Sask student union VP says he is sticking out his term

Though he is facing pressure to leave office after students voted to eliminate his position, Blair Shumlich, vice-president external of the University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union, is adamant that he will finish out the rest of his year-long term.

“I have absolutely no intention of resigning,” Shumlich told campus newspaper The Sheaf. “I was elected for a 12 month term and I will finish what I started because I believe in what I did.”

Shumlich has been called hypocritical by some students, including USSU president Chris Stoicheff, for holding onto his job after proposing to eliminate the position in the first place.

“I think it is hypocritical to say that you’ve got nothing to do, to hold an SGM to get rid of your position — the position is eliminated — and then stay on and justify it because you’ve got lots of things to do,” Stoicheff said at a Mar. 10 council meeting, according to The Sheaf.

Stoicheff and Shumlich seem to have very different perceptions of what the implications of the original motion were. Stoicheff has said that he took the motion to mean that the elimination of Shumlich’s position took effect immediately, while Shumlich has argued that the motion implied that his position would be eliminated “on a go-forward basis, meaning that no VP external would be elected after the term of the current VP external expires at the end of April 2011.”

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I find it kind of ridiculous that Shumlich and Stoicheff are still arguing this matter out at council meetings and in The Sheaf, when it wouldn’t have caused any confusion in the first place if the motion that was originally put forth at the special general meeting Mar. 3  contained all the necessary details surrounding the elimination of Shumlich’s position.  Further, if this motion was originally passed though a student vote, why not put forward a second vote on when Shumlich is to step down from his position?

As petty as this conflict seems to be, I do find it commendable that, instead of creating busy work to fill up his time and wasting student dollars, Shumlich openly admitted that his job does not generate enough work to require a full time position, which holds an annual salary of $30 000.

"There are better ways to spend the money on students’ lives," Shumlich told the Star Phoenix.

One thing I never thought I’d see: a student politician admitting that they didn’t do enough work for the students they purport to represent.