But how much is it actually costing the school or MSU? Couldn't they be making money if it was setup where farmers paid a fee to set up a table?

I, for one, am happy to see our President following through on a campaign platform this early into her term, regardless of the other major problems our school faces.

It is mildly comparable to Obama enacting something resembling health reform and criticizing him for not doing more about Iraq, then when he oversees the end of combat operations, criticizing him for not working to do more for the environment.

But, I am in a position where overt bias may compromise my so-called 'objectivity', so I'm just going to sit back and watch as the 2010-2011 executive's term progresses.

I definitely agree that there are a lot bigger fish to fry for the MSU, but I doubt that this took that long for them to set up. The bigger issues would take a lot longer to see progress, so I can understand why they'd start with something small like this. If this did take a lot of time and effort though, it was definitely a poor allocation of resources.

But hey, I'm not going to complain about being able to do some of my shopping on campus.

(I still reserve the right to complain after I see it in action though )

I think a lot of students don't realize that the MSU President isn't able to snap their fingers and change things that have to deal with the administration of McMaster. The two are seperate political bodies. The MSU is a lobbying group for students, and it is up to the administration to facilitate the change, not the MSU.

Hey, as long as there is cheap, good/healthy food that is conveniently located right on campus, I'll consider it a success

Originally Posted by lorend

I think a lot of students don't realize that the MSU President isn't able to snap their fingers and change things that have to deal with the administration of McMaster. The two are seperate political bodies. The MSU is a lobbying group for students, and it is up to the administration to facilitate the change, not the MSU.

I think some people like to generalize and assume that because students don't agree with a certain MSU President's objectives they must be naive enough to believe its easy to fix the problems at McMaster.

Yes of course, I'm that dumb that I think she can just snap her fingers and fix the problems.

I definitely agree that this is something that's nice, but kind of unnecessary. it feels like one of those things where it's like propping up the impression of "look at everything the msu has accomplished" when there are some deeper rooted problems that definitely should be more focused on (and I'm sure they are working on em, it just doesn't seem like that's what they are publicly emphasizing).

Originally Posted by sew12

I think some people like to generalize and assume that because students don't agree with a certain MSU President's objectives they must be naive enough to believe its easy to fix the problems at McMaster.

Yes of course, I'm that dumb that I think she can just snap her fingers and fix the problems.

No, I don't think so at all. I've watched six years of elections at Mac, and I've watched candidates have the most unattainable platforms ever (the best being of these being if one particular candidate was became president we were getting a fall reading week!). Because people don't understand how the MSU functions within McMaster, most common platform points (lowering tuition, lowering the cost of textbooks) aren't actually feasible. Or, alternatively, if they are feasible, they could take years of lobbying before they could possibly be adopted.

Originally Posted by lorend

No, I don't think so at all. I've watched six years of elections at Mac, and I've watched candidates have the most unattainable platforms ever (the best being of these being if one particular candidate was became president we were getting a fall reading week!). Because people don't understand how the MSU functions within McMaster, most common platform points (lowering tuition, lowering the cost of textbooks) aren't actually feasible. Or, alternatively, if they are feasible, they could take years of lobbying before they could possibly be adopted.

lol, i remember the second reading week thing. There are also pledges for cheaper food ... but the msu only controls UM, that hotdog window, and Quarters.

To note I didn't vote for said candidates with unrealistic platform points, but I also didn't vote for candidates who focused of stuff like this.

Originally Posted by nerual

Hey, as long as there is cheap, good/healthy food that is conveniently located right on campus, I'll consider it a success

I'm wondering about the price before anything else. Has anyone actually been yet? How much does everything cost?
Knowing McMaster and food prices, I'm going to assume that it's ridiculously priced. But I hope I'm wrong.

