Concordia

Students at Concordia University are asking the administration to help them make up lost courses.

Striking students held a press conference on Wednesday calling on the university's administration to reschedule missed classes that have been affected by the province-wide strike against raised tuition fees.

The University made clear in a Town Hall meeting with students on Tuesday that any lost class time would not be made up at the end of the current semester and that exams would continue as planned.

Students want the administration to reconsider their stance to accommodate those who have lost most of their semester because of the strike. This would mean extending the semester and rescheduling exams.

The leader of one the province's student associations, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, told CTV that if the administration continues its stance, then he believes tension will rise on the campus.

Flickr Photo by: Tina Mailhot-Roberge

Six councilors and the only senate seat have been disqualified from the CSU 2012 general elections.

This adds to the previous allegations, disqualifications and confusion that characterized this year’s elections.

Acccording to the Link newspaper, CSU Chief Electoral Officer Ismail Holoubi said that the seven candidates were disqualified because they failed to submit their campaigning expense forms.

But Ramy Khoriaty, former CSU VP Finance & Clubs and one of the disqualified councilors, said none of the seven candidates had accumulated any expenses.

Article 222 of the CSU bylaws states that any candidates must submit this form within four days of the closing of polls even if there were no campaigning expenses.

The CEO had sent an email to all candidates with the form, but Khoriaty says the seven candidats felt like they have been misguided and did not know about this law.

Six of the seven disqualified candidates plan to appeal the decision to the Judicial Board, but have not yet met as a group.

The quorum can no longer be met at council meetings because of the disqualifications.

This poses many problems to the CSU, because therefore no decisions made are binding.

More details will be disclosed in the upcoming days, and the disqualified candidates might file complaints against the CEO.

Concordia students who have had their classes cancelled will not be given academic amnesty said Concordia spokesperson Chris Mota to CTV Montreal.

Classes will also not be extended through the summer due to contract issues with faculty. Yet the university has encouraged professors to do take home exams.

Many classes especially ones in the Geography and Fine Arts departments have lost a considerable amount of course time since the strike at Concordia began. Some departments have been on strike for almost two months.

Concordia also announced on Thursday that President Frederick Lowy will hold a town hall meeting to discuss tuition hikes with students.

The town hall meeting will take place on Tuesday April 10 in H-110 of Concordia’s Hall building.

The meeting was prompted by a brief occupation of the hall outside President Lowy’s office on Monday. Around 70 students mostly from the Fine Arts faculty occupied the 15^th floor of the John Molson Building. They demanded that Concordia give academic amnesty for those who miss classes to strike.

Flickr photo by Steve Drolet

About 100 students staged a sit-in on the 15^th floor of the MB building Monday where President Frederick Lowy’s offices are located.

The students demanded academic amnesty and for the school to publicly oppose the $1625 tuition hike.

Lowy came out to speak with the students, but wasn’t willing to immediately comply with the demands. He stated that tuition hikes are necessary; universities don’t have enough funding for free education and that Quebec universities are underfunded compared to the rest of Canada.

As for academic amnesty, Lowy stated that is not in tradition to tell professors how to run their courses.

Lowy admitted that he also has not read the March 23 email about new security policies at Concordia.

The students accused Lowy of not knowing the issues, and for not listening to students. They believe he will have major influence on the provincial government if he supports the students.

Lowy agreed to have a more public meeting with students to further discuss the issues, organized by CSU president Lex Gill.