Here's the problem students like is are
Clients. Yes that is exactly what we are for the university admin. We pay a heck lot of fees to the university, they keep increasing it with impunity, there is absolutely NO REGARD for trying to gather student opinion on what they are doing. Burlington Campus, Capital Spending, BOG Salaries and Hires; there is absolutely no accountability!
The sooner all of use realize that we are just temporary statistics for the university that doles out cookie cutter degrees to most of us(bar the few who do serious significant research, mostly in the Health department). It doesn't really matter to them what our educational experience is like, I assume they do have positive interests in their minds for students being human beings. But to be honest, they are more concerned about the long term financial success of their personal careers. Remember the more money the University rakes in and more importantly has available, the better the official in charge looks to his higher ups. So he will cut costs in order to show a healthy green budget line irregardless of its consequences on random students.
The Admin has built up an impregnable fortress that allows it to do things how it likes to, some years ago the Sil used to report most of its pages criticizing and exposing the administration, these days the things have shifted towards blaming the MSU. Sure issues like Quarters etc are important but in the bigger picture, it is only a business that the union runs. We need to look at the educational aspect of everything in more detail as well! Because at the end of the day that is what we are here for!
It is very hard though to do something about the administrative decisions on your own but we need to spread the word, let people know how things are. We give $800 to the MSU but several thousand to the University, it has recently dawned on me that alot of things on that regard get ignored.
I think stuff like student affairs cutting budgets all over student services(even CSD for example has had budget cuts) is something we should complain about, the Health Services thread was a good start; I would urge people on it Adrian/Sabrina to actually go through and contact the admin or the MSU BOD regarding it.
I just took a look back at the sessional thread and it was wierd how people complained for some time then it just stopped dead in its track.
Being a quixotic person I am, I really think if we can't do anything ourselves; we should be contacting the MSU in person or via email about our opinions on administrative decisions! They might not be the most effective at running the business side of MSU, but they are arguably rather good at internal lobbying.
I was going through EB minutes yesterday and noticed that Chris Martin presented to the BOG regarding financial cuts(I think) and that they were appreciative of it; but stuff like that goes unnoticed!
Also the senators are a pretty underused resource and venue compared to the MSU's visibility but they also do have a HUGE responsibility given the fact that they have voting rights and speaking time on the senate. Though I'm not sure how much work gets done by the Senate and how effective they are!
If Jeff Green from the Sil is reading this, I think the Sil should spend a little more time attacking the admin this year as well!
