Originally Posted by conster

I think people need to look past vocabulary choice and see that that report is written in his own words, and he is being real and genuine. Authenticity is what I would and do appreciate from the MSU President.

While I agree that having personal voice is important, it's equally as important to represent your organization in a professional manner.

I'm not just pointing my finger at Vish. He is one person among many in that office who are making a mockery of the MSU as a whole.

I believe that people should be able to put a personal stamp on their position (especially in a student government situation). That being said, they also need to remember that they are representing an entire student population and that their actions can reflect positively and negatively on those students.

I don't appreciate my reputation as a McMaster student being negatively affected by people who simply cannot take their jobs seriously.

Originally Posted by Taunton

In real life you can't just contact the President of an organization through forums or even emails (unlike the MSU BoD, who WILL answer emails). I echo John's sentiments. Vishal is not afraid to answer questions, and you are more than welcome to come to an SRA meeting or just go see him in his office.

Well the MSU president is hardly like the president of a large organization. They're a student and they should respond to e-mail and utilize other web tools to get in contact with the students they're representing.

Also lots of organizations are going this way, I read a story just yesterday about how a customer had a concern about an order they made from some online company and they posted on the company's Facebook page. The got a timely response from someone from the company via the Facebook page who turned out to be the company's president, devoted to serving their customers.

When I want to contact any of my other political representatives I can contact them via e-mail. I've contact my MP, and MPP multiple times via e-mail and while I first get a response from someone in their office thanking me for my e-mail I eventually get a personal response from them. I would guess that MPs are much busier than the President of the MSU but they manage to respond to their constituents.

The students voted for the MSU President and the MSU President should actually take the time to answer their questions. If Vishal is not afraid to answer questions why can't he do it in a manner than is convenient for those who put him in power? Not everyone has the time, or the desire to meet in person but they do have a few minutes to e-mail, or post on an online message board and come back at a later time and read the response.

In real life you can contact people in power via the internet, that's the way things are going and the MSU needs to get with it, especially the president.

Originally Posted by sew12

Well the MSU president is hardly like the president of a large organization. They're a student and they should respond to e-mail and utilize other web tools to get in contact with the students they're representing.

Also lots of organizations are going this way, I read a story just yesterday about how a customer had a concern about an order they made from some online company and they posted on the company's Facebook page. The got a timely response from someone from the company via the Facebook page who turned out to be the company's president, devoted to serving their customers.

When I want to contact any of my other political representatives I can contact them via e-mail. I've contact my MP, and MPP multiple times via e-mail and while I first get a response from someone in their office thanking me for my e-mail I eventually get a personal response from them. I would guess that MPs are much busier than the President of the MSU but they manage to respond to their constituents.

The students voted for the MSU President and the MSU President should actually take the time to answer their questions. If Vishal is not afraid to answer questions why can't he do it in a manner than is convenient for those who put him in power? Not everyone has the time, or the desire to meet in person but they do have a few minutes to e-mail, or post on an online message board and come back at a later time and read the response.

In real life you can contact people in power via the internet, that's the way things are going and the MSU needs to get with it, especially the president.

I never said you can't contact him via email. On the contrary, I said he WILL respond to emails. Please re-read my post.

You CAN'T expect him or anyone else to be using MacInsiders. I've iterated this many times. It's a personal choice and the BoD have traditionally made it a policy to not actively use MI.

If someone wanted to contact me this weekend, and used MI they would have been waiting until now, because I was away on a trip for four days. On the other hand, I have almost constant contact with my 4+ email accounts via my BlackBerry. There would likely be an almost instant response. This is my point. If you have problems, contact the people DIRECTLY. Don't use roundabout ways.

Why has the BoD decided not to use MI? I'm curious. This seems like a very anti-student, anti-communication "policy". MI is a great resource.

Originally Posted by sew12

Why has the BoD decided not to use MI? I'm curious. This seems like a very anti-student, anti-communication "policy". MI is a great resource.

I have contacted a member with your question and will post it when they get back to me. I think I know the answer, but I want to make sure I'm correct before I post it.

Originally Posted by michelle

While I agree that having personal voice is important, it's equally as important to represent your organization in a professional manner.

I'm not just pointing my finger at Vish. He is one person among many in that office who are making a mockery of the MSU as a whole.

I believe that people should be able to put a personal stamp on their position (especially in a student government situation). That being said, they also need to remember that they are representing an entire student population and that their actions can reflect positively and negatively on those students.

I don't appreciate my reputation as a McMaster student being negatively affected by people who simply cannot take their jobs seriously.

I agree.
I swear like a sailor but it has no place in official MSU documents or any kind of professional area. A little while ago, I wrote an article for a newsletter at Career Services. While it was supposed to be personal and "real", I wouldn't even think about cursing in that article. It's so unprofessional.

I get that Vishal was trying to come off as genuine and relatable, but that was not appropriate for an official MSU report.

Here's my take on the BoD not on MacInsiders issue.

Their official policy is to only communicate through the MSU website. They haven't used Facebook, and barely use Twitter for official statements (Chris Martin being the obvious exception).

