Marsh calls outcome of NUSU AGM an insult

Former NUSU President Kyle Marsh responded to the recent Nipissing University Student Union's adoption (in news release below) of the Corporate Bylaw that will see all Directors and Delegates of NUSU operate under in conducting the affairs of the Ontario not-for-profit Corporation.

Marsh says the outcome of the meeting is nothing more than an insult to the students of Nipissing University.

Full statement below.

**********************

The results Nipissing University Student Union concurrent General and Annual Meeting held this past Tuesday is nothing better than an egregious insult to the students of Nipissing University. To claim a victory of 1277-136 is, at best, inflated.

The “unprecedented” participation was the result of a bitter on-campus campaign by the Student Union to defame anyone raising a legitimate point against the proposed Bylaw. Furthermore, it was admitted at the General Meeting that the proxy voting forms, which comprised more than 1200 of the 1277 votes “in favour” of the Bylaw, were submitted partially incomplete, which directly contravenes the principles of the Ontario Corporations Act, the piece of legislation which NUSU is claiming to be adhering to. To even indicate that the AGM itself had unprecedented turnout is unbelievable. Of the 1413 students who were said to have participated, only about 100 were actually present at the meeting.

Throughout the meeting, those students who were clearly there to support the vote “for” the Bylaw were served refreshments and snacks by Student Centre staff, as the meeting went on for several hours. Those who were not in support of The Student Centre's position were offered nothing, not even water.

Student who filled out proxy voting forms, in lieu of attending the meeting, were given misdirected statements such as “sign this or The Wall will close down and every student will lose their job,” or “NUSU has already spent more than one-hundred thousand dollars on lawyers to write the Bylaw, so if it doesn't get passed, that money will have to be spent all over again.” In fact, NUSU spent approximately $184,000 on “professional fees”, as indicated in their most recent financial statements. Of course, the student body was never given the chance to voice their concerns over the amount of money being spent on this process, having had a previous understanding that only ten-thousand dollars would be spent, and that students themselves would have a much greater role in the revision of their Bylaws.

While several students stood up to explain their reasons for wanting to defeat the proposal, no students stood up to explain their reasons for supporting the Bylaw. In fact, the lawyers for the Student Union, and the Student Centre General Manager did nearly all of the speaking on behalf of the students.

NUSU's legal counsel and directors should be ashamed of these results, not proud of them. In fact, three lawyers made the trip from Toronto, one of whom was responsible for registering students at the door (a job which could have been fulfilled by a student, who would have been glad to receive the several-hundred dollars per hour that NUSU was paying a lawyer to perform the same task). Rather than spending this money on lawyers to travel from Toronto to tell NUSU's Directors what to do, this money would have been much better spent bringing together students to draft their own governing documents.

That is real participation. Unfortunately, that is also unprecedented at NUSU.


***************************

Nipissing University Student Union
News Release

***************************

In the largest student vote since the inception of Nipissing University Student Union (NUSU) in1988, 1413 students or 33% of the student population at Nipissing University, cast proxy’s or voted at the NUSU concurrent General and Annual Meeting held on Tuesday March 18th, 2008 at 5:15 PM.

The vote was 1277 in favour and 136 against.

The NUSU Corporate Bylaw is the document that all Directors and Delegates of NUSU must operate under in conducting the affairs of the Ontario not-for-profit Corporation.

NUSU Directors decided to set the bar at 2/3 of total votes cast for the entire corporate bylaw to pass. This is not required by law, or necessary under the Ontario Corporations Act for most of the articles presented in the corporate bylaw to pass. However, because of the importance of the document to all students at Nipissing, the NUSU Directors placed the bylaw at a higher standard overall to pass. The 1277 votes cast in favour represented 90% of total votes or 30% of the student population at Nipissing University. This is unprecedented!

This overwhelming participation represents that Nipissing students were definitely engaged in the process of a very important issue concerning the student members of NUSU. It is the first adopted Corporate bylaw, since NUSU’s inception, to be legally in effect, by the students of Nipissing University! NUSU will abide by this document when conducting the affairs of the Ontario not-for-profit Corporation on behalf of the student members.

NUSU is happy to finally have this issue resolved and looks forward to working on issues and projects that will further enhance the student experience here at Nipissing University.

NUSU wishes to thank all students who participated in the process.

********************