Province: Douglas College Student Union faces possible impeachment
Iain W. Reeve, Associate News Editor
In a scenario which has become all too familiar to SFU students, this week a small group of self-described “concerned students” at Douglas College began circulating a petition which would force a Special General Meeting. The purpose of the meeting would be to impeach all the current Representatives Committee of the Douglas College Student Union. This initiative comes after a year of financial scandal, which has seen the college administration refuse to transfer student funds to the DSU, effectively crippling their ability to deliver services and placing them on the brink of bankruptcy.
The petition, which had already garnered approximately 500 signatures by Friday, must attain 850 in order to call the meeting. The meeting would then have to meet a 75-person quorum. A two-thirds vote would impeach all 10 members of the rep committee. While the majority of the current committee were not in office while most of the cited financial issues occurred, they have yet to meet the standards set by the college in order to get the flow of student fees going back into the DSU.
The organisers of the petition maintain that they are unaffiliated, either in past or present, with the DSU. They are merely interested in holding the DSU accountable for their inability to rectify the situation and deliver services. To promote the petition, they have begun distributing leaflets on campus, informing students of “things you may not know about the DSU.” Many of the contents of these pamphlets seem to have come directly from the 2006 forensic audit which brought the most recent evidence against the DSU.
The Peak contacted the DSU, but they did not return our calls by press time. The deadline for the petition is Tuesday, and if the group manages to collect 850 signatures the DSU will be forced to call a Special General Meeting which will decide their fate.