SGM: What happens now?
Earl Tapia, Sean Wilkinson, The Peak
Despite what occurred on Wednesday, October 25, when a Special General Meeting called by Forum in late September voted on and passed motions to impeach current members of the so-called “Group of 7,” the fallout from the results of those days events could be felt for a while to come.
While President Shawn Hunsdale has resigned from his position [see here], the remaining members of the G7 are maintaining that the impeachment motions which passed at this Wednesday’s SGM were invalid.
The G7 have obtained a letter from their legal counsel, Don Crane, stating why they are still in office.
The letter states that “the decision to hold the SGM arose from a gathering of Forum members who met at the site of a cancelled Forum meeting, and, in the absence of the directors affected by the motion, purported to schedule a Special General Meeting.”
The document goes on to state that the next move of the SFSS is to prepare a petition to the Supreme Court to “seek a declaration that the purported impeachments are invalid.”
The letter also states that the bylaws of the Society require a “minimum of four executive members in office between now and the by-election [to replace any impeached directors],” and so the current Board will continue to remain in office on a caretaker basis, pending a decision of the court.
In response to these actions, Bryan Jones, spokesperson for Students for a Democratic University, outlines the next move of the SDU.
“A number of people are writing an affidavit which will be sent to our lawyer, and he will prepare a petition which will be sent to the courts,” he said.
“Clearly these people will not bend to the will of the students, we are going to have to rely on the courts to enforce what the students want,” Jones added.
In addition, a number of students, many of them SDU members, held a rally in the office of the Board of Directors. At around 12:30 p.m. the students marched as one and occupied the space in the offices and began cheering, chanting, and milling about.
Security was e-mailed prior to the event, and were stationed just outside the entrance to the offices, as well as around various other places in the MBC within eyesight of the office. However, the event was peaceful, and members of the G7 were still allowed to walk in and out of the offices.
While the university has been quiet as to their position regarding the events of the 25th, if they do recognise the validity of the SGM, funds collected from students to be sent to the society could be frozen, which would cause funding to clubs, departmental student unions, and graduate caucuses to be halted, until the matter is settled by the courts, or the G7 step down from their posts. Should it go to the courts, this issue may not be resolved until well past the term of the current Board of Directors.