Memorial student union axex presidential position

Political Science Society president calls for referendum

KATIE HYSLOP THE MUSE (MEMORIAL UNIVERSITY OF NEWFOUNDLAND)

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. (CUP) — The student union at the Memorial University of Newfoundland gave the position of president the kiss-off in a vote of 18 to three on Valentine’s Day.

The motion removed the hierarchy of four vice-presidents and one president, replacing it with five executive directors of equal power.

The motion was the idea of Katherine Giroux-Bougard, current president of the student union (MUNSU).

She said she was inspired by student unions in B.C., both members and non-members of the Canadian Federation of Students, but noted that the structure is not exactly the same.

“We kind of made a mix between what we had in the past, and then this new structure, so we tried to compromise instead of completely changing everything.”

Giroux-Bougard said the executive and board of directors should be making decisions together, and that this move will both spread the workload evenly, and increase accountability and clarity in the council.

“We found that the president didn’t really have much of a job description, to be honest, and I, as president, have found that you’re kind of stepping on other people’s jobs while trying to do your job, because apart from attending official functions, it’s pretty much all that is in the president’s job description.”

Initially, the move did not receive much support from the union, including some of its executive members, but Giroux-Bougard believes it was because of the initial shock.

But Shannon Tobin, president of the Political Science Society, still isn’t convinced.

He and several of his friends circulated a petition, which he submitted to the union, to stop MUNSU from changing its executive structure.

“I’m not in disagreement with the amendment, per se. I’m in disagreement with an executive that claims to represent the people, voting to change themselves. This should have been put to a referendum,” Tobin said.

Tobin attended the Feb. 14 meeting, where he was accused of trying to filibuster the meeting in order to keep a decision from being reached by the end — an accusation Tobin did not deny, though he said it was not his plan.

“The only thing that we were planning [for the meeting] was to do whatever we could to stop them from passing this, and if it had to be to filibuster it out and have it tabled for the next meeting, then that was what we were going to have to do,” he said.

Tobin is currently in the process of drawing up a second petition, this time demanding that MUNSU hold a referendum on the decision.

According to MUNSU’s constitution, a student must collect signatures from at least 10 per cent of undergraduate students at Memorial to force a referendum.

“Before our student union does such an action . . . you should at least consult the students directly, and the most direct form of democracy on this campus is having a referendum,” he said.

Giroux-Bougard said as long as the petition meets the criteria, a referendum would have to be held, though she believes it isn’t necessary.

“We have a board of 40 members that are elected from every faculty, department, constituency group on campus, who, to be quite honest, are quite capable of making that decision. There was ample time to have a discussion on it.”