Stop NSPIRG

The DSU Council has voted 15-1-1 in favour of referring a referendum question to the Board of Operations and the Elections Committee – a process that must take place before a referendum may be called. The motion stipulated that a recommendation be made to council before April 22nd, the final council meeting for the 2008/2009 council. The lone abstention was Shannon Zimmerman and the lone “nay” vote was Mark Coffin, VP (Education), who also called quorum at the end of the vote (there was quorum, barely).

I refrained from stepping in to ask the chair to keep the debate on the motion at hand, but probably should have. Two NSPIRG supporters (Jocelyn Burr, an IDS grad student and NSPIRG board member) and one other, unknown supporter voiced their displeasure with council dealing with NSPIRG, and tried to debate the existence of NSPIRG. The motion was clearly only written to get a recommendation from the Board of Operations and Election Committee.

The council meeting finally ended shortly after midnight, with both the outgoing and incoming council having a full agenda (many items were tabled until April 22nd or later). On April 22nd, the Board of Operations and Elections Committee will have prepared a recommendation for the question. On the same day, NSPIRG must make a presentation to council, as must every levied society once per year.

Hopefully we will see everyone there, council chambers is going to be packed! (And it’s only for a vote to send NSPIRG to a DEMOCRATIC referendum, where all students get a say).

Hey everyone,

We’d like to thank everyone who supported our efforts to bring NSPIRG’s funding to a democratic referendum of the students. Unfortunately, our motion at the AGM, which was stolen by NSPIRG and then voted down, (a clear majority supported the rewording… seriously guys). The final vote was 237-214.

The important thing to note is that the battle is not over. NSPIRG will go to a referendum one way or another. It is important that they, like every other levied society, face the students again. NSPIRG is still in serious need of reform. If anyone from their board (congrats to Tim Holland on his election to the board, by the way) would like to contact us for some discussion, go ahead (after exams, please!).

We are going to take a break from all of this for the exam period, but we’ll be back. We have removed all the old posts while we re–examine our position and approach. When we are active again, we will likely be one of the official sides of the referendum campaign.

Thanks again for your support,

The Stop NSPIRG team.

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