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27 September 2002
uwRyan.com This website is meant to provide value to UW student by delivering information. It will also supplement the column that I write for Imprint by providing extra information on some of the topics about which I will write in addition to the text of each column. Please provide feedback on what I write as well as give me suggestions of topics to cover. You can send e-mail to me to ryan[at]uwryan[dot]com. |
Errors and negligence cause problemsFeds policy like a dirty toilet
Policies exist to provide the rule of law in an organization and to standardize the conduct of the organization's activities. Feds policies are not properly maintained. For this and other reasons, they don't properly function. It is fine for people to say that policies are not important, if that is what they believe. If that is what they believe, however, they should not have policies and should not abuse those that they do have. For all of last year the Federation of Students had no co-op service. It is not from not wanting to serve co-op students, nor is it from co-op students not wanting to benefit from those services it is because in March of 2001 Feds removed the co-op service structure and did not replace it. This situation persisted for more than 12 months, although it could have been corrected in two different general meetings, until last May. They said that they would continue as though a co-op service did exist, which defeats the purpose of their bylaws. In the Watpaign referendum last November we saw how the Feds continued to use an obsolete policy after discovering it was invalid. This was done to support the side for which the Feds president had shown he was a proponent. The results were appealed to a third level, Feds board of directors, which was an act last permitted by policy two years prior. In last winter's election, the election committee applied an obsolete policy that had been changed by council only two months earlier. The wording of the new policy indicated that what some candidates were fined for was not a violation. Ignorance of the rules is not a valid excuse for candidates but it has been for the committees that apply them. On April 7, students' council passed many changes to the election procedure. The original motion that was circulated was to change all four policies that deal with elections; that is the election procedure, referendum, byelection, and senate election and byelection procedure. The motion that was passed was to change only one procedure. This means that the general rules process and campaigning for referenda and elections are different. Council changed the procedure significantly, reorganizing it and modifying many parts. The changes include the definition of campaigning, spending limits for candidates, the process for checking the validity of nominations, liability for campaign violations, allowing unattributed complaints, and the campaign period. This will cause difficulties especially if a referendum is held at the same time as the Feds elections in February. The senate elections, which are held at the same time as Feds elections and co-ordinated by Feds, will encounter difficulty as rules of the process for one differ from the other. Developing and correcting policy isn't always a popular job, but the Feds policy, procedure and bylaw review committee will have to clean it up. |