Addressing the Agenda

A Debriefing on the Upcoming CSU Council Meeting

NewsCorey Pool — Published September 18, 2012

But before any great conclusions are reached—and in order for the students represented by council to know what is happening at this meeting—some context is needed to put a few of the key points into perspective.

CSU Council meetings are technically open to all 35,848 students that belong to the union.

From the Chair

One of the first main points on the agenda will be the chairperson’s report, which is currently comprised of two points, the first of which concerns the status of students who sit on both council and the executive.

According to Article 10.2 of the CSU’s bylaws, the chairperson is required to run a student status verification report through the Dean of Students following the DNE deadline. The report is made to ensure that all members of council and the executive are registered students and eligible to hold elected positions with the union.

“It’s a new bylaw that took effect March 1 of last year and hadn’t existed previously,” said CSU Chair Nick Cuillerier. “It’s the first time that this bylaw is being used in a complete manner, [and] it’s standard procedure going forward from here.”

The new bylaw was created by last year’s executive, and according to former CSU president Lex Gill, it was done in order to clarify the process of verifying union membership.

“You always needed to be a member of the CSU to run, hold office or vote in the CSU,” said Gill. “We just made it clearer when that would be verified. After the deadline the chairperson will check, and that way there is a clear process being followed.”

If someone is found not to be a student following the report, the decision on how to act will ultimately fall to the council’s discretion.

“CSU Council is the highest decision-making body; it’s the board of directors, and would have to make a decision if an elected person is not a member,” said Gill.

CSU President Schubert Laforest’s status as a student has been previously called into question, but according to Laforest, the issues have all been resolved.

His continued absence from the list of undergraduate Board of Governors representatives will be addressed at council, however.

Student Space

The issue of student space has been a touchy topic for generations of Concordia alumni, and will be dug up again at the coming meeting.

Over the past eight years, students at Concordia have been paying a per credit fee to fund the creation of a student centre. That money has been stashed in a bank account and has grown to nearly $10 million.

Last year, students voted against the university’s proposed purchase of the Faubourg Building for that purpose. In August, an article in The Gazette revealed a “massive cockroach infestation” in the building after former tenants Lunetterie Newlook sued the current owners for nearly $336,000 in back rent over the issue.

At a special council meeting on Aug. 16, Arts and Science Councillor Laura Glover brought up the Student Centre Fund and whether or not any of that money was being used.

VP Internal and Clubs Nadine Atallah said that it was possible, but any discussion on the matter would have to happen in closed session.

The issue was then dropped, due to not being part of the official agenda.

From the Councillors

Several points have been added to Wednesday’s agenda from members of council, one of which concerns the hiring of CSU councillors for non-unionized positions of the CSU.

Though councillors hold the power at the CSU, they work as unpaid volunteers. However, there are various paid positions that are not unionized, such as Councillor Ramy Khoriaty’s position on CUSACorp, the for-profit arm of the CSU.

“Anyone who has a contract with the CSU should not also be a councillor,” said former CSU VP External and current Arts and Science Councillor Chad Walcott. “To me it sounds like a conflict of interest; to others there may be different interpretation, but I think that it’s something that should no longer be ambiguous in our bylaws.”

The issue of hiring councillors for non-unionized positions is not currently addressed by any of the CSU’s bylaws.

“It’s a loophole that I’d really like to see closed,” said Walcott.

Appointments

Many appointments need to be made at Wednesday’s meeting by council to sit on several positions of great importance.

Concordia’s Senate, the highest academic body at the university, is comprised of 46 voting members, 12 of which are undergraduate student representatives.

There are currently seven empty undergraduate seats on Senate. Only one member of the current executive sits on Senate.

“It’s just kind of disconcerting that no executives were [at Senate] except for [VP External Simon-Pierre Lauzon,]” said Walcott. “That’s something that I was kind of disappointed about.”

According to Laforest, his reason for not sitting on Senate is linked to the reason he does not sit on the BoG. He plans to address this issue at council.