Originally Posted by lorend

Hey James, I think you may be better off posting this in each individual candidates thread, since they are all super busy at this time, and may not be able to check all of the MI threads, Facebook groups, keep up with classroom visits and school work...just a thought!

Thanks for the suggestion

I just didn't see the value in pasting the same thing over and over.

I think we both tried to accomplish the same goal in a different way. Which makes us best friends.

Originally Posted by ash0000

Hi James,

I dont know if you've read my platform on my website yet, but since I come from faculty societies, I intend to do a whole lot for faculty societies and with them.

If elected, I will be seeking participation and input from faculty societies, both in my bid to have a successful general assembly, and in looking for mandates from their members for the direction they think the MSU should be heading in.

I hope to also increase communication between them outside of academic council. I want to run a "what we do best" type conference to allow the societies to pass on their best ideas to each-other.

Also, more specific to your question, I wont be leveraging student societies, I will be building relationships with them, and see what they want from the MSU, and try to serve those wishes.

Haha leverage is just a big bad Commerce word for love, respect, cherish and collaborate with

Love the idea of a Success Showcase, though you'd need to take the size/scale/scope of the various Societies into account. For instance after poking around this year on various websites some Societies play a much more active role than others. (Not a bad thing, before I get bashed, just the reality of the situation)

On that note, to whomever amongst you are elected, I hope you don't just have a passive "open door" policy. I'd like to see more of a "you'll barge our oor down to get our attention" kind of policy in that you will approach Societies to meet about TANGIBLE outcomes, not just talk of this or that. The MSU is our big, somewhat removed, brother and should act like it by providing us with actionable items we can work with you towards achieving.

Thanks for your quick reply Ash and best of luck in your campaign!

In my mind "leverage" was synonymous with "use", which isn't what I am planning. I have seen some Commerce profs use it the way you mean though (I'm in management btw).

I will be taking the different sizes and services of societies into account. I am well aware that they all don't necessarily serve the same purposes or offer the same things, but they can all learn about what the others do well. I hope to make things better for all of them, and this is one way I know i can do it.

I definitely don't plan on having passive relationships with societies, and I agree that it should involve effort on both sides, but as you called the MSU a "somewhat removed big brother", I think theres a bit of an burden on that big brother to at least start stronger and more relevant partnerships. Maybe its cause I come from a faculty society, but I think that the MSU needs to take the next step forward.

Originally Posted by McMaxwell

A Question for All Candidates,

I'd like to think that in the grand scheme of things Faculty societies matter and that their actions should extend outside of their own respective "bubbles". After fixing many of the internal structural issues plaguing the Commerce Society during semester one we have now begun reaching out to the MSU (to facilitate a potential first year case competition) and other external organizations (GCC, Mac IC) in an effort to play a larger role in the McMaster Community.

Now that said had I taken a passive role towards the MSU my interaction with them would have been limited to one meeting with the VP Ed during Academic Council (which I was unable to attend ironically enough :( ). Instead however, I have the pleasure of already knowing Andrew Catarine and quickly introduced myself to Chris, Andrew and Vishal.

The big question I have though was, what if I didn't? In my previous two years with the Society I saw next to no contact from the MSU.

I think one of the first steps to making the MSU more relevant is to leverage student societies. The SRA does a great job of representing their Faculties but from what I've seen in years past have gotten lost in the MSU bubble.

I would like acknowledge the efforts of Alvand, Sid and Fabian, our SRA Reps for this year. Alvand specifically has attended a large portion of our exec meetings and has worked towards bridging the gap that exists between our organizations.

However, outside of Academic Council we've had nobody knocking on our door asking for our participation at a higher level. Why is that?

To close, I ask all candidates the following: How do you plan to effectively leverage student societies to make the MSU relevant to them?

(I understand some of you will direct me to your websites, fair enough, but this is your chance to elaborate)

Love,
Commerce Students <3

Hey James,

thanks for the question! I am glad you are keeping me on my feet with this one, especially since you taught me I had to always watch out for you after stealing my Soc Sci Guy Costume!

Anyways to answer your question, I am also like Ash, and a few other candidates been heavily invovled with my faculty society. I believe that we hear all too often from people at the MSU that students are apathetic. My response to that is that they are not, and it is the MSU that is apathetic towards students! The MSU is not the be all and end all in student life, and thus should engage other groups to have a stronger undergraduate voice.

The MSU is a part of the Student Relations Committee which partners with certain groups for social collaboration, and the MSU hosts the Student Academic Council, which brings together faculty societies, Student Senators and the SRA for academic matters. However, in both instances, certain groups are left out of talks, and in the case of the Academic Council, is not used (there has been a single meeting in the 2009/2010 school year).

I feel it would be important to engage faculty societies on two different levels. One as the McMaster Student Congress I propose. This will bring all student partners to a table to collaberate with eachother, and aid in benefiting all groups from the fact there will be a diverse set of ideas. We can then also gather consensus on issues that all students have, and we would have a much stronger voice at the university to positively affect students. This benefits Faculties largely, as well as other societies on campus which more than deserve a spot at the table to discuss issues.

The second way I plan on engaging faculties is through one on one communication back and forth. There are obviously times when it is needed to work solely with one or two faculties. Working with the faculties individually would help us complete a lot of the issues which we see on the platform. We can push for more required courses offered in the summer for engineering students like many of them have complimented. We can work to reduce the number of saturday midterms for commerce students, and much more on top of these two examples.

The MSU needs to stop feeling as if they are they only way students get engaged. We have millions of ways on campus, being student politics, services, clubs, athletics, faculty Societies, residence life!

