NEWS editor.otherpress@ gmail.com Student Union Board Calls Special General Meeting SGM will mark conclusion of receivership status, address other internal issues By JJ McCullough, Editor-in-Chief The board of directors of the Douglas Students’ Union has formally called a Special General Meeting of the society for Wednesday, November 28. A long anticipated event, the main purpose of the meeting is to give the DSU’s court- appointed receiver manager, Marne Jensen, an opportunity to publicly present the completed versions of the student union’s two outstanding financial audits. The event is thus being billed as one of the last major steps in the DSU’s slow journey to regain financial self- determination, and thus concluding a lengthy receivership status originally imposed following a lawsuit in January of 2007. Though the student union, like all public societies, is required to hold a yearly annual general meeting in which to summarize the events of the previous year, the DSU constitution also allows the board to call “special general meetings” for special occasions, usually intended for impeachments or other emergencies. Since receivership is expected to end before February—the usual month in which AGMs are held—an SGM needed to be held in advance. Aside from the report of the receiver manager, noformal agenda for the meeting has yet been established for the special general meeting, though according to Alysia MacGrotty, the DSU external relations officer, the board is currently considering a number of different matters for inclusion. Some manner of constitutional reform seems likely. The DSU constitution has not been updated since 2000, and some of the language included in the document has become dated and ignored over the last seven years. For instance, the DSU board is still technically supposed to contain a representative of the “Thomas Haney Campus” of Douglas College, even though this campus closed in 2003. The constitution also mandates the DSU collect an “activity and intramural fee” from students, to pay for the upkeep of various on-campus sport and fitness programs run by the athletics department. Board members have generally expressed an interest in either increasing the fee or putting control of the process in the hands of the athletic department directly, though a student-wide referendum would likely need to be held on a financial decision of this nature. Choosing replacements for the DSU board’s two recently departed members may also be on the agenda. Nathaniel Wolfe resigned as the board’s Pride Liason in September, followed by Jessica McCallum as member-at-large the following month. Though MacGrotty said that the board has not had much formal discussion on this issue, some have suggested that making SGM appointments for the vacant positions would allow the DSU to avoid holding a by-election. The SGM will be held in lecture room 2203 of the New Westminster campus, at 4:30. All registered Douglas students are invited to attend, and will be able to vote on all issues and motions the board puts forward. New Turnstiles Aim to Prevent Cheating on Skytrain By JJ McCullough, Editor in Chief Ace decades of resistance to the concept, TransLink has announced that Skytrain stations will soon be outfitted with “fare gate” turnstiles to prevent the entry of unpaying riders. Such systems are common in subways and monorail systems across North America, but have been historically shunned by TransLink, largely for reasons of cost. Those concerns remain present today despite the change in policy, with TransLink chairman Malcome Brodie declaring in a Vancouver Sun interview that “a substantial increase in funding” will be necessary to pay for the devices. The turnstiles are supposed to debut in 2008 sometime, but it remains unclear if they will appear at all stations, or merely a handful of the busiest. The devices will likely feature electronic “readers” of passes and fare tickets, and only open when a valid card is scanned through, keeping non-holders from being able to access the train boarding platform. Public transportation in the lower mainland presently operates largely on a mixture of the honor system and randomized enforcement. It is generally not difficult to ride the Skytrain, or certain busy buses without paying, but fines can be heavy if offenders are caught during a random fare inspection by Transit police. Nevertheless, the current system of enforcement has % long been controversial, and TransLink admits losing millions of dollars a year to millions of unpaying riders. Instituting turnstiles is thus the latest in a series of measures designed to crackdown on unpaying travelers in TransLink vehicles. Earlier this year buses were declared “fare paid zones,” allowing Transit cops to stage random checks for rider fares at anytime during a bus trip.