WLUSU board meeting update: Nov. 20

When the Wilfrid Laurier University Students’ Union board of directors met on Friday for the first time in a month, tensions were high, specifically concerning the recommendations put forward by the Elections Review committee, which was chaired by director Chris Oberle.

The board was conflicted on a number of recommendations and motions put forward, which caused animosity amongst the board especially between chair Saad Aslam and various directors.

Frustrations during the four hour meeting reached a peak when Aslam was asked to “slow the fuck down” by director Andrew Fryer, after Fryer expressed concern that he was being railroaded into making bad decisions.

Other directors appeared visibly upset or verbally voiced their disappointment regarding the various issues being discussed.

At one point director Sunny Chan expressed his frustrations with the recommendations put forward stating that the Elections Review committee was “contradicting themselves” and that “WLUSU is at war with themselves.”

The committee made a number of recommendations that failed including:

1) That WLUSU should be allowed to offer an opinion on referendum questions that students vote on (currently WLUSU is not allowed to take a stance);

2) That candidates will only need two signatures to enter the election (as opposed to the current 25, 50, 100, etc. that have been required);

3) That if there are not enough candidates those that run will be acclaimed (with the possibility of a by-election to fill the remaining spots) as opposed to extending the application deadline;

4) That candidates are unable to campaign on election day.

A concern repeatably expressed by directors was that they would not be able to meet quorum if candidates were not allowed to campaign on election day.

Recommendations from the committee that did pass include:

1) Changing policy so that assistant vice-presidents cannot be on a campaign team (unless they are running for election);

2) Only having one student at large (as opposed to the previous two) sit on the elections committee.

3) To reimburse candidates for the full amount they spend campaigning (within the limit that is set for them).

It was also noted that it was very unlikely that elections would be moving online, though last year it was suggested that the website would be able to handle these capabilities by the 2010 elections.

Following the heated election debate, the board passed a report by the Environmental Sustainability Policy Development Committee as well as the Brantford Campus Council Realignment Committee.

The board also passed two monitoring reports provided by president Laura Sheridan, which involved the treatment of consumers and global executive constraint. A report on environmental sustainability was sent back to management.

Other updates provided by Sheridan include that WLUSU will be installing a digital sign outside of the Fred Nichols Campus Centre (FNCC) with money from the Student Life Levy and that WLUSU’s revenues this year are $96,000 above the projected numbers.