ORL O RUT tery c= SGM Fails To Meet Quorum, Sparks Anger And Questions Travis Paterson, Features Editor Two hours before the scheduled Special General Meeting was to take place, an email was circulated to the students of Douglas College announcing that all evening classes were cancelled, but that the library and other services would remain open on campus. With the weather so cold and snowy, problems with transit and poor weather lead to further contro- versy around the resulting lack of quorum. 75 students were needed to ratify the chair and proceed with the agenda. The meeting was held on Nov. 29 in the auditorium room 2201 by the library, at the DC New Westminster campus. At five o’clock, or thereabouts, the chair of the DSU’s SGM announced the meeting was a failure, announcing to the 30 odd students and board members in attendance, “quorum still has not been met. I rule that this meeting did not take place, and hence the motion that was brought to this meeting is no longer on the table.” An audience member asked when another meeting like this can be held. “When the student body signs another petition”, came the response from the chair. Audience member: “I’m wondering if there would be any opposition from the board to answer some of the audience members?” ; Amongst many cheers, Pride Liaison Chris Sleigtholme responded, “absolutely,” and a discussion began. “I want to take a moment to make it clear that this is not an SGM, (board reps) can answer questions for general discussion but it’s not for the record and there can be no business decisions be made at this meeting,” said the chair. Chris Sleigtholme: “I hope my fellow members will be willing to sit here for however long it takes to answer the students questions.” Audience member: “has Joey Hansen been a continuously paid staff employee of the DSU?” While Sleigtholme fielded many questions that were asked from a frustrated student body, including questions from impeachment petitioner Nicole Woods, he refrained from answering about the status of Joey Hansen as a staff member of the DSU. His eyes drifted up the aisle to Shop Steward Yasmin Irani, who defined the reasons why it was in Sleigtholme’s best interests not to speak. Irani gave a detailed explanation including several examples from section 38 (2) A34-b7790, in defense of the position of Finance and Services Coordinator, a position that Hansen was known to have held before April 19th 2006. “Yes or No?”. The question was left unanswered. Also available for comment in the hallway outside of lecture hall 2201 were elected board members Heidi Taylor, Nav Dardi, and Inder Gill. One “rage against the machine” student left the general discussion in the auditorium to confront the board members in the hallway. Frustrated with the chair’s reaction to cancel the meeting despite evidence that students were unable to attend due to the winter conditions, RATM guy talked to the OP. “T’ve talked to tons of students who were sent home by their Profs at 2:30pm on account of the weathei when professors decided to cancel their classes”, he said with frustration. When the discussion ended, the OP asked Sleigtholme what positives, if any, could be taken from the cancelled SGM. “T feel a lot of it was positive, a lot of students came out ; I’m really glad that students wouldn’t leave until they got some answers. I’m grateful for th board members that were willing to come down and stand in front of the firing squad anc answer questions to the best of their knowledge. Students just want answers, and the boat has—up until this point refused to give them: This is not what the board is. We need accou ability to the student body”. “T’m kind of disappointed with quorum, he furthered. I’m trying to think of the correc word, and I think it’s apathy, upon campus. Just with the students it’s like ‘we don’t really ¢ who cares, it’s not my problem,’ and it is, it’s everyone’s problem. This is a million dollar Organization, and this is a big issue. As for the school closure, if that did play a factor in a of people not showing up, then I’m saddened about that”. Impeachment Meeting Gets The Cold Shoulder Brady Ehler, OP Opinions Editor Several weeks ago, over a thousand student signatures were collected from Concerned Students in Support of Impeaching the Douglas Student’s Union Repetitive Committee. But when it came down to putting out the vote, we came up pathetically short. It wasn’t a matter of not having enough votes to get Committee ousted. This was a mat- ter of reaching quorum, and we failed. Quorum was set at 75, and when the meeting was called to order, there were only 56 students in attendance. It’s important to note that if every- one that showed up to vote actually entered the lecture theatre, quorum just may have been . met. The meeting was scheduled for 4:30 PM in room 2201. Unfortunately, by 4:50pm the rooms population was still 19 people short of quorum. However, it was whispered in my ear about that time that the “no” vote was actually waiting outside. The “nays,” apparently numbered about 20, which means that had they decided to show, we would have had quorum. Whether this is true or not, I can’t confirm. By my calculations, if there were exactly 75 people in attendance, then to ratify the motion to impeach, the “yes votes” would have needed 56.25 votes. So needless to say, it would have been damn close. There is little doubt in my mind that some of the reps called in their-friends to show up at the meeting and vote against impeachment, and there is nothing wrong with that in itself; they are entitled to their opinions too, but it also makes me question the often-touted impar- 1 8 THE OTHER PRESS NOVEMBER 30 2006 tiality of the DSU staff. Up until the hours before the special general meeting, the commi took the, stance of being impartial to the outcome of the meeting, claiming that they mer wanted the students to be informed. However, the subtle tactic of placing a highlighted “1 within their slogan of “know the facts before you impeach,” gave way to the mote direct, “vote NO to impeachment” slogan, drawn on the blackboard behind their table in the co1 course. But they completely lost claim of impartiality when the no-voters sabotaged quort Even if the opposition was not tipped off about defeating quorum, wouldn’t it be the fait and impartial thing to do for the reps to suggest the opposition come in and put it to vot I am very upset with the turnout to the meeting; the apathy infuriates me. However, e with student apathy, the meeting might have still reached quorum. Evening classes were cancelled today. As a result, people who would have shown up to the meeting before even classes were not present to cast their vote. Classes were cancelled due to weather conditio: So, it would stand to reason that some students did not attend because they wanted to go home before conditions got worse, or because they felt the roads were too dangerous to navigate just to get down here. When it came down to it, the College Board’s official state ment was that, while classes were cancelled at 5, the college itself was still open. As a resu the SGM was official, quorum was not reached, no motions were made, and the rep committee retained office. : Was it a case of bad timing, or just a case of apathy? I guess we’ll never know, unless there is another successful petition to impeach, and at this point, it doesn’t seem very like] In any case, The DSU has been given another shot. I hope it’s for the best.