,” said Roberts. “We’ve got a market happening and we have vendors giving out flyers for the Marché Locale.”
Fruixi, a project launched by the City of Montreal in 2011, also had a stall set up on the terrace. Fruixi is an initiative to bring fresh fruits and vegetables to the urban core by setting up carts attached to bikes stocked with food in downtown parks.
“Initially the project was started up to promote healthy eating in the Centre-Sud neighborhood,” explained Fruixi co-ordinator Maxime St-Denis. “Residents of the area are often marginalized and more vulnerable considering low socioeconomic status so we gave them access to healthy foods.”
St-Denis wanted to diversify Fruixi’s clientele by extending their services to Concordia University students and the West End of Montreal.
“Having access to healthy foods is the secret to good health,” St-Denis said. “We’re here to promote our project, to be discovered in a part of the city we don’t work with much.”
The Concordia City Farm school is a project organized by Sustainable Concordia that shows students the basics of agriculture and farming.
In association with the greenhouse on the 13th floor of the Hall building, the City Farm School gave students free samples of green tea produced at the Loyola farm.
The Concordia Student Union has a president and seven executives who represent Concordia University’s 35,000 undergraduate students for an entire year starting on June 1.
During the general elections in March, A Better Concordia made a commitment to students to provide more events, sustainable projects and more initiatives for Loyola campus. They also pledged to be transparent, honest and to stick to their promises.
The CSU foresees its total budget, from revenues generated through student fees and various other funds, as $5,505,350 for the 2012-13 academic year at Concordia.
Here is The Concordian’s guide to the CSU’s preliminary budget for the upcoming year and a basic breakdown of the numbers.
REVENUES
To start, the CSU facilitates a budget through its earnings and expenses. Regarding revenues, the CSU’s projections show it receives $1,242,000 from student fee levies alone. Each undergraduate student pays $1.75 per credit toward the Concordia Student Union. Therefore, a full-time undergraduate student taking five courses worth three credits each is paying $26.25 per semester. An individual taking 10 courses for the academic year is contributing $52.50 to the CSU’s profits.
SALARIES, BENEFITS AND HONORARIUMS
The CSU allotted $224,000 of their budget for the salaries of eight executives. The 2012-13 annual salary for an executive is approximately $28,000.
During the year, an executive or vice-president of the CSU receives an additional expense account of $625. For example, an expense account would cover costs of transportation. CSU President Schubert Laforest has an expense account of $1,300 for the entire year.
An annual $3,000 honorarium is provided to the chair of council; the secretary receives $3,000 for the year as well.
The CSU allotted a total of $349,318 to be spent on employees. This includes the salaries and benefits for administration and receptionists, the general manager and other expenses.
ORIENTATION
The CSU expects to generate revenues from their orientation in two ways. Contributions are defined by funding gathered from sponsorships and here the CSU believes they will make $5,000. Sales made from food and alcohol are expected to generate ten times that, at about $50,000.
In terms of expenses, the CSU tabled $150,000 to cover the two-week long orientation, one of the lowest orientation budgets within the last few years. Last year, the CSU spent a total of $180,888 on orientation activities, and $227,017 in 2008.
LOYOLA LUNCHEONS
As part of a special student council meeting held in August, the CSU decided to allot an additional $4,000 of its surplus to the Loyola Luncheon. The initial budget for the Loyola luncheon for salaries and expenses was a total of $32,400 but with the additional funding from the surplus, it is approximately $36,400.
WORTH NOTING
Operational costs for the CSU comes to approximately $230,155 for the year. Operations include but are not limited to telephones, computers, office expenses, postage and promotions. Landlines for the CSU executives, HOJO and other CSU offices come to a total of $55,000. Postage costs $1,200 while office expenses, such as stationery, run at $25,000.
As classes begin on Wednesday, Sept. 4. so too does the Concordia Student Union’s orientation aimed at familiarizing new students with their surroundings while welcoming back returning students.
