Int. student rep vote considered
By Natasha Marar
News Editor
November 14, 2007
The University of Windsor Students’ Alliance (UWSA) is currently debating whether it should move the International Student Representative to councillor status and grant voting rights to the position.
Currently, under section five of the UWSA bylaws, the International Student Representative, along with the First-year and Residence Representatives, are known as special constituencies and cannot vote on council.
“You have a population here at the University that is not only diverse culturally and ethnically but also…we have a large number of international students,” commented third-year law student Andrew Langille, who was present at the Oct. 25 council meeting where the motion was presented. “[International students are] 12 per cent of the student population.”
Langille believes that international students have been poorly represented and disadvantaged, particularly by the international student increases in tuition last year. “[The tuition increase] appeared to be a cash grab at the expense of students that make the university a diverse campus.”
Langille argues that the UWSA special constituencies are “a second class of people on the UWSA council. I find that distinction kind of startling,” he said in regards to their lack of voting privileges.
International student representatives are allowed to vote on student council at other universities. The University of Guelph, for instance, allows one representative from the International Student Organization to sit as a voting member on the Central Student Association Board of Directors.
Queens University and the University of Toronto also permit voting to international student representatives.
“There is a trend out there to give large portions of the campus that is distinct votes on campus, and I think it’s a very bizarre dichotomy argued by council to not give the international student a vote,” said Langille.
International student representative, Umar Mughal, could not be reached for comment.
UWSA vice president of administration, Marla Cronin, however, is indecisive over the proposed motion, which has been deferred to the Interpolicy Committee (ITC).
“I voted in favour of sending it to the ITC to have it investigated,” she said. “I think that making that decision on the spur of the moment would be in haste of us.”
“I’m not necessarily for or against it,” said Cronin, who is waiting on the decision of the ITC, and supporting information regarding the practices at other schools, and what the UWSA constitution and policy dictates.
Cronin is leery of accepting the motion up front because of the possibility the vote would allow international students to be represented by two individuals on council: the international student representative, and their corresponding faculty representative.
“Students weren’t meant to have several representations,” said Cronin.
“I think that argument is a nonstarter,” said Langille. “What faculty that you are coming from shouldn’t be the first thing you are thinking about.”
When asked whether the same can be said regarding multiple representations of students by their faculty representative as well as the UWSA executive members, Cronin disagreed by responding, “[UWSA Executive’s] job is to represent the students not faculty. Essentially, we are to represent the entire campus as a whole.”
Cronin admitted that students are already being represented by several voting members of the UWSA, including their faculty representative, the University Board of Governors representative, and the six members of the UWSA Senate. “I do think that things should be looked into [regarding] Board of Directors and Senators”
“If we decide that [the international student representative] shouldn’t get a vote, and if the reason is double representation, perhaps we are already doing that,” Cronin added.
It can be argued that in the case that all three special constituencies become voting members, students currently represented by those three individuals will have a greater voice on council than students who are not an international, residence, or first-year student.
When asked, however, whether the first-year and residence representatives should get a vote on council if it is decided that the international student representative is to receive one, Cronin responded, “Yes. If one special constituencies should get a vote then all special constituencies should become councillors.”
Langille, on the other hand, does not believe that all non-voting representatives should be given a vote at this time. “It’s something to be considered for the future,” he remarked.
“I don’t see the issues as pressing,” he said in reference to the issues facing residence and first-year students.
“I don’t think there has been enough advocacy on the part of the UWSA…in terms of international students, and I hope this measure…will increase the range of opinions that the UWSA council hears.”
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