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~ COVER STORY

nite controversy

po Oct. 24, 2007

Poster $ taking aim at former staff rekindles bad blood

By Adam W. Morrison

By the time you're reading this, the Cadre is up and running again.

But, with no Cadre being pub- lished in September and the first edition being published in mid- October, students and faculty began to wonder what had hap- pened to the Cadre.

Wanting to know where The Cadre went, several posters were distributed in the W.A. Murphy Student Centre asking for assis- tance.

They read, "Looking for the Cadre. Last run into the ground by Rob Walker."

Asher Fredricks, a Student Representative on the Board of Governors, put up the posters at the insistence of other students.

It should be noted the posters weren't his original idea.

Fredricks said it has to do with the fact students hadn't seen an issue of the Cadre published this Academic year. :

"T've had many students ask about it. A professor asked whether the Student Union had cancelled the paper. There are people who read the paper and the posters came out of frustration. It's not being angry or bashing the paper."

The poster weren't up very long.

Rob Walker was the previous Editor-In-Chief of the paper.

During the last academic year, the Cadre butted heads with the Student Union over the printing of the annual budget.

The Cadre argued that students had a right to know to know how

_UPEI's finances are distributed.

The Student Union argued that any student can view the budget once an appointment with the min- ister of finance is made and that the budget is non-printable.

Secondly, Walker also wanted the Cadre to have autonomy, which is essentially the right to self-govern- ment.

In response, the Student Union developed a committee to discuss the idea of autonomy for the Cadre, and has yet to rule it out entirely.

When reached for comment regarding the accusatory posters, Walker was at a loss for words.

"Someone took the time to get poster material, make them and put them up. How long did that take? And then they didn't even put up the posters themselves, they were too afraid they were going to get in trouble.

"This is where Fredericks stepped in as protector of freedom of speech. Of course, he strongly feels that way about me too, but God forbid he actually goes out and expresses his own opinion." said Walker.

"Also, if someone were to bet me

$20, I'm 95 per cent sure I know who made those posters."

Melanie Bernard, the Cadre's Managing Editor last year, says the Cadre was never run into the ground when they worked there and issues were released when there was enough content to do so.

"Staffing was our biggest issue and we dealt with it, as opposed to the current management at the Cadre who hasn't been able to retain or recruit staff." ;

Bernard also says while the poster is attacking last year's editor in chief, the real story is the Cadre not being published yet this year.

"This does not reflect last year's management. It reflects this year's management because the Cadre has yet to be published. The per- son who wrote the poster was try- ing to attack last year's staff but really all it is doing is showing the incompetence of the current man- agement." said Bernard.

"The Cadre was not run into the ground by last year's staff. It was run into the ground by the current editor in chief who has no experi- ence and no idea what he is doing".

Cadre Editor-In-Chief Liam McKenna, who didn't know of the posters until they were taken down, describes his reaction to the posters as mixed.

"I certainly understand why peo- ple wonder where the paper is and

I think had it been anybody else, I might have not cared so much. But the fact this was perpetrated by a member of the Cadre's Board of Directors, with the knowledge of the Vice-President's activities is a bit alarming," said McKenna. "When you consider they've had minimal contact with the Cadre this year."

As for why the Cadre was not published until October, McKenna contributes it to several factors. Excluding the Editor-In-Chief and Managing Editor positions, there was no executive staff, said McKenna.

"I had to hire all my own staff, which is about five positions. It took several tries to get the proper staff."

McKenna wants to make it clear he isn't making excuses for the paper's lateness.

"However, with the release of the first edition, we will be back to our regular schedule.

Fredricks wasn’t away the paper had gone to print.

"At the time the posters were put up, I didn't know the paper had gone to publish. Also, we're rub- bing in people's faces. Only four were printed and put up in the Student Centre. I took the posters down on Wednesday and today's

‘the twelfth and still no paper. It

should have been published in early September."

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