This year’s theme is titled “City of Festivals” and will span from Sept. 4 until the 16th. The idea is to create an homage to Montreal’s wide array of festivals that make the city so unique.
The CSU will host numerous festival-related events and activities during the two weeks building up to the much anticipated concert which will be held at the Loyola quad on Friday, Sept.14.
VP student life Alexis Suzuki would not disclose information on headliners but said the “concert for accessible education” will be welcoming award-winning DJs as well as two-time Canadian beatbox champion KRNFX.
“He’s an amazing beatboxer, I’m really excited to have him,” Suzuki said. “We’re really trying to make it so there’s a bit of everything for everyone.”
The new and improved Reggie’s will have its grand opening on Sept. 6, where the CSU will host their own version of Bal en Blanc from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.
A sustainable food market will take over Reggie’s terrace from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept 5. VP sustainability Andrew Roberts will co-ordinate the event which will host a number of vendors, local farmers, workshops and live art throughout the day. There will also be tasting and cooking stations.
“Over the past years, there have been organizations and vendors,” explained Roberts, “and what I wanted to do this year was separate the organizations on campus from urban agriculture and sustainable food movements.”
A beer festival is slated for Friday, Sept. 7 from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Reggie’s as a tribute to the Festival Mondiale de la Bière Montreal that takes place during the summer. Following the beer festival is a comedy show in the Hall building.
Comedy for accessible education mirrors the Just For Laughs Festival and its galas while aiming to raise money for students in financial need. The show will feature a comedy improv group and headlines stand-up comedian Amy Schumer. Schumer placed fourth on the fifth season of NBC’s Last Comic Standing and has appeared on Delocated and Curb Your Enthusiasm.
At the comedy show, the CSU will donate one dollar for every student present to bursaries to help offset the costs of the tuition increase.
VP academic and advocacy Lucia Gallardo said that the concert will ask students for donations which will go toward the bursaries as well.
Concordia University’s student pub, Reggie’s, is revamped and ready for the grand opening on Thursday, Sept. 6 in an effort to attract more clientele.
Renovations were made during the month of August in order to spruce up the popular university bar. CUSACorp, the Concordia Student Union’s for-profit subsidiary that manages Reggie’s, approved a total of $12,000 for the renovation budget.
Ramy Khoriaty, Reggie’s business manager, said repairs include fresh paint, new decor, black lights and booths in an effort to modernize the bar.
“We painted all the walls, we took out tables,” said Khoriaty. “[Before the renovations] it was dangerous because security couldn’t get around them.”
As most of the overhaul was completed by Khoriaty and volunteers, including CSU’s VP finance Keny Toto, CUSACorp spent a total of only $6,500 to refurbish Reggie’s.
However, renovations are not the only changes in store for the campus hangout.
CUSACorp experienced trouble generating enough profits to break even with Reggie’s 2011-12 losses which accumulated to more than $40,000. According to Toto, it was the worst year for Reggie’s since 2008.
“We’re not only changing the appearance – some of the staff are being changed, the managers are changed,” explained Khoriaty.
Khoriaty told The Concordian that the Board of Directors decided to hire new bartenders and managers for the upcoming school year since there were issues with the staff in the past.
Tory Forsyth, who worked at Reggie’s for more than three years as a bartender, said that she was not informed of the reasons behind CUSACorp’s decision to not renew her contract.
“Every year, the board is allowed to hire or not hire whomever they want,” said Forsyth. “I was let go about a week ago.”
Khoriaty is aiming to improve the bar’s morale by building up a faithful clientele and a responsible management even if it means a raise in prices.
“There will be an analysis on prices. We’ll take into account the price of bartenders, busboys and what we sell every night,” explained Khoriaty. “If we don’t make enough, prices will have to go up.”
As for new patrons, Reggie’s hopes to attract those who do not study exclusively in the Hall building.
“We want our bar to be nice,” added Khoriaty. “Maybe now John Molson [School of Business] students will come here.”
Sean Thomson, a JMSB undergraduate student, says he agrees with this strategy.
