Response to the Board of Directors of the Student Association (SA) at Durham College & University of Ontario of Technology

Transcription

1 Friday, March 07, 2014 Response to the Board of Directors of the Student Association (SA) at Durham College & University of Ontario of Technology The purpose of this letter is to ensure transparency for members of the student association on the current status of the organization. I certify that the information contained in this report is true and represents compliance with a reasonable interpretation of all aspects of the policy unless specifically stated otherwise. The institutions are withholding the SA fees because of the a) SA financial Audit b) Governance Issue We have issued our clean Audit and on time to the institutions last year. We have governance issues the current Board of Directors have refused to admit to students and when I try talking to them about it all, I get shutdown. Background Information In the last couple years there has been a trend in the Student Association (SA) that many representatives get backlashes from a certain group of students, especially around the election period. For example, the previous President of the SA, Rachel Calvelli, was accused of and ousted for "stealing her rent" from the SA, and violating the SA policy by hiring her friend. She was heavily campaigned against by Jesse Michael Cullen, Jeremy Baarbe, and Baker Baha, who are influential in our organization. These students are supportive of, and work together, with people from an organization called Canadian Federation of Students. Rachel never stole from the SA; the money she obtained was part of a benefit package she received as the President. I got the same offer, but I rejected it after students expressed displeasure with it. She also never hired her friend; it was the General Manager that hired her friend, and she was cleared of wrongdoing in this matter. Nevertheless, these people pushed forward with ousting for poetical reasons. This year, the SA Board of Directors has censored me without giving me a fair chance of explaining myself and I will tell you why: I was reaching out to, and helping, the students from the very first day I started work. I tried making the students experience better right away, by talking to Aramark to have a

2 free give away event. While this meeting was in progress, I started buying Tim Horton's for students, with my personal salary whenever I went there. This, I believe, angered my VPs at the time. Often I am told I am not allowed to do certain things, only to find out later, there is no such rule. This leads to confusion. Every little thing I did was questioned and attacked. I was always out voted in meetings, and my ideas were ignored. During the past summer, I was accused of harassment and having a low job performance. The Police investigated my harassment case and I was acquitted without charge. The elected board, that summer, also did their own investigation and I was found innocent. I believe this angered my, then VPs, who resigned and blamed me for their resignation. At the time, the people who now attack me, still supported me. They took my old investigations, that were concluded, to campus security who banned me from the SA building as of December 6, 2013 this is an investigation a police officer already concluded, and so had the elected board of directors. I never asked for a lawyer, but the Executive Director, Dina Skvirsky, suggested it to me and signed off on it. It was explained to me that I should see this as a threat from the institutions. The current fee issue we have with the school was assumed to be the "real" reason campus security banned me from the SA main office. No office space was assigned to me, by the current board that now has only 2 elected student reps. More Enlightenment: I have spoken against the SA being a part of the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS). It will cost students a lot more money. CFS has lawsuits with different student unions, and many consider it a bad organization. Even if their advocacy efforts ever did get the policy changed, we would get their benefits regardless, because a change in the government policy would include us as a school of Ontario. Students should look carefully at this organization. My resistance to CFS, I believe, angered Jesse Micheal Cullen, Baker Baha, and Jeremy Baarbe. I wanted to be transparent about their pushing to join CFS. I had refused to sign a contract described to me as "extravagant and greedy" for the new Executive Director. This contract includes 5% yearly increase in salary, and a lot more

3 paid vacations and time-off than usual. I was advised by senior members of staff that this was excessive, so this was not only my idea. The maximum vacation we used to get in the SA was two weeks. Refusal to sign this contract, I believe, angered Dina Skvirsky who walked out of our meeting room cursing at me, saying Fuck You and threatening me with the election. She has hired as a CRO from her former place of work (York Federation of Students) to conduct our election. I supported a former board member, when they pointed out an appointed staff had a criminal record, which was a direct violation of our SA policy. The Vice Chair: Baker Baha, Jeremy Baarbe and the Executive Director convinced the Board to condone and allow it. Response to the Board of Directors Letter The Board of Directors never assigned me any office space, after campus security banned me from entering the SA main office. I am only at the campus clubs space whenever I have meetings. I have ed the Vice Chair, Baker Baha, about this as a formal complaint and he did not respond. I was responsible for the advocacy on U-Pass and I attended all the meetings except for the one where the Vice Chair said "I can stay back at the office and work because there isn t any progress that day". He also informed me that the VP of College Affairs will be taking upon the U-Pass Advocacy issue this decision was reached by the executive director unilaterally. Everyone in the SA is entitled to a two weeks vacation pay within a year. All of my vacations have been approved, and I have a record of each and every one of them. I have never acted unilaterally by travelling on November 27 th, I had a family emergency, which I informed the Board Vice Chair about, whom I report to, and I have also informed the Executive Director who advises me on SA matters. I was told by these individuals to travel and work via . I did that and was also present at the Board meeting which took place December 3 rd, 2013 via Skype. I have not failed to call executive meetings; we meet almost on a daily basis, and since I have been banned, we met when there was something to be discussed. When it comes to legal fees, I honestly think this makes our Vice Chair-Baker Baha and the Vice-President-Jeremy Baarbe look foolish, for trying to make this a case against me. Our by-law does not allow for such expenses by me, without the Board s approval. The $5,000 was a legal fee for a matter suspected to be an attack from the institution. I never asked for it. This matter was approved and signed off by the Executive Director. As the figure head of the Student Association, it was my duty to sign the retainer s contract. The letter I received from campus security was also issued to the Vice Chair-Baker Baha. He however, is not a full-time

