I am disappointed with how the decision to remove the summer committee meeting requirement has been portrayed. It makes councillors out to be “lazy” and “uncommitted,” which is far from the reality. The requirement was removed such that extremely busy councillors could live without the fear of being removed from their duties for something as small as missing a committee meeting.
The reality is that, in only a month, councillors and executives alike have almost literally moved mountains in reforming this organization. We’re working harder than ever to reform CUSA and introduce new measures to ensure accountability, transparency, and real democracy.
All the initiatives you may have heard about recently are the product of collaboration between our council and executive and dedication by our distinguished student leaders. We’ve already announced “CUSA Live,” a service to live stream everything to do with CUSA and its council, increasing accountability and accessibility to unfathomable levels relative to previous years.
The executive is in the process of reinventing the entire web presence of CUSA, including its website, Facebook and Twitter accounts, and other forms of electronic and social media. This is an unparalleled commitment in pro-active disclosure, and communication with the average student.
Even the electoral process has been re-imagined. I have personally undertaken, with a few of my colleagues and friends, the burden of rewriting our antiquated, out-of-date, and ineffective electoral code. Instead of clinging to a process that doesn’t work for anyone, we’ve put in an exorbitant amount of time, energy, and effort to develop a self-sustaining and forward-thinking model for our campaigning and polling moving forward.
In short, we’re doing things different. We’re actually working hard day and night, weekday, evening, and weekend, to bring CUSA into the 21st century.
Keeping with our new mantra of going above and beyond, I will be not only tabling the new electoral code to the Council, but I will also be bringing the changes before the Constitution and Policy committee meeting within the next week. This is an unheard of move at our university, and one that serves to better study and better understand all every decision made by Council.
Next time, before you judge a decision to be “lazy” and to be made by “uncommitted” councillors, check your facts and actually talk to your student representatives. We’re working harder than ever, and this minute change simply ensures that we can continue to do so without fear of excessive punishment.
Justin Campbell
– CUSA Representative for Computer Science
