BY JOSH BURY
The chair of Conestoga Students Inc.’s board of directors has stepped down.
It is not known why Paul Oniga, a second-year business administration – marketing student, no longer holds the position, as attempts to reach him for comment by SPOKE were unsuccessful.
When CSI president Jason Wright was asked via email to comment on the resignation of an elected member of the CSI board of directors, he said, “This is a matter that doesn’t need to be discussed in the paper, we will not be commenting on this matter.”
Oniga had a history of critical analysis of board decisions. At a board of directors meeting in June, he voted against the year-to-date financials, which were ultimately approved by the board. The discussion of the financials included points about the addition of an outreach budget to help board members gather opinion from the student community, and a discussion of staff phones and parking costs.
At another meeting of the board on Sept. 25, Oniga raised concerns about two points in CSI’s governance policies which were tabled for future consideration.
According to these governance policies, the chair “assures the integrity of the board’s process” and “represents the board to outside parties.” However, SPOKE was told by Wright in October that only he should be contacted for comment on CSI-related stories, thus reducing the role of the board’s chair.
Cameron Jones, former vice-chair of CSI’s board of directors, is now the chair.
At CSI’s leadership conference, which took place at Bingemans on Nov. 17 and 18, SPOKE learned that Hayley Press had been named the board’s vice-chair.
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