How extraordinarily pathetic....

I have had a somewhat... lurid fascination... with that peculiar organisation known as the Concordia Students' Union. Its executives, councillors, and bureaucrats have varied from time to time, and the the ideology of the current group differs quite strongly from the radicals that generated a great deal of controversy in 2001/2002. Accordingly, the current CSU controversy is purely internal, involving a ten month long dispute over whether two individuals (Steven Rosenshein [a former CSU executive] and David Korgut) who ran in last year's general election were eligible to do so.

But since then, things have gone seriously downhill. A meeting held to deal with the issue raised far more questions than it answered. An opinion piece sums up just some of the craziness that has afflicted the CSU:

Last March, the student union Judicial Board (a body that is supposed to be the check on council’s authority) found two students, Steven Rosenshein and David Kogut, guilty of committing electoral fraud in the CSU general elections. The decision was allegedly overturned by the outgoing council in a special meeting.

However, the minutes of this special meeting have never been provided (Noah Stewart, spokesperson for the CSU, claims they’ve been stolen) and two of last years’ councillors have signed affidavits stating they were never informed of this meeting to overturn the decision.

....

The council-appointed chair of this circus, Sarah Rodier, took The Link by surprise when she admitted in the paper one day prior to the November council meeting that she did, in fact, see a copy of the minutes of the special meeting where the JB decision was overturned—but “didn’t recall” when she saw them or who showed them to her. Astonishingly, in front of the entire council and observers, she recanted, saying that she “didn’t recall” ever saying she saw a copy of the minutes. Is this enough information to call Rodier a liar? You decide.

Adding to the gong-show, Rodier didn’t see it as a conflict of interest to allow Rosenshein to vote on the motion directly involving him. Kogut was not present—he can be removed from council just by the number of meetings he’s missed.

....

The Judicial Board’s office—along with all the files and documents—were moved this summer without the knowledge of the JB members....

Then suddenly the missing minutes allegedly turned up... and CSU Council then promptly adopted a motion banning further discussion on the whole entire issue.

The Concordian summed up the whole issue with a recent editorial: Is there yet hope for CSU accountability?

Here are a few conclusions that I can draw from this:

1. Support the freedom of the press! The links that I have in this blog entry are just a smidgen of the many news articles, letters to the editor, and editorials that one can find on this subject in The Link and The Concordian.
2. Bring your students' unions out of the shadows. By this, I am referring specifically to the shady meeting that allegedly had inadequate notice, and whose minutes were allegedly lost for many months only to surface much later.... This sort of dysfunctionality can (and often is) used quite deliberately to cover up power-grabs of various sorts.
   
3. If things are getting really bad, then call up a lawyer. Here, it seems as though both sides are simply throwing around allegations and home-made interpretations of the CSU bylaws. This doesn't lead to any kind of resolution of the issue, it simply leads to further bickering down the road....
   

The Ubyssey and The Link Archives Gone

Both The Ubyssey and The Link, student newspapers for The University of British Columbia and Concordia University respectively, have unveiled new websites to better service their members. Unfortunately, both websites have, in the process, taken down all archived material from years past! (Boo! Hiss! Lament!) Fortunately, archives of The Ubyssey from 1918 to 1998 are available online courtesy of The University of British Columbia Archives.

Interesting Videos on YouTube...

• Ever wondered what goes on at Canadian Federation of Students general meetings?
  
  
• So many posters, so little wall space... Concordia Students' Union Poster Night 2004

Students for a Democratic Society Reborn

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the left-wing American student activist organization made famous in the 1960s, has been revived. In an interview on an anarchist website, SDS organizer Patrick Korte explains that the new Students for a Democratic Society is meant to be a student-centered organization that is nonetheless open to non-students:

"Over the years, many students have been shafted in the American Left, and we believe it is necessary for students to lead their own organization and to determine the direction of their own movement without isolating themselves from the non-student Left.... The reason we chose to keep the name SDS is because it accurately describes us (we are students for a democratic society), the ideas expressed in the Port Huron Statement, the focus on participatory democracy, and the militancy and radicalism that defined the original SDS are much needed in the 21st century."

