Although I have not been involved in the planning of the GA, I would sincerely hope and believe, as a fellow SRA member, that those individuals are not trying to prevent quorum or any issues from being raised. Contrary to your writings Mr. Coleman, I can confidently say there are many SRA members that are actually doing their best to represent students and would be ecstatic for an opportunity to be a part of a quorate GA.

Then why not hold it in MDCL where quorum can be accommodated? I'm sure a date/time where the room is available could be found sometime within the next 3 months...

If nothing can get accomplished at a meeting, why hold it? Just so the big wigs can stand up and try and defend the deficit they've created while eating healthy wage increases?

Hi David,

The President called a meeting on this date without consulting the SRA or the Speaker of the MSU. Many SRA members immediately voiced their concerns with Mr. Kasmani and he has set up meetings with many of them. I would guess that this will be fixed in the near future.

I've already emailed Azim my concerns - but your statement alone is a major problem. What is Azim doing calling a meeting of this caliber without consulting other people? Meetings such as this take planning, organization, *advertising* and most importantly - students. It seems as though this meeting was thrown together recently to fight fires started by the recent Sil article.

The fact that Azim has only called 2 SAC meetings this year demonstrates that he's not much into planning and organization... heck, he's not even following the policies outlined by the MSU's very own bylaws ("Bylaw 7, 3.1.6 Meet at least twice during the summer and once a month during the academic year"). So what makes me think he's qualified to schedule and run a General Assembly which is supposed to host about 600 people that's thrown together in a couple weeks?

Azim's a really nice guy... don't get me wrong. But I've seen nothing but crap out of the MSU for the past 5 years and unfortunately, Azim was unable to fix it.

Advertisements were going up today. I had seen people putting them up around campus today and the poster monkeys will have done their rounds this evening.

Just based on my observation of how the planning for this has timed out, it would be impossible that this would have been prompted in any way by the article as we were given all the details on Wednesday, the day before the article was published.

The Sil article is a whole completely different story and in my opinion is entirely sensationalized and lacking in some key details. I did bring my concerns to the author of the article... what an experience that was.

Actually, the MSU president was well aware this article was coming. Newspaper articles don't magically appear on paper. They are written days (sometimes weeks) in advance.

Please tell me you don't actually believe the interview was done the same day the paper appeared on newsstands.

What facts in the article were wrong? You want to go after The Silhouette for publishing information, you better have more than "we don't like it."

I can't even think of a reason anyone would want to hold a GA in response to the article after having seen how it was written. Corrections will be printed next week and that's that. Don't believe everything you read. Newspapers need headlines now and again.

I went into the office saying that the article was, as I had said before, sensationalized and missing key information! It was ultimately very misleading.

Again, same question:

What information in the article was false?

Originally Posted by Chris.Martin;

Hey everyone, I'm Chris Martin, SRA Humanities and commissioner of the University Affairs committee.

If you're reading this, or have read the recent Silhouette article, please take it with a grain of salt. The MSU isn't perfect, and is sometimes inefficient, but I know very few people who aren't there because they care. I know a few resume-padders for sure, but on the whole, the people that are taking time to respond to your concerns (like Ms. Brown) aren't doing so because of any alterior motives.

They're trying to answer you the best way they can.

1. Mr. Coleman, I'm actually a fan, but your allegation that MSU officials are the highest paid in Canada isn't true, USC pays their president around 35,000, and I am relatively sure there are a few higher ones.

Your tone isn't very constructive. I have a theory about this. I'd be more than happy to sit down with you and talk about your issues with the MSU, but you're not interested in that are you?

I remember when you came up to me during the candidate's debate. We were screening questions (weeding out "WHY DO CONSERVTIVES/LIBERALS SUCKKK" type stuff, everything else got up), and you came up wanting to know what their plan for local representation as a backbencher would be.

I thought it was a great question, except you wanted to stand up and ask it yourself, when Norman Kearney, moderator of the debate, was asking the questions.

We didn't give you special privileges, and when I asked you if you wanted me to put your question up with an (ASK THIS) note written on it, you said no and walked away.

What this tells me about you is this: You were more interested in the attention than the question. I think you might be pulling the same thing here. Maybe this is why you're more interested in criticizing our characters than discussing things honestly and candidly.

Outrage sure is romantic, but it doesn't accomplish anything. Temara's been answering you because she cares. She might not have all the information, but you've been using this to humiliate her. You don't know anything about her time in the SRA, the work she's done, the hours she's poured in.