Well, first question is whether Mac is setting the prices or not, eh? If the university and MSU are just providing space for the farmers they're working with, then it should be pretty reasonable. If the MSU's pretty much running things then I'm not sure....but I'd tend to think that they'd be a lot better than Mac itself. If Mac's setting the prices....well, I'll probably be looking for a local farmer's market.

Originally Posted by zeChinaman

Though not directly about the email system, the topic of Farmstand vs MUGSI/SOLAR has been discussed before here. Huzaifa actually put it quite nicely:



But I don't know if the MUSS/Univmail system is connected to MUGSI/SOLAR in any way shape or form.

MUSS & MUGSI are completely separate issues. Though since MUSS is actually not directly connected to student records and other intricate links with different departments of McMaster it is easier to fix.

And actually solving the MUSS issue was a big SRA project for me last year, Last February I started researching alternatives to MUSS since alot of universities all over the developed world were moving away from inhouse solutions. I made a few threads on MI for that I'm not sure if you recall them or not. Eventually I ended up with Google Apps Educational Suite and Microsoft Live.Edu as being possible options

But to make it short, I was later joined by SRA Humanities Matthew Dillon Leitch and we together got a policy approved in late March from the SRA that said "We recommend getting a new Web Based Email System". We then were invited for a meeting by the CIO to a meeting in May where he agreed with our policy and informed us that he will be releasing a RFP soon and wanted 3 of us to sit on a hiring committee(I think he wanted it changed as well and since my original meeting with him in January 2010 he was simply looking for official MSU support). That meeting was attended by myself, Mary(President) ad Matthew.

However after that it was somehow decided at Exec Board level that since I got elected as the "External Affairs" Commissioner it wouldn't be appropriate for me to continue on this project and sit on the hiring committee. I am still keeping tabs on it behind the scenes though.

Mary Koziol, Matthew Dillon Leitch were joined by the VP Finance Nick Shorten and they have sat through presentations by Microsoft and Google. I am not sure what is happening next but we will "soon" be selecting one of the two and we might have a new email system either by January or September 2011(Even though an actual Google Apps rollout can take as low as 72 hours there might be complications/issues with faculties and other McMaster Staff).

For latest updates about the Web Email project you can either contact Mary at [email protected] r.ca or the University Affairs Commissioner Matthew Dillon Leitch at [email protected] ca

It is also true that Mary has been really interested in Farm Stand and Website Renovations this Summer as they were the two main components of her platform; but I am not in a position to speculate how hard she is working on MUGSI/Email Issues.

I am also not also sure how to answer the concerns over her prioritization of various things, As SRA members we are supposed to support the President in her endeavors to some extent whether we agree with it or not because she was democratically elected, which means her "Platform" was also a "Will of the Students". In other words a majority of students wanted her ideas more then the platforms and ideas of other candidates, atleast that's the basic pure democratic theory behind it.

As for the Farm Stand it is a joint venture between the MSU, Hospitality Services and Office of Sustainability. Hospitality occurs all the set up/produce costs while MSU pays the student employees and handles promotions. The prices I am assuming are set up by the Farmers themselves? I personally would still shop at Metro since they offer comparatively cheaper prices, but I do understand why this stand could be beneficial for First Year kids who live on Residence. Also there is supposed to be the "value" of supporting local farmers/produce.

Hey sew12 and those who are interested about the email project!

So the email project (Getting rid of MUSS) is happening. We met with reps from Google and Microsoft in July and after this meeting we asked for quotes from both companies.

Now here is where you and everyone here comes into play. In the last week of September/First week of October we will be releasing a survey. This survey will be your chance to choose your new email system. There will be information included about each company, and what they are offering and ultimately you will be able to decide what you want to replace MUSS with.

The deadline for implementation of the new email system is January.

I hope this information was helpful and expect to hear about this as it develops.

So there are actually plans in motion to get rid of the e-mail system this year? Interesting?

Also we being who?

I wasn't specifically interested in the e-mail project per-se, just not interested in things I think are less important and borderline trivial for McMaster atm.