MONTREAL/October 17, 2000—
The senior administration of Concordia University reacted with great concern to the announcement by the Concordia Student Union of a suspected fraud involving thousands of dollars of CSU funds. The CSU is the duly elected body representative of undergraduate students at the University.
ìWe are very disturbed by this news,î said Dean of Students Donald Boisvert. ìThe CSU, by nature of its charter, has the responsibility of managing funds that students entrust to them. This trust has been broken by those responsible for the fraud. We expect the CSU to identify and account for the stolen funds and to put into place solid accounting and verification methods to prevent any re-occurrence of financial mismanagement. The University will offer the CSU its help and expertise in dealing with the situation.î
It is important to note that the Concordia Student Union Inc. (CSU) is an independent corporation legally separate from Concordia University. It has a Board of Directors (known as the Council of Representatives) and is subject to all of the legal obligations set out in Part III of the Quebec Companies Act. By virtue of the Act, Concordia University has neither legal authority nor legal right to intervene in the internal affairs of the CSU. The University collects the fees decided upon by the students by referendum and remits them to the CSU. Concordia University has no legal authority to oversee or supervise the accounting or use of these fees unless requested by the CSU.
Nonetheless, the University is very concerned that student funds have apparently been misappropriated and will monitor the situation closely to assure that the interests of its students are protected. We expect that the authorities will take the appropriate action.
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