concordia’s independent newspaper waiting for that t-shirt since 1980 OutOut ooff ssightight IIGNORINGGNORING TTHEHE PROBLEMPROBLEM ONLYONLY MMAKESAKES AIDSAIDS WORSEWORSE • NNEWSEWS PAGEPAGE 5 • FFRINGERINGE outout ooff mmindind ARTSARTS PAGEPAGE 1515 • OOPINIONSPINIONS PAGEPAGE 2323 • News page 5 Dawson Student Union executive blamed for missing student funds Expozine (expository) on zine culture • Literary Arts page 13 • Sports page 19 Grey Cup madness: drunken reporter hits the town and bargains using beer volume 29, issue 15 • Tuesday, November 25, 2008 • thelinknewspaper.ca volume 29, issue 15 • Tuesday, THE LINK • NOVEMBER 25, 2008 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/NEWS NEWS 03 “IT crisis” derails CSU hiring plans Important positions to remain vacant until January • JUSTIN GIOVANNETTI The road to The Concordia Student Union’s attempt to hire a new chief electoral officer and new judicial board mem- tomorrow bers has been delayed because of computer problems and the removal of nearly all CSU job posters from The history campus. of the JB “Our motherboard has crashed and we have a tech crisis,” said CSU and CSU President Keyana Kashfi. “Our CEO posters have also been torn down Oct. 7 around university and we don’t JB chair and member are know why, the digital version was removed by the crash.” removed. As a result of the IT problems, the CSU executive decided to extend the Oct. 30 deadline to apply for the open posi- Jason Druker is fired. tions until Dec. 5. Kashfi explained CSU President Keyana Kashfi that she detected the problem puts forward a motion to elect a The newly restored judicial board heard testimonials from student union reps. PHOTO RACHEL TETRAULT because of a lack of emails. “From new CEO. Nov. 11 to 20, I got no emails in my tion of a new CEO at the Oct. 30 understand what you are saying, you Communications Elie Chivi. The appointments email,” Kashfi said. council meeting, asked for patience. are the managers and you are telling source wished to remain anony- Nov. 11 Louise-Birdsell Bauer, a CSU “We don’t want to rush this […] I me the reality. But I am concerned mous. Both Chivi and Al-Shourbaji “Very big issues” lead to a Arts and Science councillor, object- don’t want the CEO position to be with the legal matters. Council confirmed that the email had been crashed CSU server. Kashfi ed to the deadline and put forth a used as a political football, as I feel it passed a motion and [your exten- sent. receives no email after this date. complaint to the JB. The chair of the has been in the past.” sion] would override that motion.” The email reads: “It seems to me JB, Tristan Teixeira, along with Jason Druker, the previous CEO, Goldfinch delivered the final the CSU is trying to use the server Nov. 12 members Yuri Kuczer and Bella was controversially removed from defence for the executive: “No one issue of the last week possibly as a Motion to remove JB chair and Ratner, oversaw the hearing on the his position when it was discovered gets hurt if we postpone this for two mask for some late applications to member is overturned. afternoon of Nov. 23. Birdsell-Bauer midway through the October refer- weeks, have a proper postering peri- job postings or something.” Al- Councillor Amine Dabchy, arts told them, “I don’t see clear evidence endum that he was no longer a stu- od and ensure that we proceed fair- Shourbaji also wrote that email and science, puts forward a that the emails were down or that dent and therefore ineligible to be ly.” access was restored within 24 hours motion to appoint new JB the server mishap affected the dead- CEO. The referendum was cancelled The final decision from JB did and that, “no emails were lost as the members. line.” after Druker was removed. not overturn the extension. email server never crashed and no “We can’t hang our hats on a data was lost.” Dec. 1 decision that would break the When approached with the infor- “The wisest way to go is for council to decide and Original deadline for JB and motion; practicality is not a legal mation, Chivi said, “[Al-Shourbaji’s] the executive there to explain the server fiasco.” defence,” said Teixeira. “The wisest information on what is happening is CEO applications. —Tristan Teixeira, chair of judicial board way to go is for council to decide and limited. He isn’t in the office, he is the executive there to explain the on parental leave. He may have Dec. 3 server fiasco.” thought that there is restored access, New date for December CSU CSU VP external Colin Goldfinch Goldfinch told the JB why the As a result of the JB’s ruling, the but that is not the case.” Council meeting. told the JB hearing that the exten- decision to extend the deadline was extension to