CSU Issues Apology to Fine Arts Student Alliance

CEO Signs off on on $10,000 Donation to FASA After Posters Taken Down

NewsAlexander Perez — Published March 22, 2018

The CSU issued an apology, signed off by the CEO Nicholas Roberts, to FASA for “the harm” that taking down their posters has done to their work and “recognizes the message it sends to students.”

Roberts was unavailable for comment.

FASA General Coordinator, Cleopatra Boudreau, contacted the CSU after FASA executives found their posters discarded. Other FASA posters were left one on top of another on the bottom of the bulletin board in Concordia University’s VA building.

“It was just a frustrating situation because we also have events coming up,” said Boudreau.

Half of the money, $5,000, was donated to “Art Matters”—a student-run art festival that is currently underway. Boudreau said that many of the posters that were taken down were hand-crafted silk-screen posters promoting Art Matters, and are not easily replicated.

“It sends a message to Fine Arts students that the CSU elections are more important than their projects and the things that they’re working on,” said Boudreau.

In addition, to “not being able [take into account] the amount of labour that went into every poster that was taken down,” according to Boudreau, the CSU allocated $5,000 to Special Project Grants at FASA’s request, which is used to fund student projects every year.

“We calculated how much we had allocated to student projects that would be happening around this time. It came out to about $6,000 so we brought it down to $5,000,” said Boudreau. “So next year there will be an additional $5,000 in that fund from the CSU.”

Part of the motion also stated that the CSU will not be able to take down any posters that haven’t yet expired in any building.

Boudreau said that postering has been an ongoing issue in the VA building. According to Boudreau, the 2015, 2016, and 2017 CEO reports recommended that the CSU contact other student associations, like FASA, to let them know when postering for elections would be taking place.

“It has been brought up multiple years in a row,” said Boudreau. “Because it’s an ongoing issue and because it creates issues, so that’s why we decided to get a motion passed so we can make sure there was something hard in writing.”