“I think that if Reggie’s is redone, it would probably attract people,” Thomson said. “I would definitely be interested in taking a look at what they’ve done.”
Renovations to the bathrooms are projected to be completed before Thursday but are not done yet, according to Toto.
“It would probably cost between $2,000 to $3,000 total for bathrooms and the back area,” he said.
Reggie’s opening night is part of the CSU’s orientation to welcome new and returning students. A Bal en Blanc themed party will be taking place from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. and the first hundred guests will receive one free drink.
The thought of having a Concordia Student Union executive without the organizational skills to effectively plan a party, albeit for thousands of students, is cause enough for concern as any.
The upcoming back-to-school orientation is right about the corner but it seems little has been done in order to get the word out. Where are the posters on campus advertising orientation events? Why is the website so impossible to navigate? The CSU orientation page is non-existent, as far as we know, seeing as the link redirects to the 2011 orientation schedule.
Dealing with executives who are often hard to contact and watching them scramble to pull together a series of events they had all summer to plan shows a definite lack of time management.
We don’t want to assume the worst, but is it possible that the so-called “secret concert,” which is set to take place Sept. 14, is in fact undisclosed because there is no confirmed headliner? Like we said, there’s no need to imagine the worst case scenario, but it begs the question: How is the student body supposed to trust this team when they haven’t proven to be reliable?
It may very well be that the current CSU is only starting out and, much like a toddler, and has not yet learned to stand on their own two feet. As they mature with time, they have the potential to grow up and become competent leaders but, for the time being, we worry about their ability to lead now.
This, of course, is not the entire executive team’s fault; however, they should be working together to do everything in their power to pick up the slack. And there is slack. Whether or not the CSU is willing to admit it, their first challenge out of the gate was handled in a sloppy manner and without due care.
Posters for the two weeks worth of events and activities were only posted online on Labour Day, and with elections on Tuesday and the first day of classes looming, the timing could not have been worse. Unless of course, there was no information posted at all, which for a while, seemed like a real possibility.
Although the activities planned will be enjoyable for the drunk masses, there’s no question that the lineup could be a lot more impressive and enticing, not to mention well-promoted, if everyone had done their jobs properly.
There has been a lot of talk recently about fresh starts in the coming academic year. Now that Concordia has an actual new beginning on its hands, we have to wonder if this time it will be for real.
With the start of a brand new school year, it’s the perfect time for this university to shake the dust from its heels, wipe away the grime of the old scandals and move on. Timing couldn’t be better with a new president coming in, fresh-faced and ready to take on the responsibilities that come alongside the glad-handing and posing for pictures. More than ever, students want someone who is willing to listen to what they have to say, and we can only hope that Alan Shepard is up to the challenge.
At the same time, a new Concordia Student Union comes into power, one who ran on a campaign overflowing with promises to make the academic and social lives of students better. A Better Concordia, remember? This executive who promised us more events, more sustainable projects, more love for Loyola, more transparency, more honesty; now is the time for them to put their words into action.
So what happens next? Is Concordia doomed to repeat history over and over? We hope not. It may sound like a fool’s hope, but this could be as Shepard puts it, “Concordia’s time.” This is a school that has a lot going for it and though some things never change, the gross mismanagement of funds, resources and people’s patience can.
CSU President Schubert Laforest may not have a lot of experience sitting at the big kids table, but maybe that is a good thing. Maybe students are tired of the ‘behind closed doors’ attitude and want someone to shake things up. Perhaps this is overly optimistic, but perhaps that may be exactly what this school needs. If we took a moment now and then to stop criticizing her and help her instead, Concordia could actually have a reputation we could be proud of.
There are people at this school — teachers, staff, administrators, and student leaders — who genuinely care about the Concordia experience and want to make it all that it can be. There are also people who don’t seem to care about students at all, and they are allowed to let their desire to turn public education into a corporation run rampant. To them, who make the rest of the people who give a damn look like helpless bystanders or worse, greedy accomplices, we say this: step aside.
