Cooler Heads Prevail
Fine Arts Co-Presidents Reach Compromise With Council
The co-presidents of the Fine Arts Student Alliance narrowly avoided being recalled to election at the alliance’s first council meeting on Oct. 4.
Two weeks earlier, the presidents of the Cinema Student Association and the Dance Student Association submitted a letter to FASA’s executive, requesting the meeting’s agenda be modified to include a vote that would have council decide whether the alliance’s co-presidents, Paisley Sim and Neal Moignard, should be recalled.
A few hours into the meeting, CSA President Adam West made a presentation denouncing the co-presidents as “elitist” and “dictatorial” over their firing of former VP Finance Laura Glover, who was hired in April.
West also expressed concerns over an e-mail sent to him by Moignard, in which the co-president accused the CSA and DSA of “total incompetence” and allegedly threatened to pull the associations’ funding. West’s speech was met with roaring applause.
West, DSA President Andy Philipowich and other FASA councillors claimed that Glover’s termination violated Article 11, Section 1 of the FASA constitution, which states, “the President, Vice-Presidents and Councilors may be recalled to election by two-thirds of sitting Councilors.” The controversy arose because the constitution has no provisions for terminating an employee with the title “Vice-President.”
The co-presidents argued that Glover was a hired employee of FASA and therefore not bound to its constitution. Both parties and most councillors in attendance agreed that the constitution would need major amendments to avoid any similar situation in the future.
The meeting’s rhetoric cooled dramatically when West withdrew the motion to recall Sim and Moignard.
“We managed to reach a compromise that made everyone happy,” said West. “FASA will be issuing monthly reports on their finances which is something [the CSA] really wanted.”
In the end Glover officially resigned as VP Finance, the co-presidents agreed to issue her a letter of apology and a committee was formed to revise FASA’s constitution. The committee will include Glover, current VP Finance Julie Johnston and three FASA councillors.
“The meeting clarified a lot,” said Sim. “We’re headed in the right direction.”
This article originally appeared in Volume 31, Issue 08, published October 5, 2010.
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