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Current Issue: 2/27/2002
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CASA club fingered
Complaint went unanswered
for days, student says
By Dahlia Liwsze
Doug Bastien, a first year
commerce student, had filed a formal complaint against an association
that represents management information systems (MIS) students.
Bastien is a MIS student and he wants the Commerce and Administration
Student Association (CASA) to look into the complaint. The association,
Decision Sciences and Management Information Systems Student Association
(DSMISSA) is under the umbrella of CASA.
Wanting to get involved in DSMISSA, Bastien was not happy when
the student association failed to inform him about their meetings.
He is also upset that he was interviewed twice for a vice-president
position and was told later that the position was eliminated.
After getting a copy of DSMISSA's constitution and counting nine
breaches, Bastien submitted a formal complaint to CASA. He was
not pleased that he did not get the immediate attention on the
matter.
"They [hadn't] made any commitment to support me in this matter,"
said Bastien. "They [told] me how busy CASA [was and] there's
nothing that [could] be done. They proposed to me that I go to
the Board of Directors."
CASA president Cristelle Basmaji said when Bastien came to CASA
a few weeks ago it was the first time they had heard of there
being a problem with DSMISSA. "I've been looking into the situation
for the past few weeks, but it doesn't get done in a week," she
pointed out. CASA had been busy for the past little while with
the cases competition and did not have the time to devote too
much time to the situation.
Basmaji added that DSMISSA's constitution from last semester is
a bit different from this semester's. She said that some of the
things Bastien had a problem with deal with last semester's constitution.
Basmaji said DSMISSA is CASA's weakest association this semester.
"I myself realize this association is not handling itself the
way it should, but it's for certain reasons. Some circumstances
are not their fault."
One such circumstance was when DSMISSA was without a president
for a while and had to get a new one. Also most of the students
in the current DSMISSA are new to the association.
Basmaji said CASA has spoken with DSMISSA which wants to rebuild
itself. "In the first semester, they wanted to plan a conference
for MIS students, but we told them to push it to this semester."
An e-commerce conference for MIS students will be held on March
15.
Cheryl Gensaya, the interim president of DSMISSA, who has not
seen Bastien's formal complaint had no comment to make in reaction
to it. "The CASA Board of Directors are aware of the situation
and will contact him." She added that the vice president position
has not been eliminated and elections are currently going on.
Gensaya said Bastien refused to run and in regards to DSMISSA's
meetings, she said only executive members attend them.
One of the nine breaches to their constitution that Bastien discovered
was one that says the primary objective of the association is
to provide activities of interest to DS and MIS students. He was
not impressed with the fact that there were no activities for
DS and MIS students last semester and none as of yet this semester.
Bastien was also not pleased that DSMISSA has failed recruit new
members, establish ties, and increase awareness about their organization
since the last semester, which goes against the constitution.
He believes that students must know that there is an association
that is out there representing them.
Due to CASA's being busy, two weeks ago Bastien spoke to Sameer
Zuberi, a CSU employee. There is little though that Zuberi can
advise Bastien about since CASA politics and policies are not
known by the CSU.
"I am aware of the situation, but it is not the CSU's domain,"
Zuberi said. "Maybe the CSU and CASA can work together." He will
speak to DSMISSA after he speaks to CASA this week. What he would
like to see is a panel or group of people to come together to
fix everything up.
"DSMISSA and CASA [must] recognize and admit the irresponsible
conduct of DSMISSA by impeaching the president and ending DSMISSA's
current mandate until the beginning of the following term," said
Bastien. "[Also] a commitment from CASA to monitor DSMISSA to
ensure an effort for involvement and representation of MIS students."
He intends to voice his concerns to the Board of Directors at
their meeting next week.
"I think it will be resolved [this] week as soon as we speak to
our chairman," Basmaji said. "I know it will end up working out."
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