Hey guys. So I was sitting at home when something cool popped into my head.

Wouldn't it be cool if the buses that take us from campus to the far parking lots were coloured maroon and had cool McMaster designs on it? Now you may be thinking, why in the world would we do that? Well here are the reasons...

1. Shows school spirit (especially to visitors who often have to take those white buses to take to campus anyways, so a good first impression of Mac would be great)

2. The white buses are kind of run down (i'm not saying replace the entire bus, but maybe give it a better paint job and have better seats.. It would sure brighten the day for the people who drive them because we all know that they deserve it)

I wouldn't mind some of the school funding going towards this..it's a good investment.



So What do you guys think?

I think it's a cool idea.

Good idea, but will never happen because it is honestly just a waste of money. Rather them put that money into making a new building, expanding a current building, etc.

More money and effort could be put into this E-mail system that was promised to roll out originally 5 months ago... It hasn't been brought up in a while, so I thought I'd do it again. I'm tired of that excuse "It's out of our hands... It's with administration now."

There are some students who realize that if you want it done, you have to go out there and do it yourself. I was exiting as President, or just entering, and such a large project was being held up by administrative red tape for as long as it has, I'd be on the phone, moving up the chain of command to say "LOOK, there are clearly issues here: What needs to get done, and how do I take over and get it done today?... What do I mean? I mean this project has been delayed behind legal curtains for months without advancement, so I'm getting involved to get it moving." Sure it's cocky and forceful, but in business, that can earn you respect if done right, and if the claims are true.

There's also the very important ability to not take "No" for an answer, and to keep pushing the issue. It's not like administration or lawyers would think less highly of the MSU: this is business, and when the advocating party wants something done, they push it HARD to get done! Spend a couple weeks at 60% of your time and efforts on this issue and get it done! @MSU

I don't want to hear about repainting and redoing the interior of a 2 minute long shuttle bus ride that doesn't leave campus and which doesn't negatively affect McMaster, when this e-mail system transition is still unimplemented. Actually, I'd rather not hear it at all.

Originally Posted by mike_302

More money and effort could be put into this E-mail system that was promised to roll out originally 5 months ago... It hasn't been brought up in a while, so I thought I'd do it again. I'm tired of that excuse "It's out of our hands... It's with administration now."

There are some students who realize that if you want it done, you have to go out there and do it yourself. I was exiting as President, or just entering, and such a large project was being held up by administrative red tape for as long as it has, I'd be on the phone, moving up the chain of command to say "LOOK, there are clearly issues here: What needs to get done, and how do I take over and get it done today?... What do I mean? I mean this project has been delayed behind legal curtains for months without advancement, so I'm getting involved to get it moving." Sure it's cocky and forceful, but in business, that can earn you respect if done right, and if the claims are true.

There's also the very important ability to not take "No" for an answer, and to keep pushing the issue. It's not like administration or lawyers would think less highly of the MSU: this is business, and when the advocating party wants something done, they push it HARD to get done! Spend a couple weeks at 60% of your time and efforts on this issue and get it done! @MSU

I don't want to hear about repainting and redoing the interior of a 2 minute long shuttle bus ride that doesn't leave campus and which doesn't negatively affect McMaster, when this e-mail system transition is still unimplemented. Actually, I'd rather not hear it at all.

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Originally Posted by mike_302

More money and effort could be put into this E-mail system that was promised to roll out originally 5 months ago... It hasn't been brought up in a while, so I thought I'd do it again. I'm tired of that excuse "It's out of our hands... It's with administration now."

There are some students who realize that if you want it done, you have to go out there and do it yourself. I was exiting as President, or just entering, and such a large project was being held up by administrative red tape for as long as it has, I'd be on the phone, moving up the chain of command to say "LOOK, there are clearly issues here: What needs to get done, and how do I take over and get it done today?... What do I mean? I mean this project has been delayed behind legal curtains for months without advancement, so I'm getting involved to get it moving." Sure it's cocky and forceful, but in business, that can earn you respect if done right, and if the claims are true.

There's also the very important ability to not take "No" for an answer, and to keep pushing the issue. It's not like administration or lawyers would think less highly of the MSU: this is business, and when the advocating party wants something done, they push it HARD to get done! Spend a couple weeks at 60% of your time and efforts on this issue and get it done! @MSU

I don't want to hear about repainting and redoing the interior of a 2 minute long shuttle bus ride that doesn't leave campus and which doesn't negatively affect McMaster, when this e-mail system transition is still unimplemented. Actually, I'd rather not hear it at all.

Listen here Mike, what if I told you that we should instead be implementing hot tubs in the parking lot shuttle buses? It's not like we've never done that before and wouldn't know how to.

