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Do you want the D? Vitamin D benefits unclear >> pg. 5
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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014
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CANADA’S ONLY DAILY STUDENT NEWSPAPER • FOUNDED 1906
VOLUME 107, ISSUE 67
King’s council presidential candidate fined SSSC prez
Lesarge disciplined over performance as VP student issues takes leave
of absence Iain Boekhoff NEWS EDITOR
Logan Ly GAZETTE
Megan Devlin NEWS EDITOR A King’s University College Students’ Council vice-president is continuing his election campaign for president despite recent controversy over disciplinary sanctions by the King’s honorarium committee. Jonathan Lesarge, the current KUCSC vice-president student issues and KUCSC presidential candidate, was brought before the honorarium committee last month due to allegations of performance issues. Jen Carter, the current KUCSC president, sent an e-mail to the entire King’s council Tuesday informing them of Lesarge’s situation as well as the honorarium committee’s
disciplinary recommendations. The committee recommended Lesarge pay a $100 fine to be cut from his honorarium, and write letters of apology to administrators, according to the e-mail. “This fine is justified by his repeated failure to communicate with the rest of the executive and the administrators, including repeated failures to attend meetings,” the statement from the honorarium committee, included in Carter’s e-mail, read. “These failures have impeded the ability of the rest of council to work efficiently and strained the relationship between the KUCSC and the administrators,” it continued. Carter, who is running for vicepresident external of the University
I don’t really know if it’s appropriate that someone who has been brought in front of council to be punished for their actions as a VP is currently running for president — Emily Soti
King’s University College Students’ Council councillor
Students’ Council on the Team Helfand slate, declined to comment on this story. After his first meeting with the honorarium committee, Lesarge was brought in front of council on January 19 so that council could approve this form of discipline. Two weeks later, on February 2, the honorarium committee met again. At this time, Lesarge still had not submitted his apologies. However, Lesarge claimed Carter neither informed him of the second meeting or of the timeline within which he had to complete the committee’s directives. Lesarge said the issues arose from miscommunications between himself and >> see KING’S pg.3
City budget makers to lend ear to USC Jeremiah Rodriguez NEWS EDITOR It’s budget-making season in London, and the University Students’ Council is getting a chance to put in their two cents for the upcoming city budget. Next week, the USC executive will be putting forth three recommendations to Mayor Joe Fontana and several councillors for the 2014 budget. The invitation to make budget recommendations marks a first for Western students. In mid-January, several city councillors sat through an in-depth USC executive presentation advocating on behalf of Western. The budget suggestions came from talks
between the USC executive and the city council during London’s town and gown committee meetings. “The LTC is the lowest funded transit commission in Canada per capita. We’re falling behind a lot of comparable jurisdictions like Waterloo which has an express line and bus rapid transit, and which is looking into streetcars — and [London] barely has an express system,” Amir Eftekarpour, vicepresident external for the USC, said. “Bus rapid transit is the preferred option in almost every city that it’s available to. It would recognize campus as a hub for the city,” Eftekarpour said, adding that their proposal also called for infrastructure for things like more bike lanes.
Eftekarpour’s other two recommendations included investing in student communities around campus and including students as part of the economic and cultural prosperity for London. He said the new businesses and residential projects around student housing would create a more “dynamic neighbourhood.” “We’re looking at investments near campus areas that aren’t related to bylaws and law enforcement, like businesses in residential areas, because we want to move away from just having student ghettos near Western,” he said. According the budget submission, London is projecting to have to keep 6,000 new residents every year
for desired growth, but more economic opportunities, particularly in entrepreneurship, were needed. City councillor Matt Brown was thrilled at Western voicing their concerns during the budget making season. “I think any time one of our institutions here in London participates in the budget process should be seen as a very positive initiative,” Brown said. “I think that a budget for a city outlines the vision for a community over the coming 12 months and the more voices that participate in the consultation process, the better. It allows us, as a council, to focus our initiatives precisely on the people that we serve.”
Lisa Le Nguyen, the Social Science Students’ Council president, has announced she is taking a leave of absence as she runs for re-election. “This is one of the hardest speeches I have ever had to deliver,” Le Nguyen said at the beginning of Tuesday’s SSSC meeting. “While I feel as though I have been able to stay objective, to ensure a fair election and that both Jack [Litchfield] and I are on an even playing field, I think it’s best that I take a temporary leave of absence for the duration of this election season.” That announcement followed the nullification of SSSC speaker Connor Scott’s decision to prorogue the entirety of council for the duration of the election period and also his subsequent resignation. Andrew Lalka, speaker for the University Students’ Council, said that the prorogation of council by the speaker, which was approved by the SSSC executive, was in contravention of SSSC’s constitution. “Nothing in their constitution or bylaws gives the SSSC speaker the authority to suspend council, and Robert’s Rules defines the rules around recessing a meeting or adjourning in sections 20 and 21, and in most cases only a council can approve a motion to be adjourned,” Lalka said in an interview. Lalka also said that the president taking a leave of absence when running for re-election was a standard procedure that should have happened before the start of the campaign period. “Given that one of the current presidential candidates is currently still serving in office, protocol dictates that she should take a leave of absence until after the elections results are announced, and it would be consistent with their constitution and certainly with the USC’s policies surrounding conflicts of interest and perceived conflicts of interest,” Lalka said. Le Nguyen said the necessity of taking a leave of absence from her role was only made clear to her last Friday by the USC’s Governance Office. She said that presidents of other faculties, like Music, did not have to take a leave of absence and she was worried about how students would view her leave of absence. >> see SSSC pg.3