1) You are the Science caucus leader. What unique strategies are you employing to engage Science students that differ from the Science caucus of last year?
The Science Caucus last year was led by a very ambitious, dedicated and hard-working individual who had a lot of great ideas. The problem was that there was a lot of in-fighting and a few members of the caucus did not have many of the same great qualities their leader did. In the end, not a whole lot was done by SRA Science 08-09 simply because two or three people cannot do the work expected of six or seven.
This year, our Caucus is filled to the brim with hard working individuals, including three SRA Commissioners. This makes a big difference right off the bat since we all are so invested and interested in doing a good job.
My main strategy has been to build on successful strategies of the past. One of these strategies has been spending as much time as possible in our Faculty center – the McMaster Science Society (MSS) office. They get a lot of foot traffic and I’m always interested in asking the students that come in and out of the office their opinions on things and what ideas they may have. I’ve always been a strong advocate for face-to-face advocacy, awareness and engagement work – it’s far too easy to ignore emails and blow off phone calls. When people are face-to-face with you, it’s a lot easier to speak to them and get honest thoughts, ideas, criticisms, etc. One of my caucus members is a member of the MSS Executive and as such spends a lot of time in their office as well. Another one of my caucus members is a former MSS President and MSS Executive member of 4 years, and he probably spends more time in BSB than myself and the rest of the caucus combined.
In conclusion, while it may not be the most unique or innovative strategy, the face-to-face/personal presence strategy has been our primary means of engaging Science students. We all make our best effort to attend MSS events, make updates in any and all MSS-related public forums (ie MSS General Assembly), and in-class announcements.
MP note: the MSS refers to the McMaster Science Society
2) The MSU's financial statements appeared on MacInsiders yesterday thanks to a member. When looking through it I noticed that Twelve Eighty was still running with a pretty large deficit, and that most of the businesses were running very much against the budgetary predictions. What do you feel the main problems are with this situation, and how would you respond to the notion that the MSU's problems begin with the lack of financial insight within the organization?
Firstly, let me say something about this document – numbers in brackets are positive, or “in the black” if you will. Numbers with no brackets are negative, or “in the red”. From my understanding, this is slightly different from typical budgeting procedure, since the MSU is a not-for-profit organization. Also, the “2009-2010 Budget” column contains the expected end-of-year dollar figure for each line, as dictated in the MSU Budget. In other words, those numbers are not expected numbers for October. They are expected end-of-year targets. I just wanted to clarify these points because reading budget documents isn’t easy for people who have no training in I (not that you don’t, just for the sake of your readers). If you go to the main MSU Inc. tab in the document, you will see that the organization is, as of October 31 2009, over $ 4.9 million under budget with four months left to go (April 31, 2010).
Just to be clear, the documents released on MacInsiders were year-to-date documents in their raw form with zero context attached to them. In other words, the numbers you see in the “YTD-OCT” column are how the numbers stand as of October 31 2009 – this means that they are not necessarily always reflective of the overall financial situation. Let me elaborate on what I mean:
All of the budget lines in this document contain numbers which will change over the next few days, weeks and months. They’re merely a snapshot of the current numbers. For example, let’s say service X were to make a large expenditure for one reason or another. If you were to look at the Year-to-Date document at that time, that large expenditure would show up, even though revenue is expected to come in over the next number of months to cover the expenditure. Essentially, members of the general public see that Service X is currently over budget, and don’t realize that projected revenue is going to bring that number more in line with the expected budgeted amount by the end of the fiscal year.
Other budget lines have been split, or have been merged and so are inflated or deflated compared to previous years, and many numbers are missing simply because the funds haven’t been allocated yet. This is why financial reports tend to be done on a quarterly basis, with a report and attached context. This document isn’t a matter of the MSU hiding anything, it’s a matter of the MSU following standard corporate procedure. I’ll add that the VP Finance is more than willing to discuss the finances of the organization at any time with anyone. He can give a breakdown of each budget line and show exactly what the spending is like line-by-line.
