THE MCGILL TRIBUNE Volum e 5, Num ber 22
P i c k e r s g i l l , by Adeeb Khalid An unusually high turnout marked last week's elections and referenda as students voted to elect a new StudSoc executive and student representative to Senate and BoC. The Daily Publications Society (DPS) had also put eleven con stitutional amendments forward for ratification. Students were voting to ac cept the new StudSoc constitution and to give their opinion on the impeach ment of the staff of the McGill Daily. The large number of questions voted upon, and the unusual turnout held up the final announcement of results till Thursday afternoon. One feature of the massive turnout, however, was the large number of spoilt ballots. Paul Pickersgill won the race for Presi dent by a wide margin. He finished with more than twice as many votes as runner-up James Donoghue who beat out Anarchist Joe Heath by merely two votes. Lindsay Classco had a large lead over Mike Cordon in the race for the position of Vice President (Internal) while Ian Brodie emerged winner in a tight three way race for VP (External). Speaking later to the Tribune, Picker sgill admitted that he had a lot to learn
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but was confident of his ability to tackle the challenges his new position would offer. "Don'-t count on my stepping into of fice just now and right some great wrong there," he said. "Students' Society on the whole is functioning bet ter now than it has in recent history." "My major concern would be to in stitute some sort of a reciprocity pro gram with other universities through which students would have access to the athletics and library facilities of other universities," he said. Pickersgill also expressed his hope for good communications with other stu dent associations on campus. "I am all for a very open, positive working rela tionship with other groups," he said. VP (External) Ian Brodie was convinc ed that StudSoc should join a broader Québec student organization. He said that the External Affairs Committee of StudSoc, on which he sits, is preparing a report on the subject. "They'd be recommending that we join either RAEU (the Rassamblement des associations étudiant(es) univer sitaires) or ANEQ (Association nationale des étudiants de Québec) and I do not
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VP External-elect Brodie (left) speaks to radio personality Robert Costain
C a n d i d a t e s by Tribune News Staff The race to succeed David Gibson as President of the Arts and Science Undergraduate Society (ASUS), the largest undergraduate faculty society at McGill, will pit Kenny Rosenstein against Rye Symons. Kenny Rosenstein has been cam paigning on the slogan, "Avoid Aliena tion. Elect Rosenstein." "It's a way of getting people's atten tion," stated the candidate, "What it means is that, hopefully, there is a movement behind me on campus to get me elected—a movement which con stitutes a majority—you're alienated from it unless you join." Rosenstein is currently President of the Economics Students' Association. The Department of Economics has been under the trusteeship of the Dean of Arts for the past year. Rosenstein, who served on the Dean's Committee to find an external chairman for the department, maintains that his ex perience and the bridges he has built in McGill administration qualifies him to be ASUS President. "W e have to work within the system. It's important to gain the respect of the deans and administration." Rosenstein remarked. Within the ASUS, Rosenstein is in terested in seeing that departmental associations play a larger role next year. "I believe in one department, one vote," Rosenstein said, "Larger depart
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ments shouldn't be allo w e a to dominate debate. It would be detrimen tal to getting the smaller associations in volved." On the question of reviving The Observer, the ASUS's official publica tion, Rosenstein is cautious. "It's only fair to say that I couldn't give you a fair assessment now. I'm not one to make rash decisions, you know." Rosenstein also promises to promote a "Big Brother" system for first year students, pairing them with upper level students to guide throughout the dif ficult first weeks of school. Rye Symons doesn't think that the structures of the ASUS need to be changed drastically, but he is determin ed, he says, to see that the grassroots are better represented. Symons, enrolled in a joint honours program in History and Political Science, is a first year student, but he has been active in the Inter-Residence Council (IRC) as a member of that body's policy committee. Symons has also served on the Honorary Degrees Committee of the McGill Senate and has been a member of the Crown Investment Society. Despite his relative lack of ex perience, Symons feels himself capable of assuming the responsibilities of the ASUS Presidency. One of the main planks of his platform is "awareness". "I know that a lot of first year students or upper level students for that matter
want to prejudice their decision by say ing anything right now. W e will, however, join one or the other." VP (Internal) elect Lindsay Classco could not be reached for comment. Meanwhile, Chris Alexander won election to the positions of both undergraduate representative to the Board of Governors and Arts rep to Senate. Randy Flemmings won the other position for Arts rep on Senate. Grace Ann Baker beat out Earl Bloom for Engineering rep to Senate. O n the other hand, McGill students gave a new C o n stitu tio n unto themselves in a fit of absentmindedness, as the number of those who had an opi nion either way. The referendum ques tion pollled 935 votes in favour and 361 against, but there were as many as 1435 voters with no opinion. Spoilt ballots numbered 232. O f the eleven referenda put forward by the DPS, eight passed with large ma jorities. Those that did not pass con cerned a proposed fee increase in the DPS fee students pay, and the installa tion of a fee inflation-deflation mechanism that would have allowed the DPS fees to be increased every year by not more than 5% to account for in flation. A proposed amendment to the DPS constitution that would have lowered the quorum necessary to bring about constitutionàl amendments in the socie ty from 15% to 12% also failed to carry through. The vote was 842 in favour, 1328 against. But the question that had aroused perhaps the largest amount of interest recently, that of the impeachment of the staff of the McGill Daily, remained unanswered. As the fairness of the cam paign had been questioned, the Judicial Committee of the DPS ordered the ballots impounded until such time as it could rule on the petition. The fate of the referendum was not known as of press time. In the only race in the PGSS elections, David Schulze beat Alex Koukoulas by 101 votes to 92 for the position of graduate representative to the BoG.