the deadline will stand. Chivi also mentioned that “exter- sion was necessary. “It is my under- made. “I don’t think there is a con- At the next regularly scheduled nal people looking at the IT infra- Dec. 5 standing that we got no CVs during flict here, this is a simple office deci- council meeting, councillors will structure” had raised issues of negli- Extended deadline for JB and the entire time [due to the sever sion […] There were extenuating cir- debate the issue and overturn the gence. “We don’t have specific infor- CEO applications. crash].” Goldfinch explained that a cumstances that prohibited us from extension if they choose to do so. mation, that word [negligence] did student who applied for a graphic fulfilling the directives of council,” After the JB meeting, The Link come up, but we will see.” Dec. 10 designer position contacted the CSU explained Goldfinch. received a copy of an email corre- As of press time, the JB’s final Original date for December about the state of their CV, which Teixeira questioned the legality spondence allegedly between Amir decision had yet to be delivered. “I’m CSU Council meeting. was never received. of the executives’ decision to post- Al-Shourbaji, the CSU’s Network still working on the wording,” Kashfi, who called for the elec- pone the application deadline. “I Administrator, and CSU VP said Teixeira. —compiled by Justin Giovannetti Student union admits financial irregularity • TERRINE FRIDAY “I’m legally bound to not talk about was postponed because not enough stu- According to former CSU bookkeeper what happened and there could be ramifi- dents could make it. It was therefore pre- Amad Mahboub, then-CSU president Rob According to Concordia Student Union cations,” the councillor continued, but sented to Council the following week. Green knew about the deficit for almost councillors, the closed session that fol- noted the secretive discussion was not The last time a financial irregularity three months and did not report it. lowed the Nov. 12 regular meeting had a what was listed on the agenda. made headlines at Concordia was in the Mahboub intercepted and discovered the hidden item on its agenda. The last item on the council meeting’s fall of 2000. Sheryll Navidad, then-VP fraud. Councillors who wish to remain anony- agenda read “Budget.” According to anoth- finance of the CSU, embezzled It was stated in the auditor’s report that mous said the CSU’s lawyers made an er source that cannot be named, this was $193,061.71. Green had co-signed all cheques made out appearance during closed session and misleading since only part of the closed The financial irregularity forced fee levy by Navidad. requested all councillors sign a confiden- session was about the budget. The rest, groups such as CJLO and Solidarity for Green reported no recollection of sign- tiality agreement—right before speaking they say, was about the union’s financial Palestinian Human Rights to manage their ing the cheques and admitted the union about misappropriation of funds. irregularities, which CSU president Keyana finances without any student union fund- “didn’t have the structures in place” to “Well, I signed a confidentiality agree- Kashfi will make public in the future. ing. CSU forensic accountant Johanne avoid the cash grab. ment, so I can’t talk about what was dis- Councillors say the confidentiality Faucher reported the internal fraud in cussed during that closed session,” said agreement was to be signed at an informa- Nov. 2000 when the CSU first discovered —with files from Ariel Troster, Tina Christopoulos, one of the councillors. tional meeting scheduled for Nov. 5, but it that the money was missing. Pierre-Olivier Savoie and Rene Biberstein THE LINK • NOVEMBER 25, 2008 • THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA/NEWS NEWS 05 AIDS awareness week CSU and HIV/AIDS lecture series team up for awareness Related resources AIDS Concordia CLSC des Faubourgs aids.concordia.ca 1626 St Hubert [email protected] (514) 527-4072 dia.ca (514) 848-2424 ext. Centre SIDA / CLSC des 7998 Faubourgs 1455 de Maisonneuve W. 1705 de la Visitation BC 219-1 (514) 527-2361 C.R.I.S.S Fondation d’Aide Directe 5410, 2e Avenue SIDA Montreal Montréal, QC 1422, rue Panet criss.org fadsm.org/ (514) 855-8991 (514) 522-1993 1-888-522-1993 Centre sida secours du Clinique médicale Québec l’Alternative 3702, rue Sainte-Famille 2034 rue Saint-Hubert (514) 842-4439 cliniquedelalternative.com (514) 281-9848 A.C.C.M. 2075 rue Plessis, Heads & Hands Basement Level 5833 Sherbrooke Ouest accmontreal.org headandhands.ca (514) 527-0928 (514) 481-0277 CACTUS Montréal Centre 2110 1300 rue Sanguinet 2110 Mackay cactusmontreal.org centre2110.org (514) 847-0067 (514) 848-2424 ex.