The executives of the Rideau River Residence Association (RRRA) are in shock after the Charlatan revealed that the body’s latest constitution is inexplicably missing dozens of clauses that were present in last year’s document.
RRRA council unknowingly passed the 2011-2012 document intact Jan. 22, despite the new document being more than seven pages shorter than last year’s constitution.
In the first 10 pages of the new constitution, sections regarding the definition of prejudice, what RRRA’s guidelines are regarding a disability and the definition of political exploitation have been left out.
A RRRA floor representative’s ability to “initiate, approve, or reject” the organization’s spending has been changed to just “approve or reject” in the 2011-2012 version.
Aly Singh, a second year history and religion student, represents the seventh floor of Frontenac on RRRA council. Although she wasn’t aware of all of the discrepancies when the constitution was passed, she agrees with the removal of councillors’ ability to initiate spending.
“When we had our residence formal, we got together as a committee and while we had input on what was happening, it’s obvious that the execs get the last say. It didn’t seem to take away anything at all.”
Her lack of outrage could do little to console a stunned RRRA executive.
“This has to be a joke,” RRRA president Kaisha Thompson said minutes after discovering the first missing pieces.
The constitution and policy review committee and the political action and sustainability committee have been omitted from the latest version of the constitution. Also gone is a provision to allow a graduate student living on residence to sit on and vote in RRRA council.
“It’s like someone besides us amended this,” Thompson said. “We didn’t do this.”
RRRA executives and floor representatives did knowingly pass some amendments to the 2011-2012 constitution. Council amended the constitution to allow executives to refuse any part of the salary or education allowances they are entitled to receive.
Both Thompson and RRRA’s vice president (administration) Omar Bainto, who is in charge of the organization’s constitutional matters, couldn’t immediately explain the missing clauses.
They both allege that someone else ensured the constitution document underwent “unwanted alterations” before it was distributed to RRRA floor representatives.
“Ghostwriting a constitution is next level psycho,” Thompson said.
Bainto sent an email to floor representatives and the Charlatan about the missing pages a little more than an hour after the discovery was made.
RRRA executives have called an “emergency meeting to address these wrongful changes” for Jan. 29 in the Frontenac House multipurpose room.
In the email, Bainto said the omissions didn’t “reflect [their] values, beliefs, or [their] desired direction for the association.”
He apologized, saying RRRA would conduct an internal investigation of the organization’s computers and email accounts would be “carefully picked through.”
In the meantime, Bainto said RRRA executives will be changing the passwords on their computers and email accounts.
