volume 12 number 17 friday 1 October 1971
by<Bill Lindsay the chevron
’ (On September 13, the executive council of the federation of students met in an unannounced meeting and, after nearly two hours of debate, voted to fire Alex Smith, editor of the chevron. (The reason given was financial mismanagement, the only charge with which an editor of the chevron may be removed by the federation under federation and Canadian university press by-laws. (As of the day of the executive meeting, Smith’s salary as editor was cut off.) In a noisy, confused meeting monday night that lasted almost seven hours, the council of the federation of students refused to accept the executive’s firing of chevron editor Alex Smith. Earlier monday night, chevron staff members voted informally in a staff meeting that Smith should resign, with the understanding he
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Council might remain as a paid member of the chevron staff in a position other than editor. The decision of the- staff was relayed to council by news editor Bill Sheldon when the chevron ‘issue came up on the agenda. During the proceedings, council’s conduct ranged from businesslike to riotous then to
sleepy and nostalgic as 2 am approached. At one point in the debate on the executive firing, federation president Rick Page tried to cajole the council by declaring that if members did not have enough faith in their executive to back them up on this, then he would resign as president. “You can just get another cookie to take all this,” he warned. Peter Meeting chairman Warrian usually able to keep sessions in check, seemed often hard-pressed to keep order. Warrian, stepping down for a moment from his position as speaker, advised council that in his opinion “financial mismanagment” had not been proven, though he urged Smith to resign voluntarily. Warrian labeled Page’s threatened resignation a “juvenile ego trip” - to the scattered applause of the gallery - and asked that all members cool down and consider what they were saying. When debate began, Page assured council members that executive’s firing of Smith was completely legal under the the federation constitution. “The constitution allows firing of a chevron editor for mismana-
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politicians never fade away, Bill Lindsay, the chevron
Several councillors decried the professionalism of the chevron and other parts of the federation and called for a return to an. amateur student effort. Smith fired back that it had been the federation council, when they had approved the media budgets last year, which had placed its stamp of approval on the concept of a more professional media. Science representati;e George Greene compared the executive’s . motion to last spring’s “fiasco” inyolving radl’o Waterloo. “Certain members are intent on controlling campus media by controlling the purse strings,” he charged. “Radio Waterloo is only a shado,w of what it should have been and the morale and capabilities of the chevron are being similarly threatened now.” Page accused council of “shirking your responsibility” by not firing Smith and said the federation should “go under” if it failed to meet that responsibility. Onlookers again admired his flair for the> dramatic. Council members continued to speak out of turn and traded mild insults. Finally, a roll call vote was called at 12 :30 to accept or reject the executive’s minutes. The motion to accept the‘micutes was defeated by a vote of seven against, six for and two abstaining. Of the three executive members who had originally voted to fire Smith, John Dale - who has since
.
on resignation, -
reverses gment of funds and Smith is guilty of that, as the executive decided,” he told members. Despite his assurince, council members continued to voice throughout the meeting confusion as to the legality of what they were considering. Several members expressed concern that council should decide
Federation council refused to ratify the executive’s decision was present, but logic wzs conspicuous by its absence
firing
on the issue before a Canadian university press investigation of the firing - called by Smith - had met to decide on the facts surrounding the firing. But a motion to table-the debate urlltil after. the CUP investigation was soundly defeated. At this writing, it was uncertain whether or not the CUP in-
to fire chevron
editor
Alex Smith. Bill Lindsay,
A quorum the chevron
Of editor
vestigation team would still meet. Smith was called upon several times to defend himself against particular charges included in a memo which Larry Burko had introduced to council and against the more vague charge of financial mismanagement included in the executive’s firing motion. He maintained throughout the meeting that mismanagement of funds explicit$y implies going over the federation-approved yearly budget, which he claimed he had not, done. Smith pointed out to cquncil that he had operated the chevron last year at a surplus, and anticipated doing so this year also. He protested the charges of overspending, reminding council that the contract he had negotiated with this year’s printers was five percent below anticipated levels, while the provision for printing costs in the chevron budget for this year had been set at’ 10 percent above. He cautioned them not to bandy about the term “mismanagement” of funds, which might not hold up in legal interpretations. What corancil was talking about, he offered, was editorial allocation, which was part of the job he had- been hired to do. Debate became quickly heated again as members seemed to take sides and range far afield from the topic of the motion, probing the entire question of student media and council’s rights and responsibilities for the content of media beyond budgetary considerations.
resigned from the executive abstained on monday night’s vote and Heather Webster reversed herself and voted against accepting the firing. The vote over, council still seemed perplexed as to what it should, or could, do about firing Smith. Sheldon was again asked: to tell council exactly what had been the consensus of the chevron meeting, but before he could finish, Burko jumped up and interrupted him with shouts of “Liar, liar!” Enough ‘calm was restored to allow a motion to be made that council accept the staff’s alleged decision that they be allowed to determine Smith’s fate in a democratic manner as long as he rescinds his editorship. The motion was passed. Burko then moved nonconfidence in the federation executive tid the motion was seconded. A. majority expressing nonconfidence in themselves would have brought the council and the federation down in ruins and necessitated a new election. Everyone grew quiet and a great deal of soul-searching took place as a number of members tried to analyze their worth to the student body. The non-confidence motion was defeated by a vote of 8-3, with two abstentions, including Page’s. The chevron has not received official word of any resignations from the federation executive.
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