amp US n ews EDITOR ROSS ARMOUR THE DAILY VOICE, MONDAY NOVEMBER 27 3 Top vote getter disqualified by LSU LSU candidate disqualified from three of four elections despite receiving most votes By JANA MINOR his may not be Libya, but you’d never know the difference when you compare the election rigging under Moammar Gadhafi to that of the Langara Students’ Union, said one student last week. Former environmental issues coor- dinator Emma Leigha Munro has been disqualified from three out of four LSU elections, despite receiving the most votes each time ballots were cast. She was elected in October and held the seat for two weeks before being told by election committee staff mem- ber Donna Rainford-Cayenne she was disqualified. The LSU website says, “Due to ir- regularities, the LSU board and elec- tions committee have decided to host a by-election for the position of environ- mental issues coordinator.” But no by-election has been an- nounced and the semester is almost over. Furthermore, under proposed new bylaws, which are being voted on by students this week, all LSU elections will be cancelled until fall 2018. As for the irregularities in the recent election, LSU spokesman Adam Gies- brecht released a written statement: “Emma did not abide by election policy regarding campaigning online. She was disqualified for that reason.” When asked to elaborate, Giesbrecht de- clined. An article in 24 Hours profiling Mun- ro was released online during the vot- ing period. According to election policy, candidates are restricted from cam- paigning online. The article featured Munro with the tagline “The Politician” in the 24 Under 24 series. “T have no control whether a journal- ist wants to post an article, positive or negative, about me,” said Munro, who said she otherwise abided by the policy. Munro is a fourth-year bachelor of business student who is also in the de- sign formation program. She is cur- rently president of the Langara Busi- ness Association. She first ran for the LSU in winter 2010, received the most votes, but was disqualified because one of her campaign handbills was found posted during election week. She said that any student could’ve posted it there who was unaware of election pol- icy prohibiting posters during voting. She ran again in summer 2010, but the LSU had just passed a motion bar- ring anyone from running in the cur- rent election who was disqualified from the previous one. “They passed it dur- ing the election, so the entire election was cancelled, which sounds so demo- cratic,” said Munro. “This was the time where Gadhafi was doing the same thing,” she added. “T thought, ‘They’re never gonna let 66 me into their union. So ’'m going to run Iran and I won.” tiple internal committees. I paid the price.” date appears suspicious, the LSU thinks.” for the college position, and I get an Pm g oing honorary position on their board and there’s nothing they can do about it.’ So , runt or e couege Students elected to Langara’s educa- po sition tion council, known as “college posi- tions,” are sent as representatives to and I g et LSU board meetings. Munro said she an hon- went to every meeting and joined mul- ourary “T was one of the people in there ask- po sition on ing more questions than most people. . Basically, I was whistle blowing, their board I guess,” she continued. “And for that and there’s When asked whether the LSU thinks nothing the repeated disqualification of a candi- th ey can Giesbrecht said, “I have no idea what do about it. EMMA LEIGHA X Ml ASHLEY VIENS photo With the final exam period approaching fast, some Langara students take some time to study and work in the college library. LFA braces for contract negotiations Faculty association fears negotiations with province regarding wage increase could go on for years By TANYA HILL ith the current economic cli- We of austerity and job ac- tion by unions throughout B.C., the Langara Faculty Association (LFA) president Lynn Carter isn’t betting on a quick and easy negotiation with the province when they go to the bargain- ing table next year. “[It] could take years,” Carter said in a phone inter- view. Since March 2012 Langara’s instruc- tors have been without a collective agreement. The LFA, which represents instruc- tors, counselors and librarians, had a meeting last Friday to discuss the re- sults of a survey, asking faculty about bargaining priorities. Although Carter couldn’t discuss de- tails, she did indicate that “a wage in- crease and working conditions” are high priorities for faculty. For six years Langara faculty have gone without a wage increase and some faculty who have taught at the college for over seven years are still not full-time. Camosun College in Victoria and the College of New Caledonia have cut fac- ulty, but there doesn’t seem to be any indication of that happening at Langa- ra. In March 2011 the LFA served a 72- hour strike notice to the college be- cause of stalled talks. The LFA did sign an agreement in June 2011 with the province, which saw more funds for professional development and a one- week spring break, but no increases to faculty wages. Ramping up for this round of bargaining the LFA seems poised to play hardball with the prov- ince. The bargaining team for this round is LFA president Lynn Carter, counseling department chair Fraser Archibald, English department faculty member Peter Babiak and Cheryl McK- eeman from the department of math and statistics. Last year the government imple- mented a net-zero collective agree- ment with workers, meaning no wage increases for anyone. In October job action affected 12,000 CUPE employees at six universities across B.C. The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) is in negotia- tion with the province on behalf of sup- port staff employees at universities and colleges. The collective bargaining agree- ments for the faculty association at five major research universities in B.C. all expire this year. FA. argain- ing team 1 Lynn Carter, president 2 Fraser Archibald, counseling depart- 3 ment chair Peter Babiak, English department 4 Cheryl McKeeman, math and statistics department A warning: U-Pass not available until Dec. 1/ Students only given one week to collect pass before campus closes for holidays By RICHARD HODGES one more item to their busy to-do lists this holiday season — grabbing their January U-Passes before the cam- pus shuts down for the holidays. The monthly passes for January 2018 aren’t available until December 17, three days after the exam period ends. For students heading home for the holi- days, working to pay for next term or simply swamped by the demands of the season, it gives them just a week to grab their pass before the campus clos- es from Christmas through to New Year’s Day. You could wait until 2013 to grab your pass but be careful riding transit without it as fare enforcement officers will be out in full force to help claw back Translink’s budget shortfall. SS LSU criticized continued from page 1 Le: College students can add “Tt’s not something we just hatched up to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes.”While Rai was speaking to The Voice, a fellow LSU member yelled at her: “Saadia, what are you doing? Shut the f’--- up!” Cardinal said the LSU only speaks in generalities, never specifics. He also objected to what he and his colleagues believe is the LSU’s secrecy. “Tt just seems to be regardless what rules or regulations are in place, they’re not really following them. If people had a tape recorder to hold them accountable to what they’ve said, we could blow this whole thing open.” Cardinal also took issue with what he claimed was the difficult language of the referendum question — language that he said could confuse students for whom English is a second language. “The language they use there is a lot of legal language. And there’s a lot of stu- dents in this school whose language is not English. Are they being informed in a way that they understand is hap- pening?”