FASA, Finally

New Executives Get Ratified in Brief General Meeting

NewsAdam Kovac — Published September 15, 2011

Executives of the Fine Arts Student Alliance can now lay claim to their job titles, as a near-unanimous vote resulted in the ratification of April’s election results at a special general meeting on Sept. 13.

During last year’s FASA elections, the vote for the VP Clubs & Sevices position had ended in a tie between Drew Barnet and Andy Filipowich. Barnet was the eventual victor in a bi-election held the day after polls closed. However, while council had decided to let him and his fellow executives take office over the summer, it also required them to be ratified once the fall semester began.

“It speaks to our evolving relationship with our policy documents, because we didn’t have an elections document,” said FASA President Paisley Sim. “Once we form our council at our first meeting on Oct. 4, we’re going to be introducing new policy documents, [such as] annexes to our newly revised bylaws that address clubs, sustainability, elections and whatnot.”

Sim declined to go into detail on what kinds of electoral reforms would be introduced, saying it would be “speculative,” as the changes have yet to be put before council for consideration.

The vote passed with none present voting against the motion. However, there were a few abstentions, including Filipowich, who represents Fine Arts students in Concordia’s Senate.

“I felt like the issue was brought up by me, and it was a decision for council to make without me, and it was an issue for Fine Arts students to make without me,” said Filipowich.

It’s the second consecutive year that FASA has an election issues. In October, the faculty association narrowly avoid a recall election for the president position after controversy arose following the attempted termination of then-VP Finance Laura Glover. Following Glover’s resignation, a committee was formed to look into reforming FASA’s constitution.