The Muse, vol. 20, no. 18 (20 February 1970)

              Ward system is
The ward system has been scrapped.
The controversial student government
experiment, plagued since its inception
by poor participation and subjected to an
unprecedented barrage of criticism from
its opponents, was finally declared a
failure and tossed out at Sunday's CSU
meeting.
The old council, unwieldy with its 58
heretoday, gone-tomorrow members, will
be replaced by a system that will provide
one of the smallest councils in recent
CSU history.
The new set-up, embodied in a series of
constitutional amendments introduced by
union vice-president George Furey, will
provide for 10 councillors elected in the
spring by the student body at large.
Summer school students will elect two
additional representatives to the council
and next fall the junior division will elect
four reps.
Since the summer school reps and the
junior division reps will not serve
simultaneously, the council's maximum
size will be 14 members, not including
the executive.
Ihe ward system idea is a year old this
month. It officially went into operation
last October when a pitiful 13 per cent of
the student electorate turned out to elect
the first ward representatives.
Since then a continual parade of
resignations, ward meetings that fetched
average turnouts of zero to six and
generally clumsy operations has
channelled the system toward an
inevitable early demise.
The system, originally conceived
as a genuine step towards democratizing
student government and extending
participation to the student body itself,
was accepted with reluctance. In a
referendum   last   February  it   squeaked
through by 11 votes with about 1100
students casting ballots.
In introducing the smaller set-up,
Furey said the ward system has taught
many lessons. "In particular it made clear
that the university is not the ideal
participating democracy that the system's
devisers had imagined and it showed that
council was holding onto a myth that
everyone wants to be involved."
Union president Jack Harris, whose
lamentable lot it was to preside over the
bumpy experiment, said the system was
an "ideally democratic" one which had
failed because the students did not have
the interest and involvement which it was
assumed they had.
If the system were given three years it
might work, he said. "But in the
meantime the students would lose all
respect for the union."
Harris said his intention had been to
leave the petty, administrative work to
the council's executive so that the
enlarged body could act as a forum of
debate on issues of genuine importance.
"But council was unwilling to relinquish
administrative control., and while it
continued to exercise these functions it
needed to be much smaller to act
efficiently."
Council has left the door open for a
larger and more representative student
government structure by bringing student
representatives on the faculty councils
into the fray.
It was decided at Sunday's meeting to
constitute all student faculty councillors
into an advisory council on academic and
policy matters.
Harris said he would like to see this
body become the ultimate policy-making
organ at the student level. This year,
however, its role will be advisory though
its decisions will be respected by the
CSU.
the muse
VOLUME 20, ST. JOHN'S
Friday, February 20,1970, No. 18"
JOcOFFCAMPUSJ
Dobbin and Myrick declare candidacy;
Bishop announces proposed executive
A second set of candidates has been
announced for the upcoming presidential
elections and dates and regulations have
been set down.
Barney Dobbin, a first year Arts
student, and Tom Myrick, Arts II, have
announced their dual ticket, Dobbin
running for president and Myrick for
Vice-President.
The Dobbin-Myrick platform is based
on the idea of turning the Council of the
Students' union into strictly a service
organization. The reason for this, Dobbis
said in an interview, is "because students
aren't interested in Council and the best
way to get them involved is to get them
to participate in various service
organizations."
Dobbin and Myrick are selling
membership cards to an organization
called"F.E.E.E.P."which they formed and
which   Dobbin   says   is   rrfeant   to   be
ridiculous  because" to  compete with
Council structure as it now stands, one
has to compete at that level." The duo
are selling F.E.E.E.P. membership cards
at 25 cents apiece, with the proceeds
going to help pay for their campaign
expenses.
DOBBIN DISAGREES
WITH NEW SYSTEM
Dobbin said that the new system ot
Council representation approved in last
week's Council meeting "Shouldn't
have come in, because the ward system
wasn't given a fair trial. If the time ever
arrives that involvement does occur, the
new system will not be a good avenue for
participation in and representation on
Council. The ward system was not the
cause of the problems this year, and there
was no need of changing it."
Dobbin feels that Council should be
"less a forum for political games and
more for the average student."
On the subject of a Union organizer, a
proposal which was passed at last week's
CSU meeting, Dobbin said, "It's the best
idea so far for solving problems, but the
same    thing    could    have    been    done
considerably cheaper through FASC."
(Federation of Atlantic Student
Councils).
Dobbin   is   running   because   " the
other declared candidates are not capable
of running the union the way we think
the Union should be run as a service
union."
to formulate some policy proposals for
public discussion and for submission to
the government. The committee will be
designed to enable students to play a
major role in shaping the structure and
policies of public examinations in the
province. ^Carson Leonard, president of
the Education Society, has agreed to
serve on Bishop's executive as chairman
of this committee.
Others who have agreed to join the
Bishop-Francis executive are: Anne
Budgell (Arts II) as External Affairs
Chairman, John Joy (Arts III) as
Information    and    Public    Relations
DOBBII
Meanwhile, previously announced
candidates Bill Bishop and Merrill Francis
have released plans for formation of a
new department of the CSU, and have
also announced the names of the people
who will form their executive if they are
elected.
The new department is the Education
Policy Committee, whose purpose will be
MYfMCK
Director, Pete Walker (Commerce IV) as
Finance Chairman and Dave Weeks
(Engineering III) as Services and Social
Administration Co-ordinator.
Dobbin, says he will wait until such
time as he is elected to announce his
"slate" of executive officers. He
disapproved of the idea of pre-selecting
an executive because "you're voting for
people the candidate has faith in, and not
the candidate and his ideas."
SISCOE UNDECIDED;
DUNNE NOT RUNNING
While Dobbin and Bishop are the only
two announced candidates, there are a
couple of other possible candidates.
Dave Siscoe j a second year Commerce
student, has been rumored as a candidate
for the presidency, but would only say
that the possibility that he might run
does exist.
Another rumored candidate, third year
Arts student Tim Dunne, said he is not
running because to do so would be
"academic suicide."
Dunne said he seriously considered
running because he didn't feel the other
candidates were capable of handling the
job.
"Dave  Siscoe is      residence-oriented,
Barney Dobbin is in it for a laugh, and
Bill Bishop is a bureaucrat who would
back down in any confrontation."
DATES ANNOUNCED
FOR ELECTIONS
In the meantime, if any of the
not-yet-announced candidates decide to
run, they have to make up their minds
before 5:00 p.m. February 24, the
deadline for nominations. The elections
themselves will be held on March 4 and 5
from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. These dates were
chosen to coincide with the Council
elections and the student union building
referendum.
Returning officer Bob Buckingham
announced these dates, and also
announced that speeches will be given by
candidates in the Little Theatre March 3
at 1 p.m. A full list of regulations
governing the electionappears on page 12