As for Twelve-Eighty: yes, as of October 31, 2009 the service is running $77,000 over the predicted end-of-year number. If you look at the lines above however, you see that the primary costs associated with this are wages and food costs. If you look at the sales numbers (food in particular), we are doing quite well with regards to the end-of-year targets. In fact, I would argue that Twelve-Eighty is doing very well right now; our detractors might be quite surprised when the final numbers come out in April.
As for the other services, I’m not going to go through each one, but please look over the numbers and budget lines again and I think you will find that everything is in quite good order and is in line with what the Board of Directors and the SRA has been saying all along.
If you would like further elaboration, or any other questions answered regarding the MSU’s finances, please let me know and I would be happy to accommodate you.
3) A recent article in the Silhouette alluded to students' disinterest in the MSU as the MSU does not offer them anything of substance. What is your personal opinion on this, and what would you do to combat this mindset were you the MSU President?
Student apathy is a large and very complex problem across our campus and campuses across Canada. In fact, apathy is a problem being dealt with even by the Canadian Federal and Provincial Governments – it’s a universal problem, although the student apathy problem is exponentially greater than the problem of general public apathy. The reasons that such a vast number of students are apathetic towards the MSU or campus politics in general I think is not so much because the MSU doesn’t offer them anything, but because they aren’t aware or understanding of everything the MSU offers them. The main reason I believe this is because voter turnout for almost everything across campus is pretty much the same. It’s not just MSU elections which are not turning out, it’s elections for almost all student groups across campus that draw in anywhere from 5-10% voter turnout. Increased understanding and awareness of everything the MSU provides would likely help the apathy problem, but it’s getting this information into people’s heads and getting it to stick that is the problem.
As for increasing student awareness and interest in the MSU and everything we provide them, I think the problem needs to be looked at from a different angle. If I could enact any one program right now to combat apathy it would be to start something of a professional MSU street team. They would do things like set up talks in residences, go door-to-door around student neighborhoods in Westdale, increase visibility with on-campus campaigns, and perhaps some more drastic measures. One idea I have, which admittedly I haven’t seriously proposed yet, would be tohave a MSU Service “shock” day, where all services are randomly and unexpectedly closed for a day, with a poster on the doors, websites, etc with a web URL linking them to more information. The MSU may take a small financial hit, but students who take all MSU services for granted everyday might become more aware of what the MSU provides for them. Of course, the MSU’s work in advocacy would need to be advertised in a different way. This tactic may seem extreme, but nothing seems to be working so far, so extreme tactics might be what is necessary.
4) The MSU Presidential election of 2008/09 was the least attended election in recent memory. Many students claim that they chose not to vote because they do not believe in the MSU's electoral system's integrity and that the candidates presented to them seemed benign and insincere. How do you respond to these notions, and how would you work towards making the electoral system appear to be much more honest and open.
Most students who choose not to vote because of the electoral systems’ integrity I suspect are actually in the minority of the student population. I would argue that most students actually did not know that the election was taking place, or simply forgot – it’s the apathy problem raising its ugly head again. Yes, there are disgruntled members of the student population, but when you look at them from the eyes of the MSU and its leaders, we think, “every group, organization, or company has its detractors”. Yes, we listen to what these people say, but unfortunately not often do they present themselves with strong arguments backed up with evidence. Instead, they write things from afar, making broad generalizations and speaking half-truths. I am of the opinion that the best discussions happen face-to-face, and the people who say and write things like “the electoral system has no integrity” are perfect candidates to sit down and have their message heard face-to-face in a constructive dialogue. Misconceptions on the part of the detractor can be corrected, and then the advice offered after those corrections are made can actually be taken and used by the MSU. Very, very rarely are detractors fully versed in the circumstances surrounding the organization they are detracting from, and unfortunately all too often they refuse to dialogue constructively.