The reason they don't is to control the statements being made. MI is an arena, and they don't want to face it. As far as Vishal goes, this is legit because he has NEVER used MI. Caterine is a different story. Before he was VP he used to be a PROLIFIC shit-disturber on MI.

Originally Posted by deadpool

Here's my take on the BoD not on MacInsiders issue.

Their official policy is to only communicate through the MSU website. They haven't used Facebook, and barely use Twitter for official statements (Chris Martin being the obvious exception).

The reason they don't is to control the statements being made. MI is an arena, and they don't want to face it. As far as Vishal goes, this is legit because he has NEVER used MI. Caterine is a different story. Before he was VP he used to be a PROLIFIC shit-disturber on MI.

I ditto what Rohan said, Actually in the summer I talked with the MSU SLDC Michael Wooder about the constant Fails in MSU communication and how MacInsiders for example is a good source for informal survey's of student opinion. I don't recall the conversations completely but it went something along the lines of whatever you say here can be misconstrued and misunderstood and generally I guess was referring to some interesting characters we have here

But I think a few members of the BOD still check MacInsiders whenever they had time.

I also requested for the MSU PR assistant to have regular professionally written updates on the MSU website and MacInsiders(Or only on the MSU website so that the admins here can copy paste it here like they have in the past and start a discussion) THAT never happened. I think it was a fair request for that individual to go to BOD or SRA members during the 15 hours a week they officially work and get all the valid information and post it here. This PST issue was brought up at EB two Thursdays ago, it went to the SRA meeting the Sunday before where a SRA member clearly demanded more information. the VP finance said he will shorty post an update but it took until last Thursday for that to come out. All of this could have been avoided by the PR department.

Maybe I'm confusing the role of what the PR department should do with their massive budget, maybe THIS isn't bad PR?

But HEY, I'm not allowed to say all that much about this thing or question the role of the PR department because its HR issue/that department isn't public officials hence only comes under jurisdiction of Executive Board under closed session *sigh*

To FiredragoonX,

Unfortunately I cannot find my copy of Vishal's President's Report. It wasn't part of the electronic documents package for the November 15th meeting and was distributed in the room(Hence only physical copies exist)

A few members questioned him about it that's all I can get for you for now:

https://www.msumcmaster.ca/content/d...20approved.pdf

Sorry.

If any SRA member reading has that report on him can you please scan it and put it up here or email me?

Bear with me here, I'll get to my point.

The election results showed that voter turn out increased tremendously this year (a 75% increase). Many of the candidates used facebook, MacInsiders, lecture speeches, and posters to a huge extent. It's no surprise communication turned out to be KEY to students voting this year. If we don't see you, we don't know about it.

Then compare the enrollment rate of students this year (almost 20,000) to that of less than 2000 students in the year 1969, and it shows us that the MSU is facing a whole different ballgame when it comes to communication.

So far all I've done is rant and blame the MSU, but I'm starting to realize that maybe they are facing some problems with dealing with the booming population of students and the new age of technology. They may not know how to deal with the ramifications of the president making a comment on twitter that could be completely miscontrued.. so they don't want him to do it at ALL. They may not want the president on MI, or if he is, he has to have someone else proof read and make sure his comment makes 100% sense. Even on facebook, he/she would have to be careful to not get in trouble.

Basically, I think the MSU is trying to be overly cautious and unfortunately, it's rubbing many students the wrong way (including me). We want to know about the MSU, but when we ask them about it, they tell us to go to their office and ask about some document or talk to a complete stranger as if they are really our representative when we've never seen them before in our entire life. It's kinda iffy.

So... that's my opinion as a Mac student. I think I'm gonna hate MSU less from here on out, as long as there are SRA's like Huzaifa asking around about communication issues

And as for calling out Vishal, poor him

I think that the MSU should communicate more with students via forums like macinsiders, but really, we all know that people here tear people apart. You see it in many threads and its really sad sometimes (sometimes its well deserved). It would not be professional for someone in a high ranking position to be on a forum like this, except in the case of campaigning, so they can get their message out to students.

If I ever had a concern about something with the MSU, I might try to find more about the issue here, because there are many SRA members here, but I if had a true, real concern that I wanted to have addressed, I think I would pick my butt up and send an email or go into an office.

Just my two cents.

I'm telling you guys, we need to stage a coup!


The umbrella idea seems like a first year engineering design project; not well thought through, impractical, and exhibiting poor research. (although my project this semester is amazing, gonna make a milli-on).

We need to get people in the MSU who are all business.

!!READ THIS PART BELOW!!

We should make voting mandatory. Get some crazy clause saying you get a huge fine for not voting, or even restricted from moving into the next level of your program. That's it, I am making a separate thread to discuss this.

I think Vishal has done a great job, and a lot of what is being done behind the scenes will take years to have an effect. It's hard to judge the president when you are not in that spot. I suggest if you have a problem with Vishal, instead of posting on these forums which will get you nowhere, to e-mail him directly and he'll let you know what is going on.

i found vishals year plan
https://www.msumcmaster.ca/content/d...an%2009-10.pdf
very little has been accomplished, i cant seem to comprehend why you think done a great job.

Don't hate the player. Hate the game.