Concordia deserves a fresh start and a clean slate after a long road of missteps. But that’s not going to happen if we let the bullies rule the playground for another year and only talk of change, instead of enacting it.
Being president of a university as large and as diverse as Concordia is no easy task. Despite the challenges which lay ahead for new Vice-Chancellor Alan Shepard, he said he views Concordia as a progressive university despite a troubled history.
“It’s Concordia’s time,” said the former provost of Ryerson University. “We have a very bright future.”
On Aug. 1, Shepard replaced interim president Frederick Lowy and began his five-year mandate. Though he insists that he has no grand plan and no ultimate overhaul in terms of changes for Concordia, the new president plans to focus on what the university community wants to change. Revisions and adjustments, he said, will be based on what administration, faculty and students demand.
“Concordia has a lot of strengths,” Shepard explained. “You try to find ways to engage the university community to see where it wants to go.”
Concordia Student Union President Schubert Laforest said several challenges await Shepard in the years ahead.
“There’s the ever present issue of the management of the university, how funds are allocated, the university being under scrutiny from all sides of the media and from students,” said Laforest. “There is bridging the gap between students and administration.”
According to Laforest, Shepard is also faced with the task of governing a university that’s often questioned for its controversial administration salaries, severance packages and spending.
In December 2010, Judith Woodsworth abruptly left her position as university president with a severance package of approximately $700,000. Her predecessor, Claude Lajeunesse, completed only two years of a five-year contract and left Concordia with more than $1-million as a parting gift.
In March 2012, Concordia was slapped with a $2-million fine from previous Education Minister Line Beauchamp due to the mismanagement of funds. Beauchamp reprimanded the institution for “a lack of control” at the administrative level and her concern for the number of people leaving senior positions.
“Something has to give, we have opposing views of what’s going on,” reiterated Laforest. “We need to have an honest discussion about the matter.”
President Shepard stated that “the university’s reputation is important, it matters deeply…but we’re very well-managed, we’re well-managed fiscally.”
Last summer, the External Governance Review Committee released a report stating differently. The report provides recommendations to strengthen governance and internal relations at Concordia while scrutinizing the current climate at the university. The committee criticized Concordia for “a culture of contempt” and “spectacularly unsuccessful appointments of the last two presidents.”
As the election draws nearer, Shepard awaits changes that have the potential to set the tone for the entire semester. Shepard said he believes the results of the upcoming election will ultimately decide which direction the student movement will take. That said, he welcomes students who are so politically involved.
“Keeping a cool head matters,” Shepard said. “But so is allowing people to express themselves.”
In coordination with the Occupy Canada movement and in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street in New York City, approximately 1,000 people showed up to Victoria Square for the first day of Occupy Montreal. Participants in the ‘general assembly’ then decided to rename Victoria Square as “Place du peuple.” Occupy Montreal lasted about a month before police forcibly vacated the square.
An estimated 30,000 students protested against the provincial government’s plan to raise tuition in the streets of downtown Montreal. Despite the downpour, a Concordia contingent left from Reggie’s terrace around 1 p.m. to meet up with other students at Parc Emilie-Gamelin. After marching through the downtown core, the movement gathered outside Premier Jean Charest’s office on McGill College. By the end of the protest, some students flocked to the James Administration building to take part in a growing confrontation. Police used tear gas and pepper spray to force protesters off McGill property. According to Montreal Police, four arrests were made that day.
A group of students occupied the office of Deputy Provost for Student Life and Learning, Morton Mendelson, in protest of the administration’s decision not to uphold a referendum that would continue funding the campus radio station and a social justice organization. Students requested that CKUT and QPIRG continue to receive funding and that Mendelson step down. Administration cut off access to power and plumbing, which eventually forced students out days later.
Student governors Cameron Monagle, AJ West and Erik Chevrier quickly put an end to a meeting that had not even entered open session. The three students walked out in protest because they opposed a motion made in closed session that addressed whether or not cameras and recording equipment would be allowied during meetings. When they left, the meeting lost quorum and was therefore cancelled.
