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Student government taking college to court 41
By Ellwood Shreve, Chatham Daily News
Thursday, May 17, 2012 3:55:01 EDT PM
Student government representatives at St. Clair College Thames Campus are getting an unexpected lesson on legal proceedings.
Thames Students Inc., made up of elected students, has commenced legal proceedings against the college in the Ontario Superior Court, after it was abruptly shut down and replaced by the student government at St. Clair’s main Windsor campus.
Tanis Mathieson, who took over as president of TSI in May, told The Chatham Daily News the merger had been discussed in previous meetings and the college indicated it “was going to happen smoothly and it would happen May of 2013.”
She added there was another meeting, where the college stated it planned to carry out the merger in September 2013 to give TSI more time to prepare.
“Then it happened April 30, 2012, so it really did catch us off guard, because we thought we had a year to let them know how (TSI) would do a better job just being on our own,” Mathieson said.
She said members of TSI board of directors showed up on April 30 expecting to conduct its annual general meeting.
She said they received a letter from college president Dr. John Strasser that as of 8 a.m. that day, TSI is no longer the body representing students at Thames Campus and the Windsor student government is taking over.
She added the college handled the situation in a heavy-handed approach, telling the board if they didn’t leave the TSI offices immediately, they would be escorted off the property.
Mathieson said the Chatham-Kent Police Service had to be called so they could get into their offices and get their personal belongings, because the locks had been changed.
Strasser said TSI may have worked well when it was created in 1978, but added, “it certainly hasn’t worked well in the time that I’ve been here” for the past 13 years.
He said the college has been “chatting” with various TSI boards and executives over the years about merging the student governments.
Strasser said he met with TSI on Feb. 9 and told them discussions about a merger is not new and the student government was given more than a year to get together with Student Representative Council (SRC) in Windsor and work out the merger.
He noted the Downtown Windsor Campus agreed to work with the larger SRC government.
He added that left 7,000 students under SRC and 1,000 students under TSI.
Lauren Bultje, who was serving her last day as president when TSI was shut down, said they were aware of the deadline.
“But, we still weren’t sure as to what we were going to do yet. We had no idea if we were going to go with it or not,” she said.
Bultje said when the college withheld student fee funds TSI was to receive, that’s when they decided to take legal action.
Strasser said it was decided to speed up the process because there is a lack of good governance and there’s no fiduciary responsibility in terms of looking after student’s money. He said this included having no rationale for a huge draw on resources and TSI attempting to bring in the Canadian Federation of Students when it is part of the College Student Alliance.
When told the TSI board figured it had a year to make an argument for remaining independent, Strasser said, “if that was the case they should have put that in writing and let’s have a chat about that. None of that’s happened.”
John McNair, one of the lawyers from McKenzie Lake Lawyers LLP in London, representing TSI, said the basis if the claim is TSI is “the duly constituted student government at St. Clair College Thames Campus.”
He added the provisions of the Ontario College of Applied Arts and Technology Act recognize the role of a duly constituted student governing body.
“That legislation provides that a college of applied arts and technology, of which St. Clair College is one, is required to recognize such a student governing body,” McNair said.
“TSI asserts in the Superior Court that St. Clair College is not entitled to merge TSI into another student governing body or remove it or take away its authority to represent the Chatham campus students,” he added.
The matter is scheduled to be heard in a London courtroom on May 31.
However, McNair said, “it’s also our expectation there may be some discussions between the parties prior to that date in an attempt to resolve it.”
Bultje said TSI has worked on things they want and things they might be able to compromise on if there are discussions with the college before it goes to court.
Strasser said the college is always willing to talk this out.
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