York University is embroiled yet again in a squabble between the recently ousted York Federation of Students (YFS) council and the one that replaced it.
Outgoing council members, who were officially removed from office Jan. 23, and their supporters are moving to block by-law amendments put forward by the new council executives. Holding campus demonstrations last Tuesday, opposition members said the changes-which ask to by-pass March general elections-go beyond the political reforms promised by the winning coalition in last November’s by-elections.
“I don’t think it’s fair,” said demonstrator and former fine arts councilor Kathryn Waters. “You’ll have to do a whole lot of consultation with your student body before that happens.”
Supporters assert the question is all about recouping lost time. “It’s impossible to uphold democracy now if we held elections,” countered Stefan Santamaria, VP Academic. Santamaria says more time is needed to fulfill their mandate. “Six days is not ample time.”
The lost time Santamaria speaks of concerns the recent election fiasco. The situation started when general elections to be held last March were pushed until Nov. 23 after incumbent council members cried foul over election “irregularities.”
Despite an overwhelming majority win for the Progress Not Politics (PNP) slate in the Nov. 23 by-elections, executives refused to ratify the results until charges of campaign overspending were, in their eyes, dealt with in a fair manner.
Under financial pressure from York’s administration (who temporarily withdrew levy funding to YFS in January) and mediation through the Constituency Committee, however, the YFS finally ratified the results on Jan 23.
Waters sees no problem in running general elections in March and extending the current council’s stay in office for several weeks. Waters is perplexed, too, that current executives are attempting to extend their period in office while having accused the outgoing council of egregiously extending theirs (The forfeited March elections extended the outgoing council’s time in office by several months).
“For them to repeat that mistake confuses me,” she said.
“Their mentality is impossible to understand,” said Santamaria of demonstrators who accuse the council of despotism. “They’re only interested in democracy when it works for them.”
The council hopes a by-law requiring general elections to be held within a year of ratification-rather than on a fixed timetable-will give them time to draft new by-laws this summer in order to remove kinks they say hampers effectiveness. The first by-law amendment goes to council this Tuesday.
“We’re looking to get these [by-laws] fixed,” said Santamaria.
Santamaria, for instance, wants to avoid the conflict of interest inherent in having outgoing councils ratify incoming ones. He likened the arrangement to a “dictatorial regime.”
For now, York’s administration is looking to keep an even distance this time around. As reported yesterday in the Excalibur, York’s student newspaper, VP of Students Bonnie Neuman suggested the latest by-law riff be resolved internally by YFS.
The movement to fix York’s political situation is paralleled by similar motions being taken here at U of T. Constitutional amendments drafted to mitigate political contention will be presented at today’s SAC Annual General Meeting at Erindale for ratification.