Concordia University became the first English post-secondary institution to join the student strike against the tuition increase. In a historic moment, undergraduate students voted in favour of a week-long general strike from March 15-22.
Then-executive candidates Schubert Laforest and Lucia Gallardo were disqualified from running for the Concordia Student Union by Chief Electoral Officer Ismail Holoubi. Holoubi claimed that Gallardo and Laforest were not registered students and thus not eligible to run.
Education Minister Line Beauchamp slapped Concordia University with a $2-million fine for handing out excessive severance packages and mismanaging funds. In a letter addressed to the administration, Beauchamp expressed her concern about senior administrators’ salaries and the turnover rate for those positions.
The judicial board of the CSU ruled that Gallardo and Laforest should be able to participate in the general election campaign. Their affiliation presented evidence that they experienced trouble with their VISAs and were left temporarily unregistered. Both candidates were reinstated.
A massive demonstration of more than 200,000 students and their supporters took to the streets of downtown Montreal to protest against the tuition fee increase. Concordia University cancelled class on both campuses that day for security reasons. It marked one of the largest protests in Canadian history and no arrests were made.
When a Fine Arts Student Alliance general assembly failed to meet quorum, more than 70 students held a sit-in outside of President Frederick Lowy’s office on the 15th floor of the MB building. Students proceeded to demand another meeting so they could discuss concerns about the ongoing student strike. After an hour, Lowy emerged from his office to take part in the impromptu meeting which would be continued at a later date.
Following months of student unrest and protests against the tuition hike, Education Minister Line Beauchamp stepped down from her position and from politics entirely. Beauchamp’s resignation came after negotiations between the provincial government and student groups failed. An hour later, Michelle Courchesne was appointed as the new education minister.
In an effort to put an end to the tuition crisis after 14 weeks of student unrest, the provincial government passed the controversial and historic Bill 78. The bill cracks down on the size and governance of demonstrations, imposes strict fines for individuals blocking access to classes in post-secondary institutions and ended the winter semester at CEGEPs and universities affected by the strike.
A Concordia University student Jun Lin was remembered in a public funeral nearly two months after his brutal murder. Family and friends gathered at Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery at 9 a.m. to mourn the loss of 33-year-old Lin. His ashes were buried in Montreal, where he had started to make a life for himself. The suspect was apprehended and his trial is ongoing.
Concordia University’s incumbent President Alan Shepard took office on Aug. 1 to commence his five-year mandate. Shepard was hired to replace Frederick Lowy who was appointed as interim President following the resignation of Judith Woodsworth in Dec. 2010.
Schubert Laforest
Concordia Student Union President
Laforest’s mandate began on June 1 when he replaced former President Lex Gill.
Laforest is in charge of the student union that represents Concordia’s 30,000 undergraduate students and he is there to ensure undergraduate students’ voices are heard and concerns are addressed during the upcoming academic year. The president’s job is to oversee his executive committee’s management of funds, their promotion of student life, their campaigns and services.
Laforest plans to tackle issues and scandals at Concordia with a sustainable and transparent government approach. Laforest promised that students would feel represented in administrative decisions and the CSU would hold governing bodies accountable for their decisions. The incumbent president said that he will tackle the tuition fee increase by lobbying for change within the internal management of the university.
Lauzon is in charge of handling Concordia’s external affairs and therefore deals with individuals, programs and groups outside of the university institution. VP external is responsible for liaisons outside of Concordia and the mobilization of students to actively participate in campaigns organized by the CSU. Lauzon must also sit on the External and Campaigns committee.
For his mandate, Lauzon plans to implement student-run research papers that count for credit in order to have a more informed student body. An advocate of the student movement against the tuition increase, Lauzon will work with international student organizations who face similar situations.
