(no subject)

[the_fantastic_ms_fox]

"It's amazing what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit."

           - This quote is (ironically and aptly) credited to about two dozen different historical figures


The struggle for students independence from the CFS has made the CBC National News.

I feel giddy. The report is extremely topical, and fails to mention the nuts and bolts of why people want out but, at least it's coverage.

It also doesn't mention SFU, the UVic. Grads, Cape Breton or Kwantlen.

We helped start this beautiful mess.

Comments

[shmeen.livejournal.com]

hey, wondering what your thoughts about a more right wing/conservative slate getting into SFU in the wake of defederation. some folks told me that now with a more conservative slate because the CFS didn't run any candidates is that organizations like SFPIRG are getting attacked. not sure if i agree, but some claim that is one of the results.

[hundun.livejournal.com]

Good question.

I've heard the Federation cry "conservative takeover" for a few years now, and it's not true.

Around the same time as our first (of three successful) independance referenda, we banned slates and wound up with a mix:
- people who used to be on the NDP/CFS slates and now wanted nothing to do with the Fed (these people were, in my opinion, some of our best leaders)
- pro-fed candidates who got along with their coworkers and mellowed out
- pro fed candidates who had a strong sense of entitlement, pissed people off, and who later failed to get re-elected
- fringe cranks (such as myself)
- centrists
- libertarians
- people who wanted more parties on campus
- one neoliberal (who did not run for a second term)

Surprisingly, this greater political mix actually nixed the conservative anger at being excluded - a sentiment which had in the past been the driving force behind conservative slates. The anger was legitimate - when I was on the electroal committee, people with strong Federation ties urged us to crack down on the conservative slate while ignoring similar violations on the part of CFS Candidates. But without the Fed slate to squash everyone else, there have been no more conservative takeover attempts.

This year, there were some (non-elected) students who objected to PIRG. While I agree with PIRG politically and think these students were acting like jerks, I think some of their complaints were legitimate. Said students tried to put through a referendum as to whether to discontinue the PIRG fee. The board wouldn't run it. I think that more or less the same thing would have happened if we hadn't had an independance vote. Unlike in Ontario, this is not part of a Young Conservative anti-PIRG campaign - yet. You can do a search on The Peak's website (SFU's student paper) for more details.