4 member of staff, which makes him lucky enough to not have been banned, and avoid the same unfair representations in the public. I have never unilaterally approved events in violation of the SA Policy. I did share an ignorant homophobic post written by someone else from my country, but I did not ever say I was in support of the post. I have been a supporter of the LGBT community, even though I am aware that it is a direct violation of my country s constitution and that I could be imprisoned for it. I explained that I only meant to expose the foolishness of the comment, and continuing to explain the situation in a way that makes it seem as if I personally held such views is misleading and wrong. In 2013, AGM students voted for an international student representative. This position started operating without a budget. The student representing international students opened an international club to receive funding. When the campus club coordinator expressed concerns about this, we shut down the club. There was no budget for an SA international officer, so I decided to fund it from my own salary to help international students. I was, again, criticized for this. After the first event, some people in the SA became angry because my salary was involved. When the financial controller, Suzanne Land, informed me of this and suggested that I use my student initiative fund instead of using my own money, I took the advice and today we have an international student officer as the students requested. I have never, in the history of the SA, fired anybody. The senior staff I have attempted to fire was due to; misconduct, several violations of the SA policy, and improper behaviour. In order to protect this staff member, who is affiliated with the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), the two unelected VPs, who now run the SA with her, had a meeting behind closed doors. In this meeting, they made up stories about me and stripped me of my powers as President, without a fair chance to have my side of the story heard and considered. This move against me was supported by the Vice-Chair, Baker Baha, when I complained, who in turn convinced the Board to continue stripping me of my power. I have tried hard to be fair to everybody, maybe I am not clear because of my accent but the Board is the one that is disorganized. There is too much internal infighting, which gets in the way of accomplishing things for the students. The Student Association Board of Directors has always voted on decisions on the spot, without proper research. As an elected executive, I know most of my board members were not trained. They are easily deceived and they put friendship over business. I had a working relationship with everybody but because I put responsibility to students above working with people's personal agendas, I was hated by most of the people.

5 I have said my little piece; it is left for everyone who reads this to determine what to believe. I have proof for everything I have said and I can verify all the information I have given. Food For Thought If these people are truly transparent, why did they not speak, since I was first censured? Why do they have to wait for elections to be transparent and share this with the students on websites? As the President, who has experienced the infighting of student politics, and faced a threat regarding the upcoming election, I do not intend to run, it will only keep the SA back. I want, what is best for the students, and to move forward from SA's problems. This is what I have to say about everyone I spoke about in this response: They all want the Canadian Student Federation (CFS) because of their personal benefit and affiliation. This organization says many good things, and many good causes, but many have seen problems with it. I think, It would not be good for DC/UOIT at this time. Based on the things I have said, and the threats issued against me, I expect the following students will most likely win in the upcoming elections: Jesse Micheal Cullen, Jeremy Baarbe, Baker Baha. They all want to be with the CFS and have been networking with the CFS people. The CRO is from York University where the Executive Director was working. I am ready to go to court but I do not want to fight with the SA because too much of the student's money has already been wasted this year on legal fees. I have totally lost confidence in the individuals running the SA, who say one thing behind doors and another in front. Challenging Morals: Jesse Michael Cullen is a politician, and does not care what all of the student's want, only about his own agenda. He pressured me, behind the scenes, to hire Dina his friend, and yet last year he campaigned against the former President for hiring her friend to a much smaller position. The Vice chair and the VP of university affairs speak of transparency but they have never updated the students on how they want to use the students' money to sue the school, and waste the students' money on other things. I have never supported the act of suing the school, not just because of the waste of money but because of the fact that we do indeed have governance issues the board is not taking seriously, and we need to work this out in a positive way I know I will be attacked, and may face punishment for this letter, but I came to Canada and ran for President to do what is right, and I believe the students deserve to know both sides regardless of what happens to me.

6 Peter Chinweuba Student Association President & CEO at UOIT/DC or