THE UNIVERSITY OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND’S STUDENT VOICE VoL37| No 11 |

March 28, 2007 WWW.CADRE.UPEI.CA

Student Union Says More Time, Input Needed Before Cadre Autonomy can Happen ~

Restructured Committee to Include Trained Journalists and Will Look at Autonomy and bids for new Management of UPEI’s Student Newspaper

Teresa Wright Constable Wright Constable ts a journalism student at Holland College

The UPEI student union has decided to hold off on de- termining the Cadre’s fate as an autonomous student newspa- per until a new committee can properly look at who should manage and control the paper.

The Cadre’s future was called into question this week after a proposal was submitted by the Cadre Direction Com- mittee to student union detail- ing the UPEI Independent Student Media Society’s desire to assume control over the Cadre, making it independent from student union.

Tie proposal was mainly authored by Ryan Palmer, who is president of ISMS and was on the committee.

But the Cadre Direction Committee’s objective was called into question during council’s meeting March 25 after a few committee members expressed concern over a lack of clarity about the original purpose and overall makeup of the committee.

They said they were never quite clear on the committee’s objective, and a few members said they were surprised that none of the Cadre’s editors were invited to be on the com- mittee, while the ISMS presi- dent was.

Kent Aitken, who works for the Cadre and has worked with ISMS, was the only member of the Cadre’s staff on the com- mittee.

He said he was approached by student union president Ryan Gallant to represent the Cadre on the committee. He agreed, under the impression

In This Issue:

Campus pg A&E pg

a

Travel pgs

Budget pg $ \Review pg

Beers

the committee would only gen- erally discuss potential changes to the Cadre.

“But when we actually sat down at the committee for the two meetings that we had, it was actually very much so revolving

Council members discuss the Cadre committee at the council meeting on March 25.

around the ISMS proposal and

pitching a consultation between

myself - as someone who

worked for the Cadre — and people from the council who could direct Ryan (Palmer) to explain what the council would

- Wright Constable Photo

like to see in that proposal.”

He told council he felt uncomfortable in this position, as he did not feel he was the proper person to represent the interests of the current Cadre management.

“T don’t have the journalistic or in-depth experience to repre- sent the Cadre in a completely full form. But I didn’t think the committee would require that, so I felt completely comfortable joining it,” he said in an inter- view.

He also said he was asked by Gallant to keep the ISMS proposal on the Q-T.

“Tt wasn’t, “This is hush- hush, shut it down.’ It was more like, “By the way, we're trying not to make a big deal out of this because we’re not sure what could happen. So we don’t want to make a big fuss right now — so if you wouldn’t mind, we’d appreciate you not shouting it to everyone.”

Janelle Petrie, who is a mem- ber of student council and was also on the committee, formally apologized to Cadre editor Rob Walker during the council meet- ing after he expressed concerns over never being informed =

... Continued on pg. 5

Copies of the Student Union Budget Should be Available to Students - Councillor

Melanie Bernard Managing Editor

A student union councillor is concerned with the way the SU presents it’s budget to UPEI students.

At the SU council meeting Sunday, Grad student rep Faiz Ahmed questioned a motion he made that was passed at the Nov. 20, 2005 council meeting, which requires council to “pub- licise their working budget in a format appropriate by council.”

According to the student union, letting students make an appointment for a viewing qualifies as falling urider this loosely worded motion.

Ahmed said he made the motion because he feels stu- dents should have the opportu- nity to hold a physical copy if they wish. He said doesn’t think there is anything wrong with the budget, just the way it is pre- sented to students, if at all.

Currently, if a student is in- terested in viewing the budget, they would have to make an

appointment with VP Finance Willy Gauthier, sit with him in his office and review the budget on his computer.

“Students aren’t allowed to take a physical copy of the budget,” Gauthier said after the council meeting March 25.

“It’s been a discussion with our legal council as well as our auditor and it is their concern as well as ours that our budget may be subject to misinterpreta- tion.”

But The SU holds the budg- et so tightly that Ahmed, an elected member of council, was forced to take a copy in secret to look over. At the last council meeting, Gauthier went over the budget with council, but didn’t make copies for everyone, citing a wish to preserve trees.

After the meeting, Ahmed asked if he could keep the copy Gauthier brought. Gauthier denied the request.

Ahmed then took the copy from the meeting and photo- copied it. A few days later, he was sent a letter stating if he

obtained a copy of the budget in any form, he was required to give it back.

This week, however, Gauth- ier told council he would pho- tocopy the budget for everyone who deemed it necessary for the next council meeting.

Gauthier said the SU is hesitant about giving out the budget because it doesn’t match the SU’s financial statements. The cash budget is for day-to- day operations of the company, or a working document. He said changes ate made in the SU dai- ly that could change the budget and Gauthier is afraid those changes would be difficult to communicate with students.

There is currently no policy stating a student is not allowed to have a copy of the budget, it is just operating policy for the Student Union.

Gauthier does, however, continue to encourage students to look at the budget. He said no one has gone to his office yet this year to view it.

The student union budget

is over $1.1 million for the 2006/2007 year, which comes from students’ pockets.

“T think it’s important (...) to have an idea of how the fi- nances of Student Union work. It’s important for the student population to be aware,” he said.

Other university student unions publish an abbreviated version of their budget on their website, but UPEI SU does not. Gauthier said he doesn’t have an issue with seeing this happen in the future.

Student Union officials said the best way for a student to get the full impression of the un- ion’s financial information is to go on the SU website and view the financial statements. The financial statements have the ex- act numbers, unlike the working budget, which is an estimate.

See the complete student union budget

and their letter starting on Page 9