Red Red Whine

Online GA Gripes are Misguided

OpinionsHilary Sinclair — Published March 6, 2012

There has been a lot of griping and confusion lately about how “undemocratic” General Assemblies being held by the Concordia Student Union and other student associations are.

And while people may love hearing the sound of their own voices, one thing at this point in our historical apathy is pretty clear: most students don’t actually have the right to complain about the way the strike vote is being handled. They have not earned the right.

The last CSU election, for example, only saw 5.8 per cent of eligible students exercising their democratic rights. Now, I’m not trying to discount the importance of democracy or voting, but the GA’s are being held under unique circumstances.

We were formally introduced to this fight back on Nov. 3 when the Arts and Sciences Federation of Associations and the CSU held a joint Special General Assembly to vote on participation in the massive Nov. 10 province-wide Day of Action.

In that vote, students had to wait for nearly an hour to make quorum, with 98 per cent of those who bothered to show up voting in favor of protesting.

Then students were given another chance to voice their opinion on the matter during the three-day CSU November byelection that saw 1,288 students vote against the hikes. This represents 80 per cent of students who bothered to cast ballots—a clear and sweeping majority. Where were all these dissenting voices then?

Last week, seven student associations held GA’s to vote on individual strike mandates. Some of those associations could have done a better job at informing their students of voting perhaps, but the information was readily available if you took interest.

But instead of showing up to vote or rallying your student associations, many students have decided to post exasperated and uniformed things to the walls of various Facebook groups that are run by people who have been begging for you to listen to them for the last two months.

Here are some of the most common complaints, ripe with logical fallacies:

Getting to Vote

Students online are vocally upset that the process is “unfair” because they can’t possibly be expected to physically get to the vote and are angry that a vote-by-proxy is illegal under CSU bylaws.

The thing is that most associations announced the dates for their GA’s at least one week in advance, which would give most individuals time to make arrangements to be there, and the CSU has been tooting their own GA horn since the beginning of the semester.

FASA, for example, also announced their voting date in an email to students on Feb. 20, which gave their membership nine full working days to make arrangements to be there.

For everyone else, if you talk to your professors and I’m sure you should be able to convince them this is important enough to miss a class.

Otherwise, the striking memberships have been doing everything in their power to get the word out through social media, emails and posters. Pay attention and you’ll have less to complain about, if anything at all.

Quorums & Referendums

Many students seem to be frustrated with a system that allows the minority to make decisions for the majority. This is an understandable concern, even if you have shown no interest up to this point. But if you voted in November you should have seen this coming.

FASA quorum is set at 2.5 per cent, and yet the March 1 meeting attracted 465 out of 3,706 students—or an eight per cent turnout.

Passing motions in general assemblies means that you have 50 per cent plus one of those who turned up voting in agreement, meaning that the majority of those who bothered to show up were in favour of strikes.

Perhaps it’s not a bad idea that the students who have actually been paying attention by attending info sessions and are actually informed will be the ones making decisions on the behalf of the ignorant.

And why aren’t we having a referendum, you ask? Because the CSU bylaws dictate that a referendum can only take place with an election or byelection. If you were so concerned, you could have brought it up with council in November.

A GA is the next best option, and it’s our only option under the existing time constraints.

What’s the Point?

Sadly, some of us are not being given the chance to vote in a faculty GA, so the CSU vote is the only way to support or not support a strike vote. Having a blanket vote for an undergraduate five-day strike allows for us to join supporters on the picket lines and boycott our classrooms. If you want to vote in a smaller arena, now is the time to rally your member association and make it happen. This is what they are being funded for.

The only valid criticism against the GA format at this point in the CSU’s approved mandate to fight the upcoming tuition hikes is that there has not been enough done within each association to alert their student membership to vote.

Apathy has got us to where we are as far as voting options go. Let’s not let apathy take away accessible education in Quebec.

It is ignorant to think that throwing more money into a broken system while plunging others into suffocating debt is something worth supporting.

But no matter how you personally feel about it, whether you are in favour or against, come out the GA on Wednesday and voice your opinion.

The CSU General Assembly is taking place downtown in H-110 and the 7th floor of the Hall Building, as well as in the Hive on Loyola. It will be live streamed and starts at 3 p.m.