As for the presidential candidates seeming benign and insincere, that’s something that the candidates need to deal with, and not the students. A legitimately good candidate will have a strong, attainable platform which lies parallel to the needs, wants and wishes of the students. True democracy allows for anyone to run for the position of leader, as is the case here – it’s quite possible that all candidates running for the presidency are in fact not adequate for the job. The students then should choose to abstain, thereby showing ‘no confidence’ in the candidates. If enough students actually did this, it would send a strong message indeed. Instead, most students don’t even know an election is happening, or when/how to vote. Those who choose not to vote for whatever reason are harming the system when they could help fix it by simply checking the “I Abstain” box on their ballot.
There is a general mistrust of politicians not only in university politics, but in politics in general. This is the fault of the politicians as well as the media. Politicans have made many stupid mistakes in the past, and this has made it much more difficult for the public to trust them. A truly good presidential candidate will be able to acquire the trust of the electorate, and will know how to do that effectively.
My way of making the electoral system appear to be honest and open is by joining the elections committee. I have already been nominated for a vacant seat on the committee, and I am taking it upon myself to work hard with the committee to see for myself the actions and practices of the committee. Those who know me know that I am not afraid to speak up when I perceive something as being wrong, and this would be no different. If the elections system is dishonest in any way, you will hear about it from me, and I guarantee it.
5) During elections times, many candidates campaign with great zeal and optimism. However, through the year this seems to disappear, at least in the eyes of non-elected students. President Tiwari is a great example of someone whose external appearance is of a person who has given up on his platform and will not deliver on his promises. Do you see an increased apathy in certain members, what do you think the biggest cause of this is, and how would you work to change it were you in a position of power to do so?
I think a lot of new people, myself included, run for a seat or office in the MSU with big goals and sheer excitement associated with running in a large, campus wide election. Most people think that they are going to be able change things, even things they actually cannot feasibly complete in a one-year term. One year seems like a long time to accomplish things, but once you actually experience the system and get involved, you realize that a lot of what these people want to do is actually nearly impossible.
Another problem, particularly with Offices such as the Presidency is that people will run for them with their own set of platform goals, without realizing that the MSU is currently running already and has day-to-day operations which they don’t realize will affect their ability to work on their own projects. I feel like BoD members get caught up with the day-to-day of their job, and forget about platform goals, similar to how SRA members get caught up with their school work and forget about the ambitious projects they have. I’m not saying this is excusable – it certainly isn’t – but perhaps it is a symptom of another problem: these positions are all held for a single year. Again, in one year, it’s difficult to get many real projects completed. It would seem appropriate to recall members who don’t perform as they should, but if their replacements will only be around for a fraction of a term, then what good is it to recall in the first place? The replacement won’t have enough time to get anything substantive completed, especially after the time it takes to get a recall going, and then actually recall a member, and then open the seat, run an election, fill the seat, train the new member, etc, etc.
I’m not sure how feasible it would be, but extending the terms of the Board of Directors, and/or the SRA might seem like a good way to force members and Officers to remember their platform goals a little bit better. Recall would become feasible since the replacement would have enough time to accomplish something.
As for Vishal, I’m honestly not entirely sure what’s going on there. He has admitted in session that he doesn’t update us enough on what he’s doing, and he has told us that updates from him will improve. He has also admitted to not having started some of his Year Plan goals. At the same time however, we have seen many goals and promises completed. Some examples include:
- The MSU Swag Bags this year were reusable bags, something Vishal said he would do from the start
- Working towards a bottled water-free campus: he’s been working with the University to increase the number of swan-neck fountains across campus for the purposes of refilling water bottles. He has acknowledged that it may take longer than his term to declare the university officially bottled-water free, but there has been progress
- Increasing community outreach: there has been progress on this front, with meetings with local groups such as those representing the residents of Westdale happening on a regular basis
- Getting a “green roof” on the new engineering building
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