Editorial

Bring Bodies to the Board Room

OpinionsAlex Manley — Published September 26, 2011

Concordia’s Board of Governors seems to think they’re stuck in some sort of 28 Days Later scenario. I think they picture a Concordia campus void of students; building after building empty, wind whistling through unoccupied desks, blackboards gathering dust.

They must, anyway, or else I’m sure students would place somewhere on their priority list—right?

The school’s highest governing body doesn’t seem to think that our representation matters, even though a cursory glance at the bustling activity going on at the actual university will prove that we account for 35,000-plus of the Concordia community’s population.

A committee on the Board recommended they cut student representation by a whopping 36 per cent, while other groups’ proportional representation is set to—well, to put it in basic mathematical terms—increase.
It’s all the more fucked that we’re being squeezed out given what’s coming up: an unprecedented commercial contract for a student centre, and a 75 per cent province-wide tuition spike. These situations are the exact reason we need student representatives on the Board.

Choosing to listen to students and giving them a serious place to participate in the university’s governance isn’t, as Bram Freedman, Concordia’s VP Institutional Relations and Secretary General said, “cherry picking”—it’s common sense.

The ‘alternate governor’ position they’ve proposed (to keep the lone undergraduate student representative company?) will have no real power and can’t speak or vote at meetings. The fact that they’d include it is insulting. We’re at a used-car dealership being sold a lemon, and they’re throwing in a free air freshener.

We need another voice at the table—if not more—and we’ve got to keep our proportional representation intact. Students are more than just the raison d’être of the school—we also happen to generate 40 per cent of the cash flow. We’re serious stakeholders and should be treated as such by the Board.

We’ve yet to hear any good reasons to deny students space on the Board, and Interim President Frederick Lowy even admitted to CBC’s Daybreak on Sept. 13 that he wasn’t sure it was a good idea.

Bill 38—the admin’s stated reasoning behind the shrinkage—is a piece of dead legislature. Barring a Lazarus-esque amendment, it’s not coming back; it’s a moot point. If the BoG has any opinion other than “We don’t think students should have any power because we’re uncomfortable giving up any of ours,” I’m sure we’d all love to hear them.

But you know what? Student presence is incredibly powerful, so we’re asking regular students and community members who read The Link and give a shit to show up to the Board meeting Sept. 28 at 8:00 a.m. (it’s early, we know, but it’s important) in EV 2.260 and make their presence felt. If you can’t be there, you can follow the CSU on Twitter (@ajwest) or like their Facebook page.

Speaking of which, the external Board members could be taking some PR hints from their student governor counterparts in terms of accessibility, transparency and dialogue.

Board Chair Peter Kruyt, of all people, has never agreed to an interview and doesn’t appear to want to ever publically clear the air over some of the puzzling decisions that were made during his tenure.

Lowy told Daybreak that, while he doesn’t know Kruyt’s intentions, “[He] also has a job which he does not want to involve in any way in his extra-curricular activities.”

Great excuse, but this university is not an “extra-curricular activity” for those of us attending it, and if Kruyt is too shy or too busy to speak to students and the community he serves, he could step down like we unanimously called him to in January and let us get serious about the direction of governance at our school.

It’s time for multi-stakeholder discussions about the future of this university, and they need to seriously include students. There are too many important issues on the horizon, like the search for a new president and the huge possibilities for reform in Concordia’s bylaws and Charter.

At the end of the day, we’re the bodies in the seats; we’re the ones walking up the broken escalators; we’re the people staying up nights in the library on a Red Bull and a prayer.

This is our university and the decisions that are facing it are too important to leave us out of the picture. Add another seat for students at the table.

—Alex Manley
Copy Editor