Hey Mary!!
I have some questions regarding some comments you made at the debate today.

Before I go on, to everyone, I am a part of Kieran's campaign, however, I have been an OUSA Street Team Member for two years. You can ask any of my friends, this is something i am VERY passionate about. This is not an attack nor should be taken negatively, I would in fact like to give Mary the chance to change her answer.

Back to the Qs

You said you would use OUSA to lobby to the administration of the school. OUSA ,however, only lobbies to the provinical government and I wasn't sure if you misinterpreted what OUSA did? OUSA does the research to allow you and the VP Education to lobby to the administration, as well as take concerns McMaster has to the provincial government in colloberation with 6 other universities.

Secondly, you said you did not find lobbying to be effective or something along these terms in which I took it as your view that you did not support lobbying. As it will be under the next MSU president to help make the decision for us becoming permanent CASA members, what is your stance on this? For those who don't know, CASA lobbies to the Canadian government, and the National Direction is in fact a really good friend of mine, Arati, who was a previous VP of Education at McMaster. As I strongly support OUSA, CASA is another great concern I have for the next President Elect in what direction will be taken.

Thanks!!

Originally Posted by C. Nardo

Secondly, you said you did not find lobbying to be effective or something along these terms in which I took it as your view that you did not support lobbying. As it will be under the next MSU president to help make the decision for us becoming permanent CASA members, what is your stance on this? For those who don't know, CASA lobbies to the Canadian government, and the National Direction is in fact a really good friend of mine, Arati, who was a previous VP of Education at McMaster. As I strongly support OUSA, CASA is another great concern I have for the next President Elect in what direction will be taken.

I think her point was more that candidates cannot make promises for things that depend on lobbying. A candidate can certainly promise to lobby for something (and I hope that they will), but they can't promise that their lobbying efforts will get them everything they need/want. This isn't just an MSU thing, it's a fact of life. Mary obviously supports lobbying, she's been lobbying for her campaign all week.

Sam Dick.

Originally Posted by samd

I think her point was more that candidates cannot make promises for things that depend on lobbying. A candidate can certainly promise to lobby for something (and I hope that they will), but they can't promise that their lobbying efforts will get them everything they need/want. This isn't just an MSU thing, it's a fact of life. Mary obviously supports lobbying, she's been lobbying for her campaign all week.

Sam Dick.

I believe your above post is irrelevant to the statement Mary made about OUSA and Indirectly CASA. Her statement about lobbying being ineffective and her rivals using it far too much as a buzzword referred to both internal and external policies and not specifically what Courtney mentioned.,

I think Mary's viewpoint is that most other candidates in her opinion are aiming for ambitious things while she is aiming for smaller and apparently more accomplish-able things.

However being in touch with what OUSA & CASA are all about I was equally confused by Ms Koziol's statement in response to the OUSA question. If she can elaborate on that that would be awesome!

Thanks!

Hey Arjun,

Thanks for your question! You have no idea how excited it makes me to see students basing their decisions on thorough examinations of people's platforms. It is also refreshing to see people asking questions based on this, rather than attempting to undermine the person. So thank you!

The reason for the polls being on the website is that the MSU *should* be one of the central communication tools of the organization; in our technological age, its simply the easiest way to get the word out to students. As stated above, because MacInsiders is not actually a club of the MSU, it makes most sense to have this kind of information available from the official source. It is part of a whole package that I'm offering: better website, MacsList, regular blog and biweekly polls.

As for the frequency of the polls, these would likely consist of one question and would appear on the right side of your screen... so something really easy that takes about 5 seconds to fill out. As long as it is multiple choice, I don't see this as too time-consuming.

Unfortunately I have kept the 5-year plan intentionally vague because I am still awaiting the release of the internal review. I suppose what is most important to take from this is that I have identified the need for this as well as demarcated it as one of my priorities. This is something that I would not be able to lay much groundwork for until the Vice-Presidents are elected and the Internal Review is released. It would also require a large amount of consultation with full-time staff.

Finally, the point about the Awareness week is that these events *do* already exist. I've identified the same problem as you (poor advertising, inadequate attendance) and would like to create a week especially for weeks like this so that more people would come.

One of the central themes of my platform is not the creation of new things, but rather a logical restructuring of things that already exist in order to make them more accessible to students.

Keep it up with your great inquiries!

Mary

Originally Posted by samd

I think her point was more that candidates cannot make promises for things that depend on lobbying. A candidate can certainly promise to lobby for something (and I hope that they will), but they can't promise that their lobbying efforts will get them everything they need/want. This isn't just an MSU thing, it's a fact of life. Mary obviously supports lobbying, she's been lobbying for her campaign all week.

Sam Dick.

Hey Sam,

Unfortunately, that was not the view Mary gave to me today, hence why i would like her to personally clarify what she meant. I know that the debate was recorded by a friend of mine who I sat beside and when she said this, i turned to him to make sure I had heard Mary correctly. The question was about lobbying and her point was no she did not think that lobbying was good, again this is why i asked her views on it. Thanks for your interpretation though!

