CSU Council Appoints New VP, Senator
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The Concordia Student Union was able to blaze through its 10-point agenda in under three hours on Wednesday night.
Though her name was removed from the ballots distributed at the Concordia Student Union’s ongoing byelections—as the VP Academic and Advocacy position was ruled never to have been legally opened —Hajar El Jahidi became the union’s newest executive at Wednesday’s Council meeting.
El Jahidi was unanimously voted into the VP Academic and Advocacy position as Council ratified her appointment, put forth by President Schubert Laforest.
Laforest cited her initiative—the sole candidate that ran for the position—as his motivation for selecting her to fill the vacancy.
“I think it would be responsible to have someone that is dedicated to the job on deck,” Laforest explained to Council. “It would be detrimental to have that position left not filled.”
Laforest says that El Jahidi has been in training since Monday.
Appointments to Senate & Hiring Committee
CSU Council appointed Melissa Lemieux to represent John Molson School of Business students on Senate, Concordia’s highest academic body.
Lemieux is a JMSB commerce graduate, currently pursuing an accounting certificate.
She cited her ability to work alongside other student Senators, and her familiarity with the faculty as reasons that would make her fitting for the job.
The other candidate running for the position was unable to attend Wednesday’s meeting, due to prior personal commitments.
Councilor Jordan Lindsay was appointed to a Hiring Committee tasked with hiring a new General Manager for the union.
Lindsay worked closely alongside last year’s GM, in his role of VP Finance, and says that after his experience, “I could not let someone who is not going to do the job properly fill that position.”
Fine Arts Lacking Representation
The Fine Arts Student Alliance’s VP Clubs and Services Erika Couto came to Wednesday’s Council meeting to voice concerns of her faculty’s representation—or lack thereof—on CSU Council.
With the recent resignations of Councillors Laura Glover, Nicolas Martel and Michael Mercer, there are currently no students representing Fine Arts students on Council—nor will there be following this week’s byelection.
The announcement of the polls, made Nov. 2, cited one open Fine Arts Councillor seat.
No one ran for it.
At the time, two Councillors were still representing Fine Arts, however since the initial announcement was made the faculty’s representation has dropped, and is currently non-existent.
Couto has begun circulating a petition requesting that the CSU hold a second byelection come January to ensure that the faculty regains its due representation on Council.
According to Couto the petition has already gained roughly 240 signatures.
She says that, as of right now, there are at least four people interested in running to fill the vacancies, herself included.
“It’s not a question of lack of interest it’s a question of one spot versus no representation at all,” Couto said.
Council responded to Couto’s concerns by passing a motion to have its financial committee look into the feasibility of holding another byelection next semester, and will report back at the next regular meeting.
UPDATE: The Link originally reported that FASA was represented by the CSU Council. Council represents students in the Fine Arts faculty but not FASA, as the CSU is not a federation. The Link originally reported that April Underwood and Adriana Farias were Fine Arts Councillors, they were Arts and Sciences Councillors. The Link regrets the errors.
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