Heh, fair enough.

Honestly the email project is progressing. I was a little worried after the election that it would stall or fizzle out but luckily Huzaifa and I were able to keep it in the minds of people even after presidentials.

At our meeting with Microsoft and Google the WE = the President, VP Finance and University Affairs Commissioner (me). Those involved from the very beginning such as Huzaifa are still involved in the upcoming survey and figuring out ways to publicize it.

I get it though, you see the farm stand and its not your cup of tea moreover its not what you voted for. I guess I just wanted to say that some of the things you voted for like email are still happening.

Dear all,


Some recent concerns about prioritizing issues like the farmstand over what some students see as more important issues, like the replacement of the MUSS e-mail system have recently caught my attention. I realized that I haven’t (in my blog posts) been updating on the work I’ve been doing on this project, so I can understand the concern; so here’s an update on that project and my involvement in it.


The very first meeting I had when I took office was on May 3rd was with the Chief Information Officer (CIO), John Kearney. I attended this alongside our External Affairs Commissioner (Huzaifa Saeed) and University Affairs Commissioner (Matt Dillon-Leitch) who had initially brought this to the SRA last term.



Since then, the University Affairs Commissioner, the Vice-President (Finance) Nick Shorten and I sat on a vendor selection committee and participated in two half-day presentations- one from Google, the other from Microsoft. I have been corresponding with John Kearney since, and have arranged for our next meeting to be the first week after welcome week.


So why has the farmstand project come to fruition before the replacement of the e-mail system? It wasn’t an issue of priorities on behalf of the MSU. When speaking with John Kearney, he said a September roll-out date would be incredibly difficult; UTS is currently tied down with a large number of projects, including Desire2Learn (Avenue to Learn), the new student learning management system and the multi-million dollar plans to replace the current Student Information System (think… the end of SOLAR/MUGSI as we know them?). UTS recognizes that the e-mail system desperately needs to be replaced- not only would it benefit students, but it would also save UTS significant amounts of money in the long term. Is it one of their top priorities at the moment? Not exactly- though they certainly recognize the value in it. Does that matter? Sort of. It means that it has not been demarcated as a priority for allocating human resources and finances; however, in speaking with Kearney, he recommended that a strong student voice is going to be crucial for pushing this project through - which is exactly what we intend to do.

Dillon-Leitch and I met last week with our Student Life Development Coordinator to discuss launching a survey ...

[keep reading - click here]

Sincerely,

Mary Koziol
MSU President

In case anyone was wondering, I visited the farmstand yesterday and it's kind of expensive. The only price I can remember (pretty) accurately is that a little container of blueberries was about $4.50. I think one squash was $1.05. You can definately get much cheaper fruits at the grocery store.

(Note: I know no one said the farmstand is cheap, and that it's mainly for convenience. I'm just posting this for anyone who is curious. And one Spec article quoted someone as saying "The farmstand makes it ridiculously easy for students to eat healthy", so I assume that easiness excludes price)

well i'm not going back there again. some stuff there was just bad quality. The potatoes there were soft and squishy; definitely rotten. The corn was plain and boring kind of like a grocery stores corn not fresh from the crop stuff you get at actual farmers market. The service there was piss poor.

3/10


anyways...