The role of VP Sustainability is to develop a responsible and sustainable environmental and social policy for the CSU. Roberts must promote sustainable campaigns and initiatives for Concordia. As part of his duties, Roberts sits on the board of directors for the Sustainability Action Fund and the Concordia Volunteer Abroad Program.
Roberts aims to promote sustainability at Concordia by addressing new undergraduate students at orientation. His goal is to create and update a sustainability website to promote awareness about environmental measures.
VP academic runs the legal clinic and Advocacy Centre while acting as a liaison to the Graduate Students Association and those appointed to represent academic bodies on academic issues. Gallardo is also responsible for the organization and chairing of meetings of the student academic caucus, and she must oversee the appointment of individuals on academic bodies or sit on them herself.
Gallardo wants to implement a sexual assault centre with the help of the Simone de Beauvoir Institute at Concordia. Her goals are to focus on students in need of financial aid and a sexual harassment policy.
The job of VP finance is to oversee the CSU budget in terms of preparation, accessibility, updating and reporting on a monthly basis to the council. Toto must ensure the budget is respected and in the best interests of the student body. VP finance is also responsible for sitting on the board of CUSACORP and on the financial committee.
Toto aims to focus on the needs of undergrads and welcomes their input for the budget. His goal is to make the CSU budget easy to read and to access. Toto also promises to make CUSACORP more profitable through new services while properly managing inventory control and improving marketing strategies.
VP clubs and internal affairs oversees all non-academic groups belonging to the CSU. Part of Atallah’s mandate is to have a relationship with clubs, manage club budgets, and sit on the Clubs and Space Committee. Atallah also acts as the secretary of the corporation aspect of the CSU and must oversee the CSU’s corporate books.
In order to create a more democratic CSU, Atallah promises to implement online voting so that more students can participate in decisions made by the CSU. In addition she wants to encourage all students to find a club or student group that interests them.
The role of VP student life is to act as a liaison for all faculty associations. Suzuki is responsible for organizing major events at Concordia, specifically that of student orientation at the beginning of the fall semester.
Suzuki promised to work closely with clubs and faculty associations to ensure involvement in student life on campus. Her goal is to revitalize student life by reaching out to students to get them involved over the duration of the upcoming academic year.
This position protects the best interests of students at Concordia’s Loyola Campus. VP Loyola is responsible for promoting a united university community and strengthening ties between both campuses. Faina must also maintain a strong CSU presence at the Loyola Campus.
Faina stated that he feels Loyola has the potential to play a greater role in student life this year. He promised to create more events at the campus and to bring back the Winter Festival. Faina also plans to introduce movie nights and a music festival at Loyola.
Concordia University’s Office of Rights and Responsibilities has launched formal complaints against students regarding actions taken during the student strike which violate certain behavioral codes.
According to Concordia Student Union’s VP Advocacy Lucia Gallardo, approximately 60 students received emails from the university administration on Friday, June 1. Although the content of these messages remains unclear due to confidentiality, students may be facing charges under the Academic Code of Conduct or the Code of Rights and Responsibilities.
Gallardo went on to explain that students could be facing charges under Code 29G for obstructing or blocking access to classrooms. Under the Code of Rights and Responsibilities, 29G states the following:
“Obstruction or disruption of teaching, research, administration, study, student disciplinary procedures or other University activity. For example, peaceful picketing or other activity in any public space that does not impede access nor interfere with the activities in a class or meeting is an acceptable expression of dissent and shall not be considered an infraction of this article.”
The CSU’s Advocacy Centre has reached out to Concordia’s entire student body since Gallardo explained they do not have “a comprehensive list of students who received formal complaints.”
CSU President Schubert Laforest, who took office June 1, confirmed that while some letters had used a basic template for the complaints, others were more specific, citing dates when students had violated the code in question.
Laforest emphasized that the CSU’s goal is to help represent these students and to help them realize “the potential ramifications.”
The CSU was informed about the charges around 4 p.m. on the first day of their mandate, and Laforest criticized the university administration for being late to address the issue.
