News Nikalas Kryzanowski, News Editor and Monica Carino, Associate News Editor news @theotherpress.ca MacGrotty elected to College Board, eyes further wins Nikalas Kryzanowski news editor Fé candidates were vying for the position of student representative on the Douglas College Board during the March 3-7 by-election, but it was Alysia MacGrotty who eventually emerged as the winner. She ran on a platform of working to provide a TransLink U-Pass for Douglas Students. “T will be privileged to represent the students at the College Board meetings,” she said. When asked what specifically she will do to obtain the U-Pass, she noted “We’ve had a student survey in the campus newspaper, we’re having an info table, and we’ll be putting up ballot boxes around the campuses to show the College Board the level of interest we have.” While acknowledging that it will be a “long process,” MacGrotty added that she will appreciate being able to network with other College Board members on the issue. She has also procured an endorsement from Geoff Atkins, the Associate Vice President of Land and Building Services at UBC, which is the department responsible for detailing the impact of the U-Pass on the UBC Campus. According to MacGrotty, Atkins is a strong proponent of bringing a universal transit pass to Douglas as well. MacGrotty doesn’t have much time to rest after her victory, however. Though she won the by-election and will serve for the remainder of the board’s 2008 term, regular College Board elections are now revving up to decide who will sit on the 2009 board. Already eyeing a second term, MacGrotty is running in coalition with the current College Relations Co-ordinator of the Douglas ‘Students’ Union, Matthew Steinbach, for the two student seats. MacGrotty, who is also a DSU executive, has long worked alongside Steinbach, but their partnership nevertheless comes as a surprise to many. As members of the DSU they have repeatedly clashed on several large issues, notably the matter of whether the Douglas Student’s Union should be associated with the Canadian Federation of Students. “T trust him,” she said of Steinbach, “we’ve worked together for two years and we’ ve found our strengths. As Barack Obama says, ‘we aren’t as divided as our politics suggest’; and having a devil’s advocate is a good way of opening your mind to other people’s points of view.” The two are also running on the same slate in the upcoming DSU elections. Little accomplished at Student Union AGM due to meager attendance By J.J. — Editor in Chief ‘Te Douglas Students Union failed to achieve quorum at theirAnnual General Meeting last Wednesday, resulting in a fairly brief meeting that achieved very little of substance. Though student union AGMs—in which the state of the union’s core operations and finances are frankly discussed, and changes to the constitution are proposed—are supposed to be among the most important campus events of the year, such meetings are notoriously poorly-attended. Aside from being embarrassing, low attendance is of great practical significance, as the DSU constitution demands that a minimum of 20 students must be present in order for any decisions of note to be made at the event. According to Assistant to the Receiver-Manager, Jessica Magalios, the DSU has achieved this 20 person quorum only once in the last decade. At the 2007 AGM held last semester a large number of student athletes attended in order to push through an increase to the College’s student activity fee. This year’s AGM agile proposed several bold changes to the DSU’s constitution, which is widely regarded as being severely outdated. Among other proposals, the DSU board tabled an amendment to create a new executive rank office of “David Lam 4 Campus Coordinator” to handle the union’s relations with Douglas College’s ever-growing Coquitlam campus. Presently, the union’s only formal ties to Coquitlam are through a Coquitlam “member at large” on the board of directors who has few powers of his own, and is outnumbered by two New West members at large. With the addition of the David Lam Coordinator, the DSU board would finally achieve quota parity in demanding at least two Coquitlam directors, slong with the two mandatory New West ones. Yet such proposals were ultimately never considered due to the lack of quorum, the absence of which was noted by AGM Chair and Canadian Federation of Students official Dustin Groff at around 4:30 pm. After the agenda was abridged, the remainder of the meeting focused mainly on financial reporting by the DSU auditor and executive reports of the Union’s accomplishments and shortcomings over the course of the previous year. Just over 15 students were present, half of whom were members of the DSU board. The other half included ex-directors and perennial DSU critics Nathaniel Wolfe and Chris Sleightholme and some friends, as well as a few individuals who are running for office in the upcoming DSU elections. The Other Press had a delegation of three. Though over 20 people in total were in the room, only full Douglas Students count towards quorum, meaning there were evidently several non-students in attendance. College registration status was recorded prior to entry. Presentations of the board members and auditor were largely routine, though the presentation of Marne Jensen, the DSU’s court-appointed receiver manager was more news-worthy. Speaking before the small audience, Jensen clarified a number of matters relating to the state of the union’s finances and internal operations that have been the source of considerable speculation and confusion in recent months. The Other Press had earlier reported that Jensen was considering hiring a permanent general manager for the DSU, and though Jensen confirmed this at the AGM, she also announced that the project was being abandoned due to opposition from the labour union that represents the DSU’s existing permanent staff. In contrast, she noted that the hiring of a permanent financial coordinator of the DSU offices was proceeding as planned. Jensen stated that she had received over 50 applications for the job, and will now begin interviewing possible candidates in her capacity as a member of a special four-person hiring committee. The Douglas Students Union has been in a state of court-ordered receivership since January of 2007, following the conclusion of a lawsuit between Douglas College and the DSU that centered around allegations of the union improperly managing student fees and incompleting yearly audits. Though the outstanding audits have since been finished, the DSU and Jensen have stated that they believe the courts will only formally revoke receivership once the students union is able to prove it has implemented various internal ‘reforms of its financial management—including the hiring a permanent financial coordinator. When questioned by the audience as to when she believed the student union’s receivership status would be formally revoked by the courts, Jensen predicted “summer.”