(This is major story two)
MAJOR UPDATE: LAST WEEK THE NATIONAL GRADUATE CAUCUS ELECTED A NEW EXECUTIVE – Mr. Newstadt is therefore no longer a CFS Executive, he was however one when hired to CRO at UTSU and RSU. He was during the part of the election process that occurred prior to the change over at NGC
Much has been recently written about Eric Newstadt. Eric Newstadt holds an impressive array of positions: President – York University Graduate Students Association where he is listed as VP Finance and Services on the website, and he is the past President of the GSA. He is also listed as the CFS contact for the York GSA: http://www.cfsontario.ca/french/contact.php. He is the CRO for the Ryerson Students’ Union and the University of Toronto Students’ Union. He is also the Chairperson of the National Graduate Caucus of the Canadian Federation of Students. This last position makes him a serving CFS Executive.
This means that he is clearly in a conflict of interest as the CFS has a major stake in these elections. The University of Toronto is the breadbasket of the CFS sending nearly a half-million dollars a year. There are candidates in the UTSU election that are challenging the current slate running the UTSU. Considering how closely this slate works with the CFS, this raises, at the very least, the appearance of conflict-of-interest.
I have to admit, I am impressed that Mr. Newstadt can do some much in his spare time.
In his current role as Ryerson CRO, he gave demerit points to Engineer Candidates, who running on a Transformers theme, used the term “kick some Decepticon ass.” The Decepticons, of course, being the enemies of the Autobots. Newstadt had plenty to say about the use of that line according to an article written in the Ryersonian:
After taping about 30 of the posters around campus, Bakos and Petz were informed by the chief returning officer (CRO), Eric Newstadt, that “Decepticon” could be perceived to mean their competitors are “deceptive con artists” and were asked to remove the posters.
and
Newstadt took his advice a step further and e-mailed Bakos and Petz to inform them about other downsides of using the cartoon on election posters.
He wrote that the cartoon was marketed only to young boys, was only syndicated in North America and had coded messages intended to describe Russia, the “evil empire” of the Reagan-era.
“I informed them of the possibility that Decepticon could be read in many ways.
“I made it clear that they are allowed to target male engineers (only),” said Newstadt.
The poster can be viewed here: http://www.ryersonline.ca/content_images/feb14sonian/LeftReaganistPropaganda.jpg
I assume that the UTSU elections will be interesting and the CRO will definitely be seen as a factor in the race. (Of course, every CRO is)
Joey, what is the problem? Most student unions across the country hire people who have student union experience to be their CRO. This is the case with UMES, who is hiring a former UMSU council member, and it is the case with many non-CFS schools. Western regularly hires former SU execs, and sometimes those people have experience with lobby groups like CASA.
The CRO does not have the sole ability to remove people for not supporting the CFS. He has to follow a set of rules, and his rulings can be appealed to an Elections Committee, an Elections Appeals Committee and the Student union Board of directors.
You cannot smear someone’s integrity just because he is involved with a group you don’t like. You have ZERO proof that he would be anything besides fair, and you’re attacking someone you haven’t even met. You know the problem with your internet journalism? Real journalists talk on the phone with their subjects. They interview. They would go to a meeting of the elections committee, and they would see for themselves instead of just inventing conspiracy theories.
Truthiness shall rule all.
Anonymous: that’s all well and good, but when the Elections Committee, Elections Appeals Committee, and Board of Directors are all 90% in favour of the CFS slate, the only thing stopping a rigged election is a strong and fair CRO.
Oh and maybe the fact that you can have scrutineers at each ballot box and during vote counting? Come on! You have no proof there will be any election rigging of any sort and it is slanderous and unproven to suggest that someone is planning something as nefarious as vote rigging.
And why do you call one of them the CFS slate? Neither slate has suggested they would want to withdraw from CFS. Is one slate hiding this aspiration?
not saying that there is any vote rigging going on, just that with a national organization (the CFS) so obviously supporting one of the slates (the campaign manager for Your Team is incoming ontario chair of CFS) its necessary for the CRO to be impartial and unbiased. and its my opinion that his having so recently held an exec position on cfs as well as currently being a vp at the york gsa gives cause for doubt as to his lack of bias.
on the other hand i have not heard of any egregious acts at u of t, certainly not on the level of ryerson, so maybe media pressure has been effective and he’s going to play by the rules. that said if i had a choice i’d hire a disinterested law student to be CRO in a student union election.
I beleieve that the last coment by “john d” was in referance to me. But maybe you are confused. The only slate with a former Federation Executive being the declared ‘Campaign Manager’ is the Vote New Deal slate:
The Varsity ‘A Three Horse Race For SAC Chairperson’
this is so petty! focusing all your energy and life to create consiparcy theories and make links from google searches will certainly serve this society well, won’t it? you do hold the highest level of morality after all!
p.s. as word of advise, when making google searches with people’s names, make sure that the results are not outdated. you wouldn’t want to misinform your readers, would you?