Point Scoring and Union Board
In the last days of the 2004/2005 Union Board, politics is getting heated, and Union Board meetings are getting interesting. Accusations of political point scoring, debatable as they may be, are doing the rounds, as Amit and Beck line up for leading the new Board.
Natalie Zerial
If you measure time by Union Board meetings, there is very little of it left before the Union Exec elections. And, considering that, as things stand, the Senate Reps may have the deciding vote in this year’s elections, it is understandable that everyone is on tenterhooks about last Wednesday’s Union Board meeting.
Sam Crosby argues that Senate Reps are experienced and intelligent people and politicians, who are in all likelihood not going to be fooled by attempts to point score in the last Union meetings of the year. Nonetheless, point scoring was undoubtedly being attempted.
The weirdest attempt, without a doubt, was Toby Brennan’s call for a censure of three Board Directors on the basis that they handed their reports in late. This proposal built on the already existing controversy surrounding Mark Chan’s Vice President’s report, which was generally thought to be a pretty shoddy effort last month. Mark, recognising that his report was in fact about half as long (by half a page) as is expected, agreed to rewrite it.
Mark’s response was accepted by the Board, but at the end of the meeting Toby (with the support of NOLS directors) sought to get a censure against Charlie, Evan and Mark for handing their reports in late. As pointed out, this was a fairly questionable move – a censure is a very high form of punishment for a misdeed that had been committed by many of the directors. Toby’s call for a censure seemed clearly partisan, and also inappropriate coming from the IPP. It was also a pretty serious case of throwing stones in fragile glass houses.
By contrast, Amit Singh's proposal for a Union VSU Committee, which was approved at the meeting, seems hardly controversial. And, from the little we know about the plan, it is to be lauded as a common sense approach to facilitating intelligent dialogue on this issue within the Board context.
The controversy arises over whether this proposal did, in fact, originate with Beck Mann last year. Many student polis, especially those supporting Beck for President, see Amit’s submission as a cheap attempt to look “presidential” in the lead up to elections. They point to the fact that a very similar proposal, as canvassed by Beck, was rejected by
It is a difficult issue, particularly since Beck did not actually formally submit her version of this proposal to Board. But who is in the wrong or the right is probably less interesting than how touchy everyone is feeling about it.
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