I'd like to see you say no to that.

Hot tubs? ... I've got no problem. Let's do it.

Edit: F*** hot tubs. Hover craft shuttles. Done.

Hey Mike, Valid point. Your point of contact would be Matthew Dillon Leitch the new MSU President who took over from me most of the responsibility and work on this project in terms of relationship with the administration and the political side over from me last year(I was working the back end technical stuff). He also obviously has comparatively infinite influence, time and resources then me as well(I felt like I should clarify my stance since I was involved with starting and co-pursuing this project).

You are correct in saying that yes the administration isn't presumably moving forward at full steam and to my knowledge this isn't an issue that was as you mentioned being given "60%" of the time and I did talk to MDL about it earlier this week(after I received an email about this project that I can't discuss from one of Google's consulting firms) and he said he will speak to upper administration.

Unfortunately I am once again returning as a middle manager for the "External" affairs front(Municipal, Federal, Provincial) this year and don't really have the power or authority to overstep any bounds(Other political complications are involved too, long story).

I think you should email [email protected] r.ca with your thoughts or even a copy paste of this thread link. There is a possibility that MDL might happen to come across this thread or he might not.

I've actively tried to hold three previous boards of the MSU accountable through questioning without much improvement but I think one SRA member can only do so much, you guys should definitely help me hold them accountable as well, all it takes is an email and it's definitely within your rights! Maybe add the BOD on facebook and leave them wallposts that they are now pressured to reply to?

Maroon buses ? Why don't we have buses in red and white instead?

Hey Mike,

So I've been working on this for the past 2 weeks. The University and the previous MSU Administration tried to roll things out early, but at a certain point they realized that they were rushing stuff, and decided to slow down their progress to make sure that they have applied proper due diligence. The biggest issue right now is hammering out a solid contract with Google to protect our personal information in accordance to FIPPA. The new goal is to have the system rolled out by the time first-years are activating their MacIDs after course selection, with upper-year systems migrating soon after.

Why dont you guys invest some of our money into improving MUGSI? The university just seems to waste our money on useless crap that no one really cares about except the admin office.

Hey Blackdragon,

The university actually recently made a huge investment towards improving MUGSI/SOLAR. This is one of the biggest issues for the university and definitely the MSU. Actually Huzaifa sits on the steering committee so perhaps he could provide some information on it.

If any of you ever have questions feel free to email me at [email protected] r.ca

Originally Posted by MD-L

Hey Blackdragon,

The university actually recently made a huge investment towards improving MUGSI/SOLAR. This is one of the biggest issues for the university and definitely the MSU. Actually Huzaifa sits on the steering committee so perhaps he could provide some information on it.

If any of you ever have questions feel free to email me at [email protected] r.ca

Investment is one thing, but changes are another. When can we actually see changes to MUGSI? I have noticed nothing different so far.

I don't think McMaster even owns the buses. I am pretty sure the are rented.

Originally Posted by blackdragon

Investment is one thing, but changes are another. When can we actually see changes to MUGSI? I have noticed nothing different so far.

Hey BlackDragon, not sure what type of Engineering you are in, but anyone in Software or alternatively anyone with an understanding of ERP Systems(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterpr...rce_p lanning) would be able to tell you that a complete grounds up renewal takes a long time and ridiculous amount of planning and change management. That task is long enough for fluid corporations but is intensely complex for a decentralized and complex decision making structure that exists at McMaster where we have multiple departments, faculties and stakeholders competing for various agendas all at the same time with no structured decision making process. I've been involved in this steering committee for the last 6-8 months and we are slowly creeping towards a point where we hire all the vendors, consultants and so on and those companies start working on the student information system(which is first in line) and people start seeing changes to MUGSI and SOLAR, The best case scenario would be Summer 2012 Registration Session but it could also be 2013 if things don't go well.

If McMaster was a top down corporation things would go much much faster, but it is a university and anyone in commerce here who has studied organizational behavior might attest to how incredibly difficult it is for people to organize and reach consensus. Because essentially they have a tripartite decision making structure(Board of Governors, Senate, Steering Committee, Advisory Committees and so on) where all departments want the best for their areas; including myself...when I'm representing students my bias is towards them and I have a difficult decision to make when a certain decision is best for the whole project but not the best for the student interests in opposition to an alternative that's best for students. I wish I could explain it better, but since this renewal will affect every single part of the university operations they are being very cautious and meticulous and that's going to take time. There is no easy sway of the wand that can fix MUGSI, and they can't tackle it directly as well because it's interconnected to other areas and they all need to comply and align.