campus: Lack of students stalls democracy
Stephen Thomson, News Editor

Not enough students were on hand to hold an official vote on proposed changes to the structure of Simon Fraser University's student union, at a meeting that cost $15,000.

The Simon Fraser Student Society's annual general meeting, held in the convocation mall last week, included free chicken and vegetarian buffet dinners. Students lined up to fill their plates with the steaming hot food and then sat down around dozens of white cloth covered tables to eat, chat, and wait for the meeting to start.

The SFSS succeeded in their plan to attract a quorum of 500 students, minimum number needed so that voting can take place to change student union by-laws. But moments before the first vote was to be made, a head count showed that the crowd had dropped from 550 to around 430. As a result, there was no voting.

Geordie Dent is not happy with the result of needing such a high number of students to hold a vote.

"A huge group of people with a vested interest in the student society had no voice," said Dent, SFSS member services officer.

Dent put forward the first motion of the meeting, which asked students to decide if they wanted quorum at the annual general meeting lowered to 200. He said that it is a problem when not enough students show up. "The worst thing is that the organisation can't change."

"There's a reason why Canada doesn't have laws from 300 years ago - 'cause things change," Dent said.

Only around 30 students showed up for last year's meeting. In fact, the last time that there was a meeting with at least 500 students was in 1996 after pornography was found on some SFSS office computers. As a result, over 800 students braved freezing weather to come to the Convocation Mall and vote out the student union's president and treasurer.

But many disagree that the number should be lowered just so voting can happen. SFU student Ryan Stewart was the first to step up to the microphone and speak out against the motion to lower quorum.

"There ought not to be a meeting that can change the constitutional bylaws of a society," Stewart later said, "unless there are enough people who think it's important."

Stewart, a former SFSS executive member, also called for the head count at the meeting. Since quorum was lost, students could not vote on several issues, which included whether or not students should be able to vote "no" if a person ran unopposed in the general election.

There was also no decision made on the creation of an international student position on the student union's board of directors. This dissapointed international student Clement Apaak.

"We think that's very unfair to us, that the issue that concerned us most and concerned a very vulnerable group of our student society never even saw the light of day," said Apaak, a student senator.

In addition to the challenges faced by every student, such as rising tuition fees, international students have to deal with not being allowed to work off-campus, and still higher fees, Apaak said.

"We believe that there's a need to have someone on the board who truly understands these issues," he said.

"I was amazed that over 500 people came out," said Sara Rozell, SFSS external relations officer. "I was a little bit sad that they didn't stay for the entire meeting and that quorum was called before we could make any significant changes."

The student union is looking into allegations that a group may have been trying to convince people to leave.

"If we find something, there's going to be action taken," Dent said. "It undermines the entire democratic process."

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