The Cadre

The infamous faculty lounge and its inhabitants

BY Todd MacLean

The Faculty Association is being accused of mal-in- forming the faculty, and in ee ticular, their recent switch to the procedure of voting via electronic mail may not be as holistically effective as origi- nally planned.

Last fall’s renovations to the Faculty Lounge were voted upon in this manner via e-mail. Though a large quorum ap- proved the decision to go ahead with the alterations, some still think that some faculty mem- bers were not well informed of the costly changes.

The lounge actually had initial “upgrading” early inthe fall without consultation from much of the faculty, and it was only when the Faculty Asso- ciation decided to another $5000 into renovations that the e-mail vote finally occured in mid-October.

“We didn’ task for it, and there was no real vote until after the fact,” said Colman O’ Hare, professor of English. “I shouldn’t be forced to pay for the upkeep of the building in which I work.”

Many faculty members were not made aware of the initial changes because it was done by the university as gen- eral upkeep. Further, the Fac- ulty Association Executive handled any matters that needed to be addressed on this issue.

“The executive has the power to speak for all of the faculty,” said Paul Boudreau, co-chair of the Social Com- mittee for the Faculty Asso- ciation. “No, we didn’t go to the faculty and say, ‘as of Sept. Ist, etc.” but those mat- ters of renovation were being discussed for a while--maybe some professors weren't pay- ing attention. But the vote that was held obtained overwhelm- ing support.”

“We know we geta large readership from e-mail,” said Gerald Johnson, Head of the Faculty Association. “It’s con- ceivable that we miss a few here and there [with the e-mail voting] however if the secre- tary is aware of people not using e-mail, then a written letter will be sent out.”

The e-mail voting sys- tem does encompass a larger percentage of the faculty than the previous procedure of con- ducting the vote at general meetings, as it usually misses only an estimated 10 out of about 180 members.

“At a general meeting vote, if we get a quorum we’ re happy.” added Johnson.

There will be a meeting held this month to address the matter of e-mail voting, [ED:as opposed to an e-mail vote on e-mail voting] where it will be up to the faculty to decide if it will continue with this method of voting.

The faculty will now have an “optimal” place in which to conduct their meet- ings, as the renovations to the lounge are now coming to a very positive close.

“We've had a lot of sup- portive comments,” concluded Boudreau. “And some are actually saying [in terms of renovation costs] that ‘maybe we need more money.’”

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By Andy Vainio

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Paul Morin says he hopes law students can learn from the 11 years he spent trying to clear his name of a mur- der he didn’t commit.

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