As the SDS Wikipedia article indicates, Students for a Democratic Society played a preeminent role in fostering student activism in the 1960s. Areas of concern included civil rights, the Vietnam War, free speech on university campuses, and democratizing academia. However, this organizing work largely took place outside the American student unions. Indeed, SDS didn't think much of them. The Port Huron Statement, the founding document of SDS, described student unions thusly:

"But apathy [among American university students] is not simply an attitude; it is a product of social institutions, and of the structure and organization of higher education itself. The extracurricular life is ordered according to in loco parentis theory, which ratifies the Administration as the moral guardian of the young. The accompanying "let's pretend" theory of student extracurricular affairs validates student government as a training center for those who want to spend their lives in political pretense, and discourages initiative from more articulate, honest, and sensitive students. The bounds and style of controversy are delimited before controversy begins. The university "prepares" the student for "citizenship" through perpetual rehearsals and, usually, through emasculation of what creative spirit there is in the individual." [emphasis added]

SDS had good reason for such a dim view of American student unions - to this day, many of them have little autonomy from their administrations. Consider for example, the University of Florida Student Government. Their Constitution (Article III, Section 8 (c) and (d) to be precise) specifies that any bill passed by the Student Senate may be vetoed by the Student Body President or by the President of the University! Talk about student power....

Canadian student unions may be more autonomous of their institutions, but they are nonetheless quite distinct from groups such as Students for a Democratic Society. A student union's membership consists of all students, regardless of political affiliation, whereas student activist groups such as SDS are controlled solely by those who agree with 'the cause.' A student union executive that sees itself as a kind of vanguard will eventually find itself replaced - witness the victory of "Evolution, Not Revolution" in the 2003 Concordia Students' Union elections following a year of radicalism.

(Hat tip: Caelie Frampton)

Canada's Next Marketing Professionals?

In my last post, I noted that the Concordia Students' Union appears to be unable to finish an election without a cry that all sorts of less-than-aboveboard shenanigans were taking place - either on the part of the Chief Electoral Officer, or the candidates, or the incumbent executive, or the Judicial Board, or the University administration, or even the alumni association. But we must give credit where credit is due. With the possible exception of UBC's Radical Beer Faction, I do believe that the budding student politicians at Concordia deserve an award for the most creative slate names. Here are the various slate names that have been chosen over the years:

2001 By-Election

• New Organized Way
• Democracy in Action
• The Left Opposition for a Really, Really Democratic Representative Union
• Students who Have an Understanding of Lampoon and Have Tremendous Zeal
• Representative Union
• An Umbrella Party

2002 Election

• Representative Union
• Team CanDo

2003 Election

• Evolution, not Revolution
• Clean Slate
• Aspiring Students Promoting Education Responsibility (ASPER)
  
• Renaissance Concordia
• Free Thinkers Parliament
• Progressive Student Alliance (Council)
  

2004 Election

• Aaart Matters for President ("determined to be at the top of the ballot")
• Free-Thinkers Absolute Riot 99
• Communists in Action (CIA)
  
• Concordians in Action (CIA)
  
• Reclaiming Concordia's Main Purpose (RCMP)
  
• Renaissance Concordia
• New Evolution
• Evolutionary Progressive Zionist Division
• Progressive Coalition for Student Involvement (Council)

2005 Election

• Evolution
• Conscious Concordia
• Movies of Tomorrow
• The Higher Cause
• A-Hole Moron Dark Wizard Force

2006 Election

• Conscious
• Experience
• Focus
• iCUpTV
• Justice
• Conscious of Interest (formerly known as Conscious Concordia?)
  

Controversy Surrounds Concordia Election, Again

For the sixth consecutive year, controversy has clouded the elections of the Concordia Students' Union. Accusations of administrative malfeasance, procedural irregularities, and bias on the part of the incumbent executive, staff, electoral officers, and university administration are hardly foreign to students' union elections, of course. But it is the rare students' union, indeed, that is able to so consistently attract allegations of improprieties. Here is a brief survey of elections at Concordia:

2001 By-Election

• Concordia Students Union appeal to Labour Unions (Sept. 31) - CSU claims University supporting recall efforts, asks outside labour unions to condemn University actions
  
