(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)