Pretty Vacant

ConU BoG Missing Student Rep

NewsCorey Pool — Published September 4, 2012

“I’ve been told that the secretary of the Board has not yet received the name from the CSU of the regular [undergraduate] representative,” said Concordia spokesperson Chris Mota. “The only name that she has received is that of the alternate governor.”

At a Concordia Student Union council meeting held in June, CSU President Schubert Laforest was elected by council to represent undergraduate students at BoG.
Former CSU President Lex Gill was also elected as the alternate undergraduate rep.

At the last BoG meeting, which also took place in June, new members were appointed and approved as part of the student union changeover and the restructuring of the Board—which was cut from 40 to 25 members last year.

When the motion arrived to approve undergraduate representatives, Laforest’s name was missing from the list.

“It’s the CSU’s responsibility to provide the names [of student representatives] and I’ve been told that that has not been done,” said Mota.

Despite repeated attempts to contact Laforest, The Link was unable to reach him for comment.

However, The Link was able to contact VP Clubs and Internal Nadine Atallah, who said she didn’t know anything about his absence from the list.
“That’s not something at all that I know about, unfortunately,” said Atallah. “Schubert is really the one who’s been taking care of governance issues. […] Governance is really his area of expertise.”

Atallah was able to confirm that Laforest was in fact elected by council, and should be on the list.

This is not the first time that questions have been raised about Laforest’s status at the university.

He and VP Academic and Advocacy Lucia Gallardo were disqualified from running in the CSU elections last spring by the CSU Chief Electoral Officer due to allegedly not being registered Concordia students.

The two were quickly reinstated by the Judicial Board, who said that no evidence was shown to prove that they were not students.
Laforest and Gallardo attributed their disqualifications to problems with their visas and missing paperwork.

The university has several rules in place that outline whether or not a student is eligible to sit on BoG.

According to Article 12 of the university’s bylaws, students elected to the Board must be registered undergraduate or graduate students in at least one course or for-credit activity, as well as being in good academic standing.

The bylaws also state that if a student has been sanctioned under the university’s Code of Rights and Responsibilities or the Academic Code of Conduct within the three previous years, they are not eligible to sit on BoG.

The next BoG meeting is scheduled for Sept. 28.