Concordia Student Union

Concordia Student Union

File:Concordia Student Union Logo.png CSU Logo
Abbreviation	CSU
Formation	1979
Type	Student Union
Legal status	Accredited Association, Not-for-Profit
Purpose	Student Representation
Headquarters	Hall Building, Suite 711
Location	1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. Montreal, Qc, H3G 1M8
Region served	Concordia University
Membership	35,000+ Concordia undergraduates
Official language	English
Affiliations	FEUQ
Budget	4.5 million CAD$
Staff	50
Volunteers	100+
Website	CSU Website

The Concordia Student Union (usually referred to as the CSU) is the organization representing undergraduate students at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Its membership totals more than 33,000.

History

Origin

The CSU was founded in 1979 from the merger of the Sir George Williams Day Students’ Association (DSA), the SGW Part-Time Students’ Association (PTSA), the Loyola Evening Students’ Association Inc. (LESA) and the Loyola Students’ Association Inc. (LSA).

The impetus for the merger was the previous merger of Sir George William University with Loyola College, which had taken place at the initiative of the Quebec Government in 1974, that had resulted in the creation of Concordia University.

The CSU was originally named the Concordia University Students’ Association (CUSA). It was incorporated in 1982 as the Concordia University Students’ Association Inc. The name was changed to Concordia Student Union Inc. in 1994 and the “Inc.” was dropped from the name in 2002.

Strike of 1999

As the 1990s progressed, student activism began growing, coming to a head in 1999 with the election of the first in a series of radical slates to the Concordia Student Union. Under the presidency of Rob Green, a referendum regarding of another strike garnered 2,284 votes of support. This was an unusually strong show of support, as student governments at Concordia are often elected on the basis of less than 1000 votes in their favor. The strike lasted from November 3 to 5th and targeted a range of issues, including student representation in the university senate, corporate presence and advertising on campus, and government became evident. There were several demonstrations in which both protesters and police were reported to be injured.

Accreditation

In 2001, CSU undertook an accreditation drive, to legally represent all undergraduate students at Concordia, and was successful in its endeavour, though heavily opposed by the accredited faculty undergraduate student associations for Engineering and Commerce.

In Quebec, the Act respecting the accreditation and financing of students' associations provides for the accreditation of student governments by way of referendum, which requires the educational institution to recognize the association as representative of the students and to collect the membership fee from all students. The Act allows for separate accreditations at different levels in an educational establishment (e.g. departments, faculties or institution wide).

At Concordia University, the CSU is the university-wide association for undergraduate students. There are both accredited and un-accredited faculty associations on campus.

Orientation

The CSU has hosted many popular musicians at the Orientation (Frosh) at the beginning of each year, including the Violent Femmes, Wyclef Jean, Snoop Dogg, The Wailers, K-OS, Matthew Good, Metric, Finger Eleven, Kardinal Offishall and K'Naan.

Speaker Series

The CSU has also brought many prominent figures on campus to speak to students on various issues, including Nobel Peace Prize winnersElie Wiesel Wangari Maathai and Shirin Ebadi, political figure and activist Al Sharpton, David Suzuki, director and actor Spike Lee, 2008 U.S. Presidential candidate Ralph Nadar, Liberal politicians Justin Trudeau and Michael Ignatieff.

Netanyahu protest

Main article: 2002 Netanyahu protest at Concordia University

On September 9, 2002, a scheduled visit from the then former (and now current) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was cancelled after Montreal Police and pro-Palestinian protestors clashed inside the Henry F. Hall Building. Five demonstrators were arrested, and an additional 12 faced internal disciplinary hearings under the University's Code of Rights and Responsibilities

The university instituted additional measures to avert future incidents, including the banning of any events related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as enabling the use of new student disciplinary rules in case of emergency.

Governance

Council

The CSU is governed by its Council of Representatives (its board of directors). Voting members of the Council are elected annually by the undergraduate students of Concordia University, with seats reserved for representatives of the four faculties at Concordia University and for representatives of independent students.

Each year the total number of seats is set by Council and the distribution is adjusted to match enrollment. There are currently 30 seats for voting members of Council: Fourteen (14) from the Faculty of Arts & Science, six (7) from the John Molson School of Business, three (7) from the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science, three (3) for the Faculty of Fine Arts and four (2) for Independent students.

The Council elects its non-voting Chair and secretary from the members of the CSU. The members of the Executive are ex officio members and can present and move resolutions and speak, but cannot vote.

Executive

The CSU is managed on a day-to-day basis by the Executive, composed of the President and between 3 - 7 Vice-Presidents. The Executive is elected by the membership individually in an annual election held in March concurrently with the elections for Council.

CSU Executive 2014/2015

• President Benjamin Prunty
• Vice-President Finance Heather Nagy
• Vice-President External & Mobilization Anthony Garafalis-Auger
• Vice-President Sustainability Jessica Cabana
• Vice-President Academic & Advocacy Terry Wilkings
• Vice-President Loyola Gabriel Valasco
• Vice-President Clubs & Internal Kate Soad Bellini
• Vice-President Student Life Charles Bourassa

Judicial Board

The Judicial Board is appointed by the Council to act as a domestic tribunal to resolve internal disputes. The current composition of the board is at 9 members appointed by the CSU Council of Representatives and has a Chairperson which is appointed internally. It can be overruled if Council overrules the decision by a four-fifth majority, and only if the board's decision was racist, sexist, homophobic, exhibiting a conflict of interest, or manifestly unreasonable.

External links

• Concordia Student Union
• http://www.thelinknewspaper.ca/articles/1197
• http://www.thelinknewspaper.ca/files/thelink/pdf/thelinkvol29iss28.pdf