I feel deceived. I feel betrayed. I, sadly, do not feel surprised. I note the hypocrisy of a President who complained to me that someone “never follows process” and would think it acceptable to file a major complaint with the highest governing body in the world without consulting the Council to which he is responsible or informing anyone of anything. This means that consulting and retaining lawyers, paying for the legal fees of someone who is not a student, entering into negotiations with external groups
I note that the following is anecdotal, and I cannot verify it’s veracity.
At the Oversight ‘what the hell is going on’ exec meeting Thursday, when asked when this complaint was not brought forward to Council, Tim Chu stated that this was kept quiet because some on Council didn’t believe in lowering tuition.
If this is true, it alone is grounds for impeachment. This is nothing short of willful deception. As one of the Council members who Tim (allegedly) was referring to, I can tell you that I was upset.
I was upset because this was a contravention of AMS Policy, because AMS policy on tuition opposes real increases, but does not support tuition reduction. I was upset because it was a national embarrassment, with people responding from Moncton to Calgary to Newmarket. (Though I have to say I laughed at the #BlakeWBush tag.)Mostly I was upset because this was never brought to Council for approval, because THEY KNEW IT WOULDN’T PASS!
This was a willful deception of Council, and it is a point so far over the line you can’t even see it anymore. It is, in my opinion, a violation of the public trust that they entered into when they ran for office – an office that functioned within a set of rules. They chose to ignore these rules.
They chose not to bring major legal action to Council. They chose to shut the Communications Planning Group out of the preparations for a press conference. They chose to not bring this to the External Policy Committee, who is responsible for determining lobbying priorities.
What is going to happen now? Well, there will be an Emergency Council meeting Saturday at 5:00. If you have an opinion on this, please contact your Constituency Representative or another member of Council here.
I am struck by a number of questions, in addition to those I posed to the President earlier.
How many thing’s have been left by the wayside as they worked on this?
How many of their responsibilities went unfulfilled?
What other bridges will they burn before they leave office?
I agree with Blake, tuition rising by 2% this year IS worse than Darfur.
Just a quick correction, you must have meant that Tim said this at Exec Committee, not Oversight Committee, because at no point prior to yesterday was Oversight aware of this, and we did not meet yesterday.
Rest assured that if this had come up at Oversight Committee, prompt action would have been taken.
Hey Matt,
A note about the AMS council website: some councilors listed are no longer serving. For more up to date contacts for AMS councilors, undergrad websites also work.
-Rory
Fire. Them. All.