I just wondered if you'd even stopped to think about how you're treating people.

2. ALL Wages went up in the MSU last year, not just the executives. Thats the real crime of that terribly written, grammatically challenged Silhoutte article. The entire organization was pay-scaled, and all paid staff members saw a wage increase.

3. That article broke several CEP Journalistic Ethics standards.

We shall give an accurate account of what people say. Quotations, editing, sound effects, etc., and the sequence in which they are presented, must not distort the meaning of people’s words.

-Several of Ian's quotes in that article completely distorted the meaning of his words. I think this is obvious if you look at it honestly.

We shall strive to ensure that the information disseminated is fair and accurate, avoiding the expression of comment and conjecture as established fact and falsification by distortion, selection or misrepresentation.

-The sequence of events the article describes completely distorts the actual order that they happened. The SRA didn't know about Quarters until we'd already approved the wage increase for the entire organization.

4. General Assembly

There has been a mistake made with this one, and hopefully we will be able to re-plan the event. I was hoping my committee would be able to strategize for a GA that would be conducive to being productive, but this was sprung on us last second.

This isn't the GA Students deserve. If there isn't another this year (which there will be if I have anything to say about it), you can bet the one after that will be better.

--------

Anyways, this has been long, but I want to impress upon this discussion that you're speaking to fellow students.

The "evil" MSU is made up of people that you probably lived with back in Res. We're those same imperfect people. Most of us try hard though, sometimes with very little success and never with gratitude.

Imagine it was you. You wouldn't want your name dragged through the mud if the person doing the dragging was distorting things.

1) Compensation: The MSU President is provided a free apartment in Bates. Market Value for it is calculated by the number of students the room normally houses (2) and the cost of rent for those two students. This makes the MSU President the highest compensated student politician in the country. Add on the free bus passes, good health and dental (a better plan than the student plan) and you get the real compensation figure for the MSU president.

2) Did all staff receive 24%?

3) The SRA knew Quarters was losing hundreds of thousands of dollars. It was not secret, one only needs to look at the books. Further, the MSU should (I say should because the SRA doesn't actually ask for monthly financial reports) know how much money is coming in and out of businesses on a daily basis. That's why accounting is done on computers. If the SRA didn't know, then it is the SRA's own neglect in not asking. There are student unions which have audit committees which look at the books on a monthly basis. Further, two members of the Executive were on the SRA last year. Why didn't they inform you of the deficit the MSU is now in?

3) I cannot speak to the quotes.

4) I hope so. That said, the GA is not supposed to be a surprise. It is an annual event which is mandated.

Hi all,

Please stay on topic here, this posting is about the GA event on Jan 29th. On a constructive note, let's recap what's been brought up here. Temara posted an announcement for a preplanned event, something we regularly do here at MacInsiders is post events happening on campus to keep students informed. She didn't plan the GA event, only posted the event info. Joey brought up a problem with the event which is that in order for anything discussed/passed at the event to be binding, there needs to be at least quorum in attendance (580 people as pointed out by David). The location selected, GH, doesn't hold that amount of people if staying within fire code, so a new location needs to be chosen.

While discussions about the Sil article, Quarters, and Joey Coleman are nice, they are off topic, feel free to open a thread about the Sil article and pick it apart... but don't do it here. If you have constructive ideas to add about a new location or how the event could have been better organized, then feel free to add your comment in.

If there are updates about the GA event changing locations, we'll keep you posted.

What about defending the Sil article as opposed to picking it apart? are we allowed to do that?

Originally Posted by owenadam

What about defending the Sil article as opposed to picking it apart? are we allowed to do that?

You're allowed to speak your mind in a constructive and polite manner, as everyone is. You want to defend it, go right ahead. All sides of an argument should be put forth, so have at'er!

Originally Posted by fullsmash26

1) Compensation: The MSU President is provided a free apartment in Bates. Market Value for it is calculated by the number of students the room normally houses (2) and the cost of rent for those two students. This makes the MSU President the highest compensated student politician in the country. Add on the free bus passes, good health and dental (a better plan than the student plan) and you get the real compensation figure for the MSU president.

Isn't it a one-bedroom apartment? How did you arrive at the housing of 2 students?

Floor plan on each floor is the same. The rooms above the MSU president with the exact same layout house two students.

The University would rent the space to house two students.