Courtney

I don't want to speak out of place so Mary please correct me if I'm wrong. I believe she started by saying that she did not agree with lobbying because it has the potential to accomplish nothing. However, after concerns were showed, Mary used one of her rebuttals to clarify that she thinks Lobbying does have a place in student politics and she thinks it's important. Her concern is that people do not make lobbying part of their platform but instead state their hopeful outcomes of the lobbying as a campaign promise. Which as we know lobbying does not always accomplish it's goals and if you promise those goals you set yourself up for disappointing students.

Hi all!

Thanks for bringing this up; I am always eager to provide clarification. Sometimes things sound better in your head than they come out

My point on lobbying is that while I do think it is a completely worthwhile initiative (and one of the aspects of the job I think I would enjoy most!) I am personally hesitant to overuse this word within a platform. One of the main reasons for this is that there is a huge amount of hype surrounding Presidentials, and students become more familiar than usual with the MSU and its operations. For many, "I will lobby for this" translates into "I will do this within my Presidential term"; though there certainly have been many broken promises in the past, I feel that the perception among students is that the majority of promises never come through. As one of my goals in running is to change the perception of the organization, I think it is important to create a platform based on what, from my research, I see as possible. This is, again, my personal style of leadership and what I think is needed from my survey of the student population. Other candidates have taken different positions, and I respect that.

I must have been unclear when explaining my stance on lobbying; I understand that OUSA is not responsible for "internal" lobbying, but rather, initiatives such as the Recommendations put together by OUSA are brought to the attention of the provincial government. I believe that both internal (Admin Con meetings, for example) and external lobbying (OUSA and CASA) are important; I fully support the position of VP-Education and think that the President should work in collaboration with him/her.

As for CASA... this is a question I have decided to wait a little while longer to pass judgment on. I think there are two very good sides to the debate. The issue to me is - do we stick with CASA (at a financial expense to students) and maintain our federal voice, while trying to help them resolve their internal governance issues... OR... do we withdraw because we feel CASA is not as effective as it could be? I have asked three different people for their opinions on this debate (the Vice-President Education, Finance and External Affairs commissioner) and have gotten three insightful responses that consider different sides of the debate. Personally, I would like to hear more about the issue from different parties before I would be prepared to make a stance. I assure you that every effort to make an informed choice would be made.

Finally... I think the fact that you asked such a polite question based on something I said that was potentially misconstrued is great! I am very much willing to engage with students, regardless of their affiliation. And I think your queries reflect positively upon Kieran. I am glad he has such a passionate team.

Mary

Thanks for the quick reply Mary!

Not to play devil's advocate (i wasnt joking when i said i was passionate about OUSA/CASA! lol) if you HAD to take a stance, what would it be? I am only persistent in that, as a current SRA member, you were made aware of CASA and our position at the beginning of your term in SRA. As someone once said to me, it costs us less then a cup of union market coffee to be a part of CASA per student.

My greatest concern is that next year, if the MSU President decides to take a stance against being on CASA, it could greatly hinder us as a University in getting our issues heard at the federal government level! As this might not be an impact students see directly, it is defiently reflected in issues such as budgeting and grants etc to ALL unviersities across canada, which could have negative impacts on Mac if we arent getting issues made aware of. Again, on the other side, if you choose no, i just would like to see why.

If you still choose to remain undecided I understand, it is hard to bring in an outsiders perspective on an issue certain students, such as me, are very
decisive and passionate about! Thanks

I would like to clarify that I am not on Kieran's team.

Originally Posted by nick1988

I would like to clarify that I am not on Kieran's team.

she was responding to me lol

Hi Courtney!

I would like to stand by my statement that I remain undecided. If I HAD to choose, I would work very quickly and talk to as many people as possible. I don't mean to give you answers that could potentially be seen as me being indecisive; I just want to stress that I believe in making informed choices. I do want to assure you that I see a federal lobbying voice as an incredibly powerful tool, and would not be keen to withdraw from this unless the arguments were quite convincing.

You seem like someone who would be great to sit down and talk to about this issue! I'd love to hear about your experience on Street Team, from what Vishal and Morganne have told me, your team was incredibly successful last year.

Mary

Just a note: a CASA review is currently being conducted by the SRA External Affairs committee. The review is meant to provide more background for the SRA when they make their decision whether or not to renew our CASA associate membership.

Originally Posted by kingwam

Just a note: a CASA review is currently being conducted by the SRA External Affairs committee. The review is meant to provide more background for the SRA when they make their decision whether or not to renew our CASA associate membership.

No, a CASA progress report is being done by the External Affairs, and will not be focused on a proper recommendation for the MSU's future with CASA. The CASA review will be done by next year's EA.

Thanks for the update.
At last week's EA meeting it was referred to as a review.
I'm looking forward to learning more about the changes at tomorrow's meeting.

Yeah, I made the same mistake the other day and Aaron and Alicia corrected/informed me.