Report by Two Executives Recommends More Hierarchy in the CSU

Suggestions Include Lowering the Number of Executives, and Hiring More Non-Elected Employees

NewsMiriam Lafontaine — Published September 25, 2017

The accusation came after Riaz and El Alaoui accepted an offer to go to the Student Union Development Summit, hosted by the Alma Mater Society at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. The travel expenses were paid by Lev Bukhman, the CEO of the CSU’s insurance provider Alliance pour la Santé Étudiante au Québec.

The report on the conference, written by Riaz and El Alaoui, also received criticism by council for its recommendations. The report’s recommendations include implementing long-term strategic goals, lowering the union’s number of executives, hiring more non-elected employees, and moving away from its current non-hierarchical structure.

“The purpose of [the report] is just to look at the best practices,” explained El Alaoui. “If you don’t have these kinds of discussions, how can you grow as an organization?”

Both Riaz and El Alaoui want to reiterate that the recommendations made in the report are merely suggestions for their executive team and council to consider, and though these recommendations are being made it doesn’t mean that they will be adopted in the near future.

In the end, it would be up to council to decide whether these recommendations hold merit, since CSU executives do not have voting power. Even so, the recommendations listed give an interesting look into what they consider to be possible future directions for the CSU.

Smaller Executive Team

“I think that consensus is, at times, difficult to have, because people have varying opinions,” said Riaz.

One suggestion is that the executive team be made smaller, bringing it down from eight members. They suggest an odd number of executives to prevent ties in voting. They also suggest the merging of two or more positions, so that the total number be brought down to seven or less.

“The concern was, the more executives we have, the more we have to pay them,” explained Riaz.

Hierarchical Structure

Riaz says that he takes pride in the fact that the CSU tries to have a non-hierarchal structure, but the suggestions in the report are contradictory.

The report suggests the implementation of a “non-rotational hierarchy,” which they say could be achieved by hiring more permanent employees to take on some of the tasks that are usually completed by the executive team. El Alaoui said that these employees, like all other permanent employees at the CSU, should be hired rather than elected.

“Having a managerial role helped them to tackle more projects,” El Alaoui said of UBC’s student union. “Things aren’t being executed on because people can’t reach a consensus, [which] impedes progress, and stops projects from moving forward.”

When asked what sorts of tasks these employees could take on, Riaz was unable to give a concrete answer.

The report also suggests going back to using the terms president and vice-presidents, despite a referendum question passed by CSU members—undergraduate students—two years ago that changed this.

“What they are recommending is a huge step backwards, from something that the CSU has been working on for years,” said Rowan Gaudet, an Arts and Science councillor with the CSU.

“What they are recommending is a huge step backwards, from something that the CSU has been working on for years,” said Rowan Gaudet.

“I think the comment in the report that having this one source of leadership is the best way for the CSU is really just a huge misunderstanding of how leadership works, and how organizations like the CSU should work,” he continued.

In the most recent CSU election last March, the general coordinator’s power under the “president’s decree” was trimmed. Before, the general coordinator had the ability to act immediately in emergency situations by issuing a decree that would not be required to go through council first. Now, general coordinators can only issue president’s decrees if another three executives sign on to the agreement.

“I come from a business background, and I’ve never seen anything like this being done,” said El Alaoui. “Having a non-hierarchal system impedes efficiency.”

Student Unions Out West

In another section of the report, the two take note on how other student unions in Canada tend to operate, especially drawing inspiration from the AMS at UBC. They write that “other student unions make it a point to have a good relationship with their university, [and] this enables them to cooperate on more projects.”

They also write that “other student unions are less politically focused, more focused on building their students’ academic and professional experiences, [and that] this results in a much higher engagement rate.”

Both Riaz and El Alaoui say that this was merely their observation of how other student unions in Canada run, rather than a suggestion of how Concordia student organizing should change.

Gaudet was upset by the wording, saying that he originally read the section as a recommendation. He said while that part may have not been intended as a suggestion, it shows what the two saw as important and noteworthy, and for that reason is still problematic.

“There really seemed to be a lack of understanding of the difference between Quebec student associations and non-Quebec student associations,” Gaudet said. “I completely disagree that we should be aiming for a purely positive relationship with the university, because the university represents different interests than we do.”

Strategic Planning

Riaz and El Alaoui hope that the CSU could create long-term strategic goals, in the same way that Concordia’s administration does through its nine “strategic directions.” These long-term goals could be voted in through referendums, and could help strengthen institutional knowledge with the union. They said having long-term goals would also be useful since campaigns often get dropped as new executives get elected and start new plans.

To achieve this, the report suggested the creation of a committee to oversee the process, with the general coordinator and finance coordinator as the only representatives from the CSU’s executive team. It also suggests that the CSU’s non-elected general manager also sit on the committee. There is no mention on the report as to who on the committee would have voting rights.

“It’s just a recomendation,” said Riaz. “We could definitely have more executives on it.”

Other Recommendations

Other recommendations made in the report included restructuring the fee-levy system, implementing online voting for elections, and employing a number of in-house employees to aid students through the process of using the ASEQ health insurance.

While the report was presented at their last meeting, El Alaoui said that the discussion didn’t go very far since the topic was overshadowed by accusations of conflict of interest. The two say they hope to have council look at the report again in the future.

“This is definitely something we’d like to do, I’m not sure exactly when the right time would be, because of the situation that has become of this whole report,” said Riaz.

El Alaoui said that he and Riaz haven’t had a chance to discuss the report in depth with their executive team, but El Alaoui seemed hopeful in face of the opposition.

“Conflict isn’t a bad thing, for any organization to grow there needs to be some butting of heads,” he said, “because that’s how you get to progress.”