Opinions

Barski's conflict of interest?

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Editor, the Gauntlet,

As a concerned student I have been extremely worried about the upcoming Students' Union election.

One issue I am concerned about is the sponsoring of slates by companies. In particular, Barski's Cabinet has made it evident they are being sponsored by an online company that provides services similar to the Students' Union, namely buying and selling used textbooks. By promoting such a website, Barski's Cabinet is supporting a competitor of the Students' Union. This conflicts with the responsibilities of potential student representatives.

Candidates in a Students' Union election should be looking out for the best interests of the students and not private companies.

So I urge all students: don't vote Barski's Cabinet!

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Comments

What a joke!

Who says the SU has to have a monopoloy on the exchange of books? Students should have many options available to them, in the hopes of receiving the best value. This goes for buying and selling!

Nice work by the Gauntlet to put this in bold print on the top of their web page. Another example of fine, objective journalism.


All new stories that appear on the site after the issue has been published get the bold treatment. This has been the case for about four months now.

mejenkin: It's not about the SU having a monopoly, they do not have a monopoly currently.

The conflict of interest occurs if in the unlikely event that they are elected, their Op-Fi guy has to make a decision about the SU used bookstore, knowing that it competes with the cabinet's sponsor, which also has a used book venture (although a very shitty one).

Can students trust an executive to make the right decisions (for students) when they could personally gain from making decisions in favour of their (former?) sponsor? Maybe. Should it be left up to chance? No.

Also, you're confusing 'top' with '35th in a list of 50'.

This is about making things cheaper for students. Maybe if the SU had to compete for it's revenue instead of just taxing it onto tuition and other various services things would be cheaper. And may I ask those left leaning members of Arts faculties, isn't that what you want? Wouldn't you rather pay less for the same services? I know if it's at all possible I would. I may also add that the Gauntlet is incredibly irresponsible when it comes to presenting both sides of the issue. They simply implant their will in voters who have little other information about the candidates. Hell people probably vote simply based on what the Gauntlet says. This is why the Gauntlet shouldn't express opinion in their election coverage and should remove the section where they provide commentary and where each member of Gauntlet staff "picks" winners. This is really unfair, the notion of five know-nothing, wanna-be, journalists using their mass distributional powers to infect the campus with propaganda. I ask that future elctions not be tainted with Gauntlet opinion.

Rob: That is a comment from a student who has concerns about the campaign in question, we didn't make it up.

If you disagree with our commentary so much, you are free to change it by contributing to it in the future.

Rob: The Gauntlet election committee are more than qualified to tell the student population and You who they should vote for.
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