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don't have much of an idea of what ASUS is or what it does," said Symons. "Awareness is half the battle here." Symons said he would promote the ASUS with regular articles in the Daily and the Tribune at the beginning of next year. "W e (ASUS) need to want to be seen by more students," He stated em phatically. Symons believes that another way to promote greater participation in the ASUS would be to emphasise the role of the departmental associations. "They're the heart of ASUS," Symons remarked. "I don't want policy to come from the top." Symons also promises to make ASUS more accountable to its members. He intends to go about this by issuing regular financial statements for ASUS expenses. "I'd like students to know where their money is going." He would also publish an annual budget. Symons is also concerned that ASUS play a larger role as a lobbying body within the University. "W e should lob by Senate on issues which concern ASUS members, like fee hikes for exam ple. I'd like to see more co-ordination on such matters with StudSoc," he said. Symons would also like to see the Observer revamped and make more ac cessible to ASUS members, "I think it has the potential to be a great magazine. "Participation and accessibility." stated Symons, "are the keys to my campaign."
President-elect Paul Pickersgill awaits the final results
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by N. Gaouette Ballots from the referendum to im peach the staff of the Daily will be counted after all. The Judicial Commit tee of the Daily Publications Society rul ed last night that the campaign run by the Yes Committee had not been unfair. The No Committee had objected to certain campaign pamphlets published by the Yes Committee which labelled the Daily as "anti-semitic and racist". But the Judicial Committee felt that "the finding of truth in campaign representa tions is better left to the forum of the public arena and the wisdom of the students than to4 his committee." At the judicial hearing last Saturday, Daily news editor Adam Quastel countered the accusations of racism and anti-semitism. Quastel felt that the charges were serious that they would in fluence voters unfairly. "No one would vote in favour of an accused racist or anti-semite," Quastel said. The labels had made the Daily's position unfair to argue, Quastel felt, since the "automatic response to ac cusations of this nature is always negative." Quastel also questioned the letters of support the Yes Committee had receiv ed from James Green and Luc JoliCoeur of StudSoc and David Gibson of ASUS. Quastel contended that the let ters expressed personal opinions, but the Yes Committee's addition of these person's titles, without their knowledge or consent, implied that the letters represented the policy of StudSoc and ASUS.
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Quastel felt that the differences these people had with the Yes Committee were of a political nature, and that charges of racism and anti-semitism were being used to take the Daily to task over those differences. The Daily's Editor-in-Chief Melinda Wittstock argued that the Yes Commit tee's claims that the only possible way students can affect the current "undemocratic" organisation of the Daily is through impeachment were "clearly false" and "slanderous" as they implied that the Daily had violated its own co nstitu tion by acting undemocratically. "All members as students of thé DPS have speaking rights at Daily meetings, and anyone can join," she said. The statement, she felt, would unfairly influence students at voting time. For the Yes Committee Jeffrey Ed wards made only a short statement at the hearing. The bulk of the Yes Com mittee's arguments was contained in the written petition submitted to the Judicial Committee. "If the Judicial Committee accepts to determine whether the Yes Committee statements are true (which we are cer tainly ready to prove), then it is setting itself up to replace the student elec torate," the petition said. Counting of the ballots was in pro gress as we went to press last night. The referendum requires a turnout of 15% to be binding. All DPS referendum questions in last week's election had at tracted the required turnout.
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by Tribune News Staff The Vice-President (Arts) of the ASUS chairs the Arts Faculty Council of McGill's largest undergraduate faculty society. This year there is a two-way raace between Andrew Burgess and Mark Holder for the position. Andrew Burgess asserts that ex perience is his main qualification for the job of VP (Arts). "Experience is one of my major pluses," he stated. Burgess has served for the past year as the VP (External) for the Department of English Students Association (DESA) and has been a past chairman of exhibi tion debates with the McGill Debating Union. "I've had a lot of time to learn how to deal with ASUS on behalf of English Students. I think I can bring that knowledge to work for Arts students at large," Burgess remarked. Referring to the stuctural changes cur rently being debated in the ASUS, Burgess noted, "There is a great deal of potential for next year. I'd like to strengthen the voices of the individual departments within the ASUS. It would
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be a shame if the opportunity to effect that were wasted." Burgess would begin to work toward that goal by starting in the Faculty of Arts. "I would institute regualar meetings of the Arts concil, which, to be frank, has existed only on paper in the past," said Burgess. Burgess says that he would work to expand ;the functions of the Arts Coun cil by setting up committees of council, in order to have greater feedback from students. "I want policy to flow up not down," he said. Burgess, an editor with Scrivner, would like to re-examine the role of the Observer, "I think there is potential there," but Burgess wonders aloud whether there is a need for a literary magazine on a campus with a number o f lite r a r y m a g a z in e s a lre a d y publishing. "Perhaps it should be a newsmagazine," he said. Mark Holder would like to make ASUS more relevant to the average McGill student. Holder doesn't believe that most
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