• Recall petition handed in (Oct. 18) - CSU forced to hold by-election halfway through term due to a petition of 3,173 students, demanding the resignation of the incumbent executive
• Referendum Questions for upcoming CSU elections (Nov. 6)
• CSU election campaigns start today (Nov. 13) - list of slates running in by-election
• Umbrella will shelter students from slime (Nov. 20) - letter-writer accuses "harassment [againt the CSU by] prominent newspapers, Concordia administrators, lobby groups, anonymous right-wing zealots"
• Keefer is the conspirator: candidate (Nov. 20) - candidate accuses incumbent executive of choosing timing of election, number of ballot booths to their partisan advantage
• Referendum questions: why should you bother? (Nov. 27) - The Link alleges that CSU deliberately ran deceitful referendum questions
• CSU hopefuls debate policies (Nov. 27) - Representative Union slate slammed for allegedly being supported by University administration
• Bribery scandal on eve of election (Nov. 27) - Representative Union disqualified for bribery
• CSU Elections hit road block (Nov. 27) - Disqualification of Representative Union reversed
• Candidate receives death threats (Dec. 4) - No commentary necessary
• Representative Union wins CSU election (Dec. 6)
• Why did we bother voting? (Jan. 8, 2002) - Various improprieties summarized
• Interim government ratified by council (Jan. 10) - By-election results delayed due to contestations before Judicial Board
• CSU by-elections annulled in 3-1 vote (Jan. 22)
• Bernans: my face is red (Mar. 12) - CSU staffer criticizes election slate that might have been his future employer
  

2002 Election

• CSU Election slates (Mar. 12) - Team CanDo vs. Representative Union
• CanDo wins election by 327 votes (Mar. 29)
  
• Cando wins, Schulz loses in CSU elections (Apr. 2)

2002 By-Election

• CSU by-elections risk annulment (Oct. 2) - due to various problems
  

2003 Election

• Candidates face off in debates (Mar. 18)
• Election notes (Mar. 25) - Slates accused of tearing down each others' posters
• Alumni could play important role in CSU elections (Mar. 25) - University allegedly violated privacy laws by giving student contact information to Alumni Associatoin
• Evolution wins by landslide (Mar. 28)
• So ya say ya want an Evolution? (Apr. 1)
• CEO disqualifies two councillors (Apr. 30) - for submitting fraudulant campaign finance disclosure forms

2004 Election

• Evolution gets wrist slapped (Mar. 16) - for campaign-related violence by its supporters
• Farrington deceiving students (Mar. 23) - CFS-Q criticizes candidate in CSU election, even as one of their own executives is running in the election
  
• Elatrash support telling (Mar. 23) - Samer Elatrash allegedly lied about having put up posters for slate
• Impeach the president: CEO (Mar. 23) - Chief Electoral Officer publicly demands the head of CSU President for allegedly interfering in the election, then suddenly retracts demand
• New Evolution wins election... maybe (Mar. 30) - New Evolution slate allegedly commissioned a "push-poll" to help them win the election

2005 Election

• CSU Election Results 2005 (Apr. 1) - Evolution wins, again
• CSU election contestations (Apr. 12) - Chief Electoral Officer accused of bias; refuses to punish Evolution for campaign violations

2006 Election

• Experienced at what? (Mar. 21) - Chief Electoral Officer accused of bias in support of Experience slate
  
• Conscious uses posters, decreases voter turn-out (Mar. 21) - Conscious Concordia accused of trying to lower turn-out for partisan purposes
• Ballot box confusion (Mar. 28) - "Conscious" and "Conscious Concordia" slates both on ballot; "Conscious" claims that "Conscious Concordia" is a phantom slate created by "Experience" to confuse voters,
  
• Word of the day: corruption (Mar. 28) - Conscious Concordia called "corrupt" because one of their candidates is living with someone who is suing the CSU
• CSU election results 2006 (Mar. 31) - Experience wins; comments reveal that Chief Electoral Officer walked off with the election tallies, thereby making it impossible to know whether said CEO fudged the numbers or not
  
• I still know how you voted (Apr. 4) - Ballots not anonymous, plus a number of other incompetences alleged on the part of the Chief Electoral Officer
• CSU elections shows signs of Watergate (Apr. 11) - Due to fake slate "Conscious Concordia" being on ballot, led by a supporter of Evolution