The Cord WeeklyThe tie that binds since 1926 LOVE AT FIRST CLICK < LOVESTRUCK Is oniine dating a worthwhile pursuit for Student Life gets all romantic for Laurier ... students? PAGES 14-15 Valentine's Day ... PAGES 16-17 Volume 48 Issue 22 WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 13,2008 www.cordweekly.com Election disaster FILE PHOTO • SYDNEY HELLAND JOE TURCOTTE PAUL ALVIZ BAD PUN - Ross Fraser (centre) and Colin LeFevre (right) remain in the race for WLUSU presidency. Brian Punambolam SYDNEY HELLAND NOT DONE YET - Chief Returning Officer Craig Stover announces the removed from race WLUSU Board of Directors' decision to hold a re-election for president. Re-election to be A surplus of campaign-related fines has led to the disqualification of presidential candidate Brian Punambolam, current VP: Student Activities held February 28 Remaining presidential hopefuls will enter re- LAURA CARLSON a decision to overturn an appeal comments during the campaign NEWS EDITOR filed by Punambolam regarding process, $30 for using a WLUSU election following Punambolam leaving the race his disqualification. database to send out e-mails pro- After accumulating $95 worth of "[lt was] very difficult. It was a moting him as a candidate and campaign related fines, $20 over hard decision," explained Allison, $15 for a member of his team for LAURA CARLSON no policy," said Champagne. the permitted amount, presiden- president of WLUSU, who was on campaigning in the Terrace. NEWS EDITOR The decision to hold a run-off elec- tial hopeful Brian Punambolam the committee that decided to Punambolam feels that he tion met mixed reviews from the re- has been officially disqualified disqualify Punambolam. should not have been fined for A decision by the Wilfrid Laurier maining candidates. from the race for Wilfrid Lau- Punambolam accumulated his slander or members of his cam- University Students' Union (WLUSU) "I was glad, that's what I was kind rier University Students' Union fines for various reasons, includ- paign team using the e-mail lists Board of Directors (BOD) ruled in of hoping for just in terms of making (WLUSU) president. ing: $50 for slander during the to send to students, because of favour of a re-election to determine sure that the students got their voice," The decision to fine him out of Open Forum, in which a mem- "vagueness" in the WLUSU elec- which of the two remaining candi- said Fraser. the election came at 8:30 a.m. yes- ber of his campaign team ac- tion policies, though after seeking dates will be the next WLUSU presi- "But at the same time, I under- terday morning from the Appel- cused presidential hopeful Colin legal counsel he has decided not dent, following Brian Punambolam's stand the other side's opposition to late Committee, after they made LeFevre's team of making racist to seek any further action. disqualification yesterday morning. it, but I'm glad the Board made the "It's disappointing," said Pu- "The Board decided to hold a run- decision," he added. nambolam. "I'm not going to off ballot between Colin [LeFevre] Having been vocal about not want- WLUSU ELECTION EMERGENCY complain about the process, it's and Ross [Fraser] to take place, the ing the Union to stage a re-election, done," he added. tentative date, barring any major LeFevre was extremely disappointed An emergency BOD Meeting For Board of Directors and Punambolam received his no- problems, Thursday the 28 [of Febru- with the outcome, which is why he was held last night. Board of Governers results, tice of disqualification verbally ary]," said Jon Champagne, current decided to resign from his current SEE MEETING, SEE BOARD, from elections Chief Returning chair of the BOD. position as a director. PAGE 3 PAGE 2 Officer (CRO) Craig Stover and The deliberation of the Board was LeFevre's role as both a director WLUSU president Dan Allison on made difficult due to the fact that and candidate resulted in him de- For results from the Want to know The Cord's Thursday afternoon, half an hour WLUSU has no official election poli- claring a conflict of interest, which referendum, opinion on this whole mess? before the polls closed. cy regarding what to do in a situation removed him from any discussions SEE REFERENDUM, SEE ELECTION, such as this one. on the board level. PAGE 3 PAGE 20 "I've only been Chair for a few - - SEE PUN, PAGE 6 weeks ... I don't know why there was SEE RE-ELECTION, PAGE 4 2News WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 13,2008 ■ THE CORD WEEKLY The Cord Weekly - Vie tie thatbinds since 1926 ~ phone: (519) 884-1970 ext. 3564 fax:(519)883-0873 email: Directors [email protected] Board of The Cord Weekly 75 UniversityAvenue West Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3C5 WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 13, 2008 VOLUME 48 ISSUE 21 positions announced Next Issue: February 27 QUOTE OF THE WEEK "I have a huge thing about balls going