Letter: ASFA Is Broken

LettersLucinda Marshall-Kiparissis — Published March 14, 2016

ASFA is broken. ASFA has been broken for as long as I’ve been at Concordia, ASFA was broken when I was on the executive of one of its member associations, and ASFA continues to be broken even as it supposedly represents me as one of 15,000 or so undergraduates in the faculty arts and science.

I’ve spoken to folks who were there in the 1990s for ASFA’s original creation, and it was never supposed to turn into what it is today. To ask an honest question: when was the last time you thought about ASFA without “scandal” in the next breath? And probably for most students in arts and science: when was the last time you directly benefited from ASFA’s resources that weren’t first given to your member association to use in a way relevant to your program and to your community?

Thankfully, there’s a referendum question you can vote on this week that will rectify this exactly: cutting out the toxicity of ASFA’s overly-centralized structure and giving power and autonomy to its member associations.

The most frustrating experience I’ve had around student politics at Concordia was ASFA’s annual general meeting in the spring of 2015. Coming after general elections which did not even reach quorum—a strong sign of ASFA’s irrelevancy to its student body at best, but more than likely an expression of discontent with the status-quo—the AGM of ASFA’s members far exceeded quorum. Binding motions were made by the members, mandating ASFA to take specific action in the fallout of revelations of systemic sexism and racism among the executives.

I remained in the audience of the ASFA council meeting which followed this AGM until 4:00 a.m., witnessing council ignore and dismiss these legitimate mandates handed to them by the students they were supposed to represent, in order to maintain clique lines.

I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was disgusted all the same. It was the perfect encapsulation of everything wrong with ASFA as it is now: over-bloated, insular, inaccessible and willing to sweep serious complaints under the rug to keep things as they are. We all deserve better than that, but we won’t get any better if we try to build on a rotten foundation.

Vote “yes” for an arts and science student governance structure that can effectively serve its body. Vote yes for an ASFA that actually works. Please, vote “yes” on the referendum question.

— Lucinda Marshall-Kiparissis