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“rrThis‘entihe campus has been buzzing the‘last few because of last Wednesdayfs

Senate meeting and a thou-~\_

sand related things. Import: ant_as these issues are we‘

must not,allow them to over—‘

shadow the larger questions in education. 0n the contra— ry they must be used as'a tool to both understand and challenge these structures. Unless we remember the esse— ntial power structure at this university, or for that matter any_other, then we cannot mount an effective opposition to it nor provide

any kind of viable alternative. At this university the po—

wer is divided between three groups, the Board of Gover- nors who control the purse‘ strings (and therefore just about everything else). Stu- dent representation on this body is barely 10%. 2) the Senate which has power over academic matters 23% Stud- ents), and 3) the President. So me of his legal powers include: recommending the establishment of new build— ings, faculties, programmes, etc; to suspend any member of faculty or the student. body (the latter have appeal to the Board); to establish committees on"matters“affe— cting the univerSity" and to examine all the activities of the university. As well he has ex—officio seats on both of the other governing_ bodies (on Senate he is also the chairman).

Thus we have a situation where one man both recomme- nde and (in the case of Se— nate‘implentS) the policy of our governing bodies. This

not only gives him consider—u

able discretion to act as he pleases but also gives him primary access to almost all of the information gathering services on campus. Further because these services are set up by him, he can have their viewpoint slanted to his, esPecially considering that their jobs are on the line. Look what happened to the man who was brought to this campus to be our vice- President. He's lucky he's still on campus. Because all the imfomation services are Slanted then it becomes very difficult for any3view which dissents from Baker's to be accepted for it can only rarely be more than an in- Stinctual reSponse. Lack of b0th time and alternative Sources makes any kind of reasoned arguement very dif- fiCult to prepare.

It is not surprising that'

both the Board and Senate have very rarely argued with Baker, since the Constitutio-

nal Conferences. Baker want-.

fix- , ~ ' V \ “V V / ' x .

Thekeulkpwerat "PEI—Ron Baker \

."\

ed Bernadine. And got it. A

new library. And got it. BL-

anchard. Here. Music and s

i Home Ec on campus_herE. Whe— tHEr or not these were "goodW measures is not really rele- -vant. The point is that if khose who the university ex— ists, the students, decided othenwize they would have no .recoufse. Whetther or not our king is benevolent is not relevant, the point is' he is a king.

Why have‘the Board and Senate allowed there legally delegated power to be taken away from them? First the Board. Fifty per cent of this body (+ Baker = major—

,/ity) are from outside the university and the body sits 7 only two or three times a year. Thus these people are unable to make any kind of intelligent decision. This

’is not to_suggest that the are stupid, merely divorced from the day-tofiday activities of the campus. Hence they are un— I able to vote on a motion on 'any but grounds of the au: ,thority of its mover. When Baker is virtually the only person who submitts motions who has any kind of prestige, his motions naturally have greater likelihood of pass— ing than yours er mine. Ba-T ker j self told me that the Board was a rubber-stamp,r although he did not mention of what. , Senate is ammore complex affair.iThere are many‘rea— sdns why, until recently, it too has acted as a rubbers. stamp. Given that Baker has been Senate chairman since it was formed and operates ’under almost no rules ex—

The

cept those laid down by the chair, it makes it consider-~ ably easier for Baker to ensure the passage or defeat of motions. But it goes fare ther than that. If Baker is able to control the Board then he can control the hir- -ing and firing of staff, therefore designing a fac- ulty which hold essentially the same views as he does. And the threat of dismisal

is always there . But a dif— ference exists on Senate now. ’These guys, unlike the Board, have access to information and know what going on. If they are willing to analyse

that information and to takex~

a risk (it was never, after all, more'than a threat, anyway) then they can apply that analyse and, perhaps,

for the first time, vote in— '-

Yet even if Senate does decide to take this initia— tive then-little has really changed. Senate can hamper and harass but it cannot change the basic plan. Thus if students deSire a change then they must not devote their total energies, nor even the major pertion, to _Senate.

We must rather attempt to ensure that this university ‘is run democratically. And democrati— does not simply mean elective. It must also mean 1) that the members have access to all informa- tion_relating to the campus jasfwell as the structures to. prOvide them with their own sources and 2) must interact on a day-to—day basis with the people they are intend- ”ed to serve. When the major Isonstituency of these rep-

1'

Cadre, Feb. 25, 1975, page 15

resentatives is but at most .2000 people (counting stu— , dents and all staff) then neither of these suggestions should be particularily difficult to implement, provided the structures are there which will allow them 'to happen.

How can we as students provide the impetus to make changes such as these happen? First of all we must join to— gether and create a solid movement; instead being apa— thetic and squabbling, we must become intereSted and unified, showing our solid— arity on all issues of true importance from "more stu- dent reps on everything" to the whole question of exact- ly what direction this uni-

versity will take. A Student -0bjectives Committee with

only fourteen students on it is a black mark on us all. It should have had input, not from 14, but from 1400! Course unions should be established, enabling the students of each department to deal with complaints, large or small, not to men- tion to provide student in— put on questions of policy within the department. If a’ student is getting a bum deal on marks (as an example) :then he has the support of a hundred others. He is no lo—

_ nger isolated. If a prof

with a good head is summar— ily dismissed then the stu- dents have a structure with— in which to take action. Power to the formerly power— less can only be obtained through the force of num— bers. Unless we exploit that ‘power then we will never be able to influence the deci— -sion making process here.It is our beSt trump card, in— deed our only one.

We must also go to meet— ings of any type, avail our— selves of all information ‘ sources, such as they may be. Then our opinions will car— ry weight. Indeed if we do not become informed then they don't deserve to carry weight.And they won't.

Finally and perhaps most important, we must not be scared to resort to the ul— timate of resorts - shutting down this whole institution, even to the point of forci- ‘ble occupation of buildings. In the present situttion, for example, which amounts to Baker screwing around with our choice of repress entative, our constitutiOn, our decisions, then there can be no other alternative if he refuses to back down. Our rights to self—determin— ation are inviolate. And God knows, we have few enough of them.