OVER THE EDGE
October 10-24, 2007

news of the Century,

Scoop of the Semester

NUGSS Resignations Raise Salacious Questions

Copy Wittetr

Eprror in CHIEF

The shakedown of this year’s
Northern Undergraduate Student
Society has brought about the resig-
nation of none other than NUGSS
President Jenna Pocock and CSM
Rep Trevor MacKay. Back in the
middle of September it was brought
to this writer’s attention that Ms. Po-
cock was facing a formal reprimand
by her colleagues on the NUGSS
Board of Directors (BOD).

Curious, I hunted down the min-
utes for the September 14th NUGSS
BOD meeting, which weren’t avail-
able online as they are supposed to
be, and found that the President of
our student government has been
nothing but erstwhile since her elec-
tion in February.

Although these BOD meetings are
public affairs, the NUGSS members
present voted to go “in camera” so
that what was said on the matter of

.Ms. Pocock’s censure was secret
from all students and NUGSS office
staff. After they voted to come “out
of camera” they proceeded to pass a
motion for the censure of President
Pocock. The vote was unanimously
in favour of the reprimand.

Looking at an attachment to the
minutes I found that among other
transgressions, President Pocock
didn’t put in a satisfactory number
of office hours over the summer. In
fact, she took a leave of absence for
ten days in August and declined to
come around enough to collect the
honorarium for her minimum sixty
office hours that month. This might
sound like no big deal, considering
many other board members decline
to fill their positions over the sum-
mer. However, Ms. Pocock also
missed BOD meetings on more
than one occasion, once without
a plausible excuse or notification
of the BOD altogether. She didn’t
help out at the NUGSS table dur-
ing Frosh Week (NUGSS’s busiest
week of the year). She also didn’t
help out at the NUGSS-sponsored
volleyball tournament and movie
night as requested by NUGSS col-
leagues. Furthermore, President
Pocock didn’t show up until the end
of the Back Yard BBQ, and as there
was little cleanup necessary, her
presence at the end was redundant.
Most interesting though was a sig-

- nificant amount of blacked out text

within this attachment. Questions
raised indeed.
And that was just the censure.

Two weeks later I heard through the
grapevine that there’s hell to pay at
the next BOD meeting. So I actually
go to sit through one of those dread-
fully boring things on September
28th. After a nondescript explana-
tion of her regret for putting the
board through such trouble over the
last few months, the BOD tabled a
motion to accept Ms. Pocock’s re-
signation letter. This motion passed
unanimously with no discussion.

Another motion to accept Mr.
MacKay’s resignation letter also
passed unanimously with no dis-

cussion. I scarcely had time to ask
myself why these resignations were
tendered before motions to appoint
VP External Cameron Ehl acting
President and CASHS Rep Adam
Kantakis acting CSM Rep. Again,
unanimous, no discussion. My head
was spinning at these obviously
backroom choreographed revela-
tions. Even by-election dates had
been settled on: October Ist-15th
is the nomination period, the 16th-

22nd set aside for campaigning,-the
23rd for holding speeches, and the
24th -25th as voting days. The mor-

OTE Arcnives
Former NUGSS President Jenna Pocock during the happier times of her pre-election.

ning of Friday October 26th will see
our votes counted and the winners
shall be announced after that after-
noon’s BOD meeting. After three
days of job shadowing the incom-
ing NUGSS members’ terms ana
on November Ist.

In his dual role of President and
VP External Cameron Ehl was a
tempting target to probe for an-
swers. Now, this interview wasn’t
conducted in bathrobes (I’ve since

found my own place to live) and
it was quite short; Mr. Ehl is now
busier than ever. I asked how he felt
about being appointed acting Pres-
ident. In his most formal tone he said
“T think the board realized that I’ve
been the one that can best provide a
smooth transition to the next person
who is elected President. The elec-
tions will happen at the end of the
month and I feel with my leadership
skills, and you know I have already
been acting President before in the
summertime, it was just natural for
them to appoint me again as acting
President.” Oh the modesty.

I was compelled to switch sub-
jects, so I enquired as to the reasons
for these resignations. Sidestepping
as only a rising star political star
can, President Ehl answered “the
reasons are attached on the letters
and they will be available on the
meeting minutes for both Jenna Po-
cock and Trevor MacKay.”

Well, I’m sorry to say that for all
those curious minds among our stu-
dent body there’s neither a sniff of
rhyme nor reason contained in those
letters to let us know exactly what
forced these two student politicians
to quit. Something tells me this isn’t
the last we’ve heard of this story,
even if we’d wanted to.

The Facts

Behind the
Scandal

--NUGSS President Jennal

NUGSS Scandal Continued on next cadens