“It’s relatively irresponsible to charge these students now,” he said. “It’s June. This should have been dealt with in May.”
Laforest went on to say that the timing of the emails does nothing to help students who could not access their classes during the winter semester.
“The situation should have been remedied,” Laforest explained. “It’s negative, it’s political and it’s tricky.”
University spokesperson Chris Mota explained that the university purposely waited until to file the complaints.
“The university made a conscious decision to wait until exam period was over,” said Mota. “We had to see which complaints were legitimate and then process them.”
Although an exact number cannot be confirmed, Mota explained that approximately 40 inquiries were made during the semester, though not all led to complaints.
The Concordia Student Union passed a motion on Wednesday to provide additional funding to both Juripop and Concordia University’s student television station.
Councillors Cameron Monagle, Irmak Bahar and Eva-Loan Ponton called the special meeting to discuss what to do with the CSU’s operating budget surplus. The surplus is approximately between $18,000 and $20,000.
The CSU went on to unanimously pass a motion to finance Juripop with $10,000 to help provide legal aid to students who might be charged under Bill 78 or under current municipal bylaws. The same motion also provides CUTV with an additional $6,000.
The additional funding for CUTV comes to help cover the costs of the live stream content that the group has been providing during the nightly protests revolving around the tuition crisis.
“It costs an astronomical amount,” said CSU councillor Cameron Monagle in reference to CUTV’s operating expenses.
“CUTV did not request money, “ wrote Monagle in an email to The Concordian, “but in light of their of their elevated expenses and losses with the recent coverage, we felt it would be appropriate.”
According to CSU President Lex Gill, the incoming executive begin their term on Friday June 1 and cannot access the surplus. She emphasized that the current CSU is not trying to take away funding from those about to take over.
“We’re not in anybody’s pockets,” Gill said.
The special meeting was called two days before the current CSU mandate’s term is set to expire.
As of Friday May 11, members from three of the province’s major student groups have voted to reject the Quebec government’s offer of proposed changes to their plan to increase university tuition fees in September.
Student unions represented by the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec, the Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec and delegates of the Coalition large de l’Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante voted overwhelmingly against accepting the latest deal aimed at ending student protests.
Their decision comes almost a week after the tentative agreement between students and the government was initially reached. Spokespeople from all three student groups helped form the now-rejected deal after 22 hours of negotiations with Premier Jean Charest and Education Minister Line Beauchamp on Saturday.
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The Concordia Student Union unanimously voted to decline the provincial government’s second offer to striking student groups in a special council meeting on Tuesday night.
The special council meeting was held to discuss the recent offer made by the Charest Liberals to student leaders as well as members of the Conference des recteurs et des principaux des universites du Quebec. These negotiations led to the announcement of a tentative deal on Saturday. The offer was presented by leaders of the student movement during a press conference but will only be decided upon once general assemblies are held and the offer is put to a vote.
Approximately 50 Concordia students gathered for the assembly but only the elected council members were allowed to vote. Students were encouraged by CSU President Lex Gill to participate in the discussion portion of the meeting and voice their opinions.
Calling the media “intimidating,” Gill requested that all external media leave the meeting early on. All Concordia student media were welcome to stay for the duration, however, Gill invited mainstream media organizations to get in touch with her following the meeting.
“I’m going to try and not editorialize as much as possible,” Gill told students.
An appearance by Board of Governors Chair Peter Kruyt was met with disdain from some students and he left shortly after questions were raised about his presence.
The results were unsurprising as many university student associations and CEGEPs have voted to reject the government’s proposal during the week.
“I’m really glad we took the position that we took,” CSU councillor and student governor Cameron Monagle told The Concordian. “It was a really bum deal.”
The overwhelming rejection is meant to be a symbolic motion that the tuition increase, despite the deal, will not be accepted.
“This offer didn’t block the tuition increase and it was insufficient,” Monagle added.
The Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec, the student organization which represents Concordia and many other Quebec universities, will hold its own vote on Friday, May 11.
