The Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) General Assembly, which will be held next Tuesday, has sparked debate surrounding the current AUS structure and Constitution.
A special referendum was put forth to amend the current AUS Constitution so that the General Assembly (GA) would be the supreme governing body of AUS, rather than AUS Council.
The amendment would allow the AUS to become a member of the Coalition large de l’Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (CLASSE), which the amendment describes as “a temporary coalition of CEGEP and university student associations from across Quebec” that have assembled in opposition of the proposed tuition hike, according to the referendum.
In an interview on CKUT’s Morning After show earlier this month, Jaime Maclean, a member of the AUS Mobilization Committee, highlighted that “joining CLASSE would mean that we would have a voice to go negotiate with the government to influence the way that the tuition increases go,” since “one solitary student association at one university doesn’t have that power to do that on their own.”
Elections AUS rejected the referendum, but will be meeting with members of the AUS and of CLASSE to discuss the matter further. According to Kevin Paul, another member of the AUS Mobilization Committee, the rejection was due to a claim by Elections AUS that the referendum’s whereas clauses were inaccurate, as a CLASSE executive was claimed to have deemed the AUS as “already democratic.”
Despite this claim by Elections AUS, Paul made clear that “multiple executives of CLASSE have made official statements to the contrary.”
The amendment will be addressed at the upcoming GA.
In response to the rejection, a motion has been brought forward to censure AUS Chief Returning Officer Victor Cheng for acting without adequate explanation in regards to the referendum.