Zhuo Ling Resigns

CSU VP Finance ‘Unable to Fulfill Time Commitments

NewsChristopher Curtis — Published January 4, 2011

Ling, who was appointed to the CSU’s executive after former VP Finance Nikki Tsoflikis resigned soon after her slate was elected in March 2010, announced his resignation at the CSU’s Dec. 8 Council meeting.

“He came to me a few weeks ago and was quite honest with me about not being able to fulfill his time commitment anymore,” said CSU President Heather Lucas. “It’s better he resign now than midway through next semester. It gives us time to prepare.”

Ling is the fourth person to resign from the CSU’s executive during Fusion’s mandate. Tsoflikis and former President Prince Ralph Osei resigned last summer and Lucas resigned as VP Services when she replaced Osei in August.

At the Dec. 8 council meeting, CSU VP Clubs & Outreach Ramy Khoriaty was appointed to replace Ling as of today, when Ling’s resignation takes effect. In addition to his current duties as VP Clubs & Outreach, Khoriaty will administer the CSU’s $1.8 million operating budget and serve as the director of CUSACorp, the union’s for-profit arm.

Lucas said Khoriaty was “the logical choice” to fill the vacancy because he worked closely with Ling on the allocation of club budgets and handled financial requisitions from the union’s 61 clubs.

CUSACorp, which owns and operates on-campus bar Reggie’s, has undergone a shakeup of its own in recent weeks. On Nov. 24, Lucas resigned as one of the CSU subsidiary’s directors. Since provincial law prohibits a non-Canadian resident from being a director at a companies holding a liquor license, Lucas—an international student from Texas—had to step down when she was notified of this law.

“I only found out about [the law] when one of the CSU’s office managers was filing a notice of the appointment of new directors,” said Lucas. “It was an innocent mistake and it won’t affect any of the decisions I made as director.”

CUSACorp’s board of directors approved the appointment of Marlow Wilson, a manager at Reggie’s, to serve as one of the directors at CUSACorp while the CSU finds a replacement for Lucas. The CSU is expected to appoint a councillor or several councillors to fill the three vacant director positions at CUSACorp during the union’s next council meeting on Jan. 12.

During Ling’s time as VP Finance, Reggie’s raised over a thousand dollars for various local charities by instituting a cover charge on Thursday nights. The student-run bar posted a deficit of $7,214.40 in October, which Ling attributed to Concordia food policies making it difficult for Reggie’s to sell food and a long liquor-license renewal process.

“Reggie’s is a service we provide for the students,” said Ling at a November council meeting, adding that profit was not the bar’s primary goal.

While Ling served as director of CUSACorp, the CSU subsidiary posted profits in September and October. CUSACorp also settled a lease disagreement with one its tenants in October, netting the CSU’s profit-making arm $20,000 in unpaid rent from Java U.

This article originally appeared in Volume 31, Issue 17, published January 4, 2011.