Fifteen positions within the WLUSU Board of Directors have been filled with 2008's total vote count towards my head." - Graphics Editor Julie Marion on herregular Monday night activities. JEREMY TREMBLAY ceived an e-mail with the official WORD OF THE WEEK OPINION EDITOR results from Stover, it was noted Deadline - the timeby whichsomething mustbe finished or submitted, as in something not met TheCord thisweek thatPreston was the sixteenth can- in order tohave the mostup to date information. While presidential candidates didate, 38 votes behind Mike Ober- CONTRIBUTORS learned they had to return to the le, the actual fifteenth candidate. Len Ball Madhavi Ganju Greg Sacks campaign trail, candidates for the Calls made to Stover and Presi- Chris Baiuschafc Heather Gies YousufSajjad Priyam Bhargava Daniel Joseph MaraSilvestri Michelle Caldaroni Amelia Lockhart Geetha "Ihurairajah Wilfrid Laurier University Stu- dent Dan Allison around 2 am Alaric Dennis Stephanie McEnery Sarah Topple Luke Dotto JamieNetigebauer Jordan Van Hom dents' Union (WLUSU) Board of when the confusion was noted Klmberly Elworthy Nathan Pascoe Nicole Wray Yusuf Faqiri Shagun Randhawa Directors (BOD) and candidates were not returned by press time. for Laurier's Board of Governors When Preston was contacted WLUSF STAFF (BOG) learned the results of last regarding the announcement, it at had heard of the Copy Editing Manager Caitlin Henderson Thursday's election in Wilf's was the first he Copy Editors Ariel Kroon 10:30 pm last incident. Meredith Barret about night. Marissa Newfeld Emily Slofstra A small crowd ofcandidates and Although acclaimed to the Heather Olaveson Kendra Howard Miriam Cunningham their supporters were present to Senate, current Director Paul La- Gina Macdonald IT Manager Bryan Willey see Chief Returning Officer Craig anemets learned his time in the Distribution Manager Nicole Laouataris Stover deliver results of the boardroom not Production Assistant Christine Parent partial would be extend- 2008 election - five days later than ed, as he had received only 354 originally expected. votes. WLUSP ADMINISTRATION In therace for seats on the Board Laanemets described his disap- President Keren Gottfried VP: Advertising Angela Foster of Directors, Laura Sedgwick re- pointment with the situation and VP: Brantford Dan Schell ceived the most votes of all candi- outlined that he felt he had run a Chair of the Board Colin LeFevre SYDNEY HELLAND Vice Chair Rafiq Andani 820. dates, picking up strong campaign. - Board of Directors Ryan Clubb RELIEF With 544 votes, Griffin Carpenter narrowly made this year's Rachel Crawford Sedgwick was followed by re- Due to the counting of the bal- Board of Directors. See below for the complete list of vote numbers. turning director Jon Champagne, lots being delayed multiple times, ADVERTISING who picked up 750 votes. Cham- numerous candidates present pagne was also elected the sole voiced their displeasure in how AJJ advertising inquiriesshould be directed to to VP: Advertising Angela Foster at open seat on the WLU Board of they were left without knowledge 884-0710, ext. 3560 [email protected] Governors with 42.3 percent ofthe of either the results or even when votes. the results would be made public. COLOPHON "Right now, I'm very run down. "The thing that disappointed The Cord Weekly is the official student newspaper of I'm exhausted and I'm happy," me the most is the way that candi- the Wilfrid Laurier University community. stated Champagne. dates were held in the dark," said Started in 1926 as the College Cord, The Cord Weekly is an It was also announced that successful BOD candidate Asif editorially independent newspaper published by Wilfrid Laurier University Student Publications, Waterloo, a 72.4% of votes cast approved of ac- Bacchus. corporation without share capital. WLUSP is governed by its board of directors. claiming Saad Aslam, Clark Cha- "It was excruciating," said An- mi, Dan Komesch, Janice Lee and drew Fryer of waiting. "I had a wIuJJTS Paul Laanemets to the Senate. bunch of midterms I had a hard flwraiii publications During the event, Kory Preston, time studying for." Opinionsexpressed within The Cordare thoseof theauthor and a current director seeking reelec- "All I can say is I'll continue to do notnecessarily reflect those of the Editorial Board, The Cord, WLUSP, WLU or CanWeb Printing Inc. tion, was named as the final direc- serve the students that elected All content appearing in Vie Cord bears the copyright expressly tor for next BOD. said of their creator(s) and may not be used without written year's me," returning director Cham- consent. However, when The Cord re- pagne. "And I'm excited to do so." The Cord is created using Macintosh computers running OS X.2 using Adobe Creative Suite 2 (InDesign, Photoshop, Acrobat, Distiller and Illustrator). Canon Rebel XT 8.0 megapixel digital cameras are used forprincipal photography.