Editorial: The CSU’s Priorities Are Misplaced

There Are Bigger Problems Than Bathrooms and Wi-Fi

OpinionsThe Link — Published January 28, 2020

We don’t feel like they have been living up to that mission very well recently.

Bathrooms—the hot-button topic the Cut the Crap slate won with last year—and, recently, a lack of Wi-Fi connection on the Concordia shuttle bus have been two issues the CSU has been putting effort behind.

And yet, they still, as of writing, do not have a Sustainability Coordinator, despite the school’s current intention to divest. How is the student body supposed to have a voice in the matter if the CSU doesn’t have someone overseeing the implementation of sustainable practices?

Two months after students voted in support of an online fee levy opt-out system in a by-election, the CSU has finally started a process to consult the fee-levy groups.

General Coordinator Christopher Kalafatidis, who brought the question to referendum, wasn’t even the one to begin the process. So far, the administration is “talking about it with the CSU,” but nothing more.

Up until October, there was no undergraduate representation on the university’s sexual misconduct standing committee, and the CSU has no sexual violence accountability committee.

At a CSU meeting earlier this month, a motion was brought forward in bad faith, wasting valuable time just to prove a point. This is absurd. The CSU is not a place to “make a point,” it’s meant to advocate for students. That’s what unions do. Some pushed to have this motion in closed session, which would avoid accountability.

After last year’s elections, former member of Cut the Crap Danielle Vandolder-Beaudin—who was disqualified for cheating—had brought forward a motion to remove all advocacy positions from the positions book. At the time, Kalafitidis said, “Do I think Concordia is a feminist university? No, I do not. Do I think the average student has solidarity with Indigenous people? I do not. And that is why I don’t think it should be in the positions book until we fought to change the minds of our students.”

Yet, these are the issues the CSU should be taking seriously. These are the people they should be advocating for.

The point is, the CSU should have the students’ best interests at heart. Clean bathrooms and Wi-Fi on the shuttle are nice, but they shouldn’t be the main priorities of a student union.

They should be keeping the administration accountable by having a student voice in the university’s investing decisions, pushing to protect students from sexual violence at the hands of professors, fighting tuition hikes, and standing up for the most vulnerable students.

They shouldn’t be encouraging the defunding of programs students rely on, wasting time with petty motions, and using an invaluable structure to push personal agendas. Cut the Crap, please cut the crap.