USC DISAPPOINTS
To the Editor:
The two front-page articles of Wednesday’s Gazette give disappointing insight into the moribund state of democracy within the University Students’ Council.
It appears that the USC has both agreed to hike student fees in perpetuity without a mandate from students, as well as approve slate elections for vice-presidents. In the matter of the fee hike to convert fields to turf, USC President Adam Fearnall is reported to have told council there was no time to hold a referendum to gather student input because of the timeline Western’s administration envisioned.
Rather than agree to hike fees for all students without a referendum, the USC should have simply declined to fund the project. By approving a fee hike under this sort of pressure tactic, the USC has only sent the message this sort of thing works. Students ought to have direct input into proposals to hike fees, particularly when the project is primarily designed to benefit intercollegiate athletics, not the average student—despite claims to the contrary.
This year’s USC vowed to stand up to administration to ensure that students were given a say and not treated as walking pocketbooks. What happened?
— Arzie Chant
Biology III
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Considering that the USC acts more like a club of friends than a group of free-thinking young people with the best interests of students in mind, of course the decision was nearly unanimous! The USC members are largely in lock-step with everything the executive proposes. There is rarely fulsome debate, and normally that occurs only a result of someone wanting to get on their soapbox.
At the end of the day, the USC is a joke. The Admin knows it and that’s why they constantly are able to milk student funds out of them for capital projects.
The idea of converting fields to turf is idiotic to begin with, let alone students paying for it without adequate consultation.
The field that is now home to one of the top rugby programs in the nation is going to be converted into turf… but here’s the thing… You CANT PLAY RUGBY ON TURF.
This is unfair to Adam. He certainly did not pressure council to decide on no referendum. Council collectively (and, might I say, almost unanimously) decided that as representatives of students, it was comfortable making the call that this fee change go through. And that decision was not one that was taken lightly by council. It has come up in multiple meetings and thorough discussion had gone into it.