Variety of candidates up for student election

By Stephen Day

The Concordia Student Union (CSU) elections will be held March 23-25 to fill 30 seats on the Council of Representatives, five on the University Senate, two on the Board of Governors, and the highly contested CSU executive positions.

Candidates for the CSU executive positions run as part of a specific slate. How many candidates are on a slate can vary according to the aims and wishes of the candidates. Three slates are frontrunners in this year’s elections: Concordians in Action, New Evolution, and Renaissance Concordia.

Concordians in Action say they support sustainability and positive student involvement at the university. They are seen as more left-leaning than the other two main slates.

The New Evolution slate aims to pick up where the current CSU executive slate, Evolution Not Revolution, left off. Evolution Not Revolution’s stance has been both criticized and commended for keeping its distance from political activism on campus.

Renaissance Concordia is a returning slate. They say they want to start co-operative daycare at Concordia and work with the Sustainable Concordia Project. They also say they will expand the CSU’s student advocacy centre to deal with racism and discrimination.

The Reinstating Concordia’s Main Purpose (RCMP) slate wants non-students to become involved in campus politics and students to focus on their academic pursuits. RCMP also wants to change the name of Java U, a popular campus coffee shop, to Java Us.

Free Thinkers Absolute Riot 99 is a joke party. “We have nothing for you,” said Nic Boshart, the candidate for the “VP Testing the Limits of Democracy and Witch-Hunts” position, at Thursday’s slate presidents’ debate.

AAArt Matters for President is a group of students primarily concerned with promoting fine arts and the Art Matters festival on campus.

The Communists in Action slate says it will implement former Soviet ideals at Concordia. They say they want more security measures taken on campus, including armed guards on Concordia’s shuttle buses. Samer Elatrash heads the Evolutionary-Progressive Zionist division slate.

There are also three referendum questions on the ballot.

The first is a CSU by-law modification which would unify the CSU fee, Art Matters fee, Student Centre fee and I/EAC fee into one refundable CSU fee.

The second is the Frigo Vert fee levy, which would change the student co-op food store’s refundable fee of $1.70 per student per semester to $0.25 per credit. The fee would also be made subject to change according to the consumer price index for the City of Montreal.

The third question is an increase in student fees paid to the Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG), a student-run social justice and environmental organization, from $0.30 per credit to $0.35 per credit.

There is a “meet the candidates” event this evening at Reggie’s and Java U in the Hall Building from 5-7 p.m. and a slate presidents’ debate on Monday, March 22, from 12-3 p.m. in the 7th floor cafeteria in the Hall Building.

Polls are open March 23-25 from 10 a.m.- 8 p.m. at various locations around campus. Voters must bring a valid Concordia ID. Faculty members have been asked to release students 15 minutes early to vote.