Quote:
Originally Posted by lawleypop
LOLOL demanding
"we pay lots of money dont u think we deserve a better course registration system? in fact, we demand it as paying customers and stakeholders"
"lolno"
"oh ok ic sry to disturb u thx neways..."
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Err not true, Please read the link I posted concerning course registration a few pages back. I'll just assume you missed that post?
It's pretty fun being the person bashing and criticizing the SRA...I was there once back in first year too, doing my thing on MI.
It's alot different once you are part of the system dealing with these administration personnel; we aren't a strong workers union that can walk into the office of administration staff and "demand" stuff. On paper the argument that "hey, we are paying you as customers...respond to our wants" sounds skewed in our favor but in actuality its alot more difficult...I suppose you are graduating this year but if you weren't I would recommend you give it a shot!
@Eullwm It is sometimes frustrating and that's part of the reason why I decided to go the External Affairs route and now mostly deal with Provincial and Federal lobbying issues for the MSU. Which is alot more macro issues and policy research and much less direct. You probably will never hear about the issues I spend a ridiculous amount of time on because they are a collaborative effort of Ontario(Through OUSA) and Canadian(Through CASA) universities to lobby the respective governments. For example I've dealt with policy papers on international students, student success/quality of education, collaborative learning, early outreach, aboriginals and low income students.
Because they weren't as high profile and eye catching as the two you mentioned, does it mean its work is worth less? And you could have just as easily have found out about what myself and my committee is upto by visiting the External Affairs Subpage on the MSU website(which I've kept meticulously updated) or sitting in one of our weekly committee meetings.
More often then not lack of funding can easily be propped us as a disincentive for implementing the changes students want, McMaster's $100 Mil deficit being a prime example.
Instead we have to go through the slow process of(well atleast that's my strategy) of research based lobbying where you arrange meetings with these stakeholders, present them your issue, listen to their reasoning on why that issue exists, go back and research how other universities are dealing with that situation and then arrange subsequent meetings and try and skew things in your favor by providing evidence of how things are better in other places. Go back to the drawing board and write up a more formal proposal, run it through committee etc etc etc....Eventually if you get lucky and if it fits within the long term priorities of the administration you'll get what you want.
That's how I started and eventually with the help of another SRA member and Board of Directors accomplished the Google/Email Project.
There are obviously more direct and confrontational unions out there as well (eg: York & Uoft) but I would suggest you do some basic research into how effective their protests, placards and shenanigans ever are!
Also, Lastly if there is an issue that you would like the SRA to work on you have to meet us in the middle and email us with what it is. For example my Social Science caucus holds open forums for students and in one of them someone had issues with lack of power outlets in Mills. I subsequently had a reason to email the librarian and was able to suggest changes and get updates on the things they have planned.
However I have only gone to Thode once this year and you can't seriously call me out of touch if I don't know how things are going in a Science and Engineering focused library. What I would recommend is you contact your faculty SRA Caucus leader and inform him of your issues with Thode.
Earlier this year if you were to read SRA Minutes(Also on the MSU Website) the MSU did get involved when Thode computers had software issues. To my knowledge those incompatible Mac's were taken out and either fitted with Engineering software or replaced with PC's. But it took someone emailing us for us to find out.
