CSU's David Smaller has big plans

While construction continues outside the Henry F. Hall Building, Concordia Student Union (CSU) president David Smaller is making plans to restructure from the inside.

"I want to fortify the student union and give it a greater sense of permanence," Smaller said in an interview last week. "I want to increase the number of permanent staff. What that means is that there will be a structure here that will provide for continuity and accountability."

CUSACorp, the commercial arm of the CSU, is running a deficit of more than $1 million, which Smaller attributes to mismanagement. He said that more permanent staff will help solve the problem by providing guidance to the CSU executive, which changes every year.

Smaller, a 27-year-old Sociology major from Toronto, is also hoping to hold a referendum on accreditation of the CSU. The University currently recognizes the CSU as representative of undergraduate students. Accreditation means this existing relationship would be bound by law.

According to Smaller, the separation from the main student union nearly 10 years ago of CASA (the Commerce and Administration Student Association) and the ECA (the Engineering and Computer Science Student Association) raised questions of jurisdiction that have yet to be answered.

"The CSU provides services to all students," Smaller said, "but they are only paid for by Arts and Science students." If 25 per cent of students vote to accredit the CSU in a referendum, Smaller claims, the University would be legally required to recognize the CSU as the only voice of undergraduate students on university-wide issues as long as Concordia exists.

The CSU president may be familiar to returning Concordia students. Last year, Smaller was the CSU's VP external. Before that, he was Concordia's recycling coordinator, attracting favourable notice by introducing worms (vermicomposting of the University's organic waste, that is).

Environmental issues will continue to be a focus for the CSU. During the Mackay St. concert on September 18, the CSU will present a proposal to turn Mackay St. into a park to representatives of the city of Montreal.

"I'm happy to say that this is the first year that the CSU itself will be handing in a proposal to actually make the greening of Mackay happen," Smaller said.

In a referendum two years ago, Concordia students approved the Greening of Mackay project. Since then, five cents of each undergraduate's student association and activity fee goes toward this project.

Another important project for the CSU is encouraging students to get involved in the student union. Smaller said that first-year students in particular should take part in the union's committees and activities.

"If you don't have first-year students getting involved now," Smaller said, "then this union will have no living history."

At the national level, Smaller is aiming to change history through the CSU's newly-acquired membership in the Canadian Federation of Students. He believes post-secondary education should either be free to students or not publiclyfunded at all. "It is an injustice that something that everyone pays for is becoming more and more inaccessible to low-income Canadians," he said.

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