The MSU needs to start caring about students before students will care for the MSU.

Hopefully that answers your question James!

Thanks,

Kieran

Wow is THAT where I recognize you from! We were staking you out for the better part of 45 minutes but it wasn't until you put the head down we could really do anything.That was the hardest I ran in a long time. I'm glad of the outcome you guys ended up with though, you certainly put in a ton of work.

Thanks to both of you for your responses.

Originally Posted by McMaxwell

A Question for All Candidates,

I'd like to think that in the grand scheme of things Faculty societies matter and that their actions should extend outside of their own respective "bubbles". After fixing many of the internal structural issues plaguing the Commerce Society during semester one we have now begun reaching out to the MSU (to facilitate a potential first year case competition) and other external organizations (GCC, Mac IC) in an effort to play a larger role in the McMaster Community.

Now that said had I taken a passive role towards the MSU my interaction with them would have been limited to one meeting with the VP Ed during Academic Council (which I was unable to attend ironically enough :( ). Instead however, I have the pleasure of already knowing Andrew Catarine and quickly introduced myself to Chris, Andrew and Vishal.

The big question I have though was, what if I didn't? In my previous two years with the Society I saw next to no contact from the MSU.

I think one of the first steps to making the MSU more relevant is to leverage student societies. The SRA does a great job of representing their Faculties but from what I've seen in years past have gotten lost in the MSU bubble.

I would like acknowledge the efforts of Alvand, Sid and Fabian, our SRA Reps for this year. Alvand specifically has attended a large portion of our exec meetings and has worked towards bridging the gap that exists between our organizations.

However, outside of Academic Council we've had nobody knocking on our door asking for our participation at a higher level. Why is that?

To close, I ask all candidates the following: How do you plan to effectively leverage student societies to make the MSU relevant to them?

(I understand some of you will direct me to your websites, fair enough, but this is your chance to elaborate)

Love,
Commerce Students <3

Hey James,

As MSU President, a key focus would be the effective utilization of the Student Academic Council (SAC).

You're totally right; faculty societies do not have buy into the work of the MSU. Simply put, as MSU President I want to work on projects that will empower faculty societies to work on problems that face all students of McMaster.

In my platform ideas, there are two specific ideas that would require effective work from faculty societies:

Increasing the amount of required texts on reserve at McMaster Libraries.
Having a unified message from all faculty societies and the MSU that would lobby for improvements to SOLAR (specifically, a wait list system).

By giving SAC some direction to specifically improve these two areas, I think we could instill some direction for this somewhat nebulous body.

Furthermore, I think my experience as Faculty Wide Welcome Week Planner and knowing about the internal nuances of individual faculty societies give me a distinct advantage in working with Faculty Societies.

Thanks for the question, James, and keep them coming!

Originally Posted by McMaxwell

A Question for All Candidates,

I'd like to think that in the grand scheme of things Faculty societies matter and that their actions should extend outside of their own respective "bubbles". After fixing many of the internal structural issues plaguing the Commerce Society during semester one we have now begun reaching out to the MSU (to facilitate a potential first year case competition) and other external organizations (GCC, Mac IC) in an effort to play a larger role in the McMaster Community.

Now that said had I taken a passive role towards the MSU my interaction with them would have been limited to one meeting with the VP Ed during Academic Council (which I was unable to attend ironically enough :( ). Instead however, I have the pleasure of already knowing Andrew Catarine and quickly introduced myself to Chris, Andrew and Vishal.

The big question I have though was, what if I didn't? In my previous two years with the Society I saw next to no contact from the MSU.

I think one of the first steps to making the MSU more relevant is to leverage student societies. The SRA does a great job of representing their Faculties but from what I've seen in years past have gotten lost in the MSU bubble.

I would like acknowledge the efforts of Alvand, Sid and Fabian, our SRA Reps for this year. Alvand specifically has attended a large portion of our exec meetings and has worked towards bridging the gap that exists between our organizations.

However, outside of Academic Council we've had nobody knocking on our door asking for our participation at a higher level. Why is that?

To close, I ask all candidates the following: How do you plan to effectively leverage student societies to make the MSU relevant to them?

(I understand some of you will direct me to your websites, fair enough, but this is your chance to elaborate)

Love,
Commerce Students <3

Hey James

I love this question because of involvement with issue. Since I have sat on Student Academic Council (SAC) as Science Society President I totally understand your pain. My plan for how to better engage the faculty societies is to personally oversee the meetings on a regular basis (like you said there has only been one this year).

I would pick a time that there is no classes, such as every second Sunday afternoon. This would allow for member of the council to go the SRA meeting directly after.

This body is crucial to the message that we, as the student government, send to the university since they have the connection within the faculties’ administration. The types messages that we need to be united on are ones that we need the deans and associate deans to voice concern to the university.

As my platform discusses turning the MSU into a policy driven organization. The larger policies on these issues will need to be review by the SAC. This will give the SAC, as leaders outside MSU, the ability to voice any concern that their constitutes may have.

Thank you for your interest in this topic. It is one of primary concerns.

Sincerely,

Aaron Wade
Presidential Candidate
McMaster Students Union
2010

Dear Candidates,

The SRA will be holding its next meeting this Sunday (January 24) at 6:30 PM in Council Chambers.

From my review of your platforms, it appears that most (if not all) of you have goals or ideas that involve mobilizing or relying upon the SRA. Additionally, as the MSU's supreme legislative body, the SRA plays a large role in acting upon the organization's goals for the year. Should you become President, you will have to work closely with the SRA and it is therefore important that you understand it and be familiar with how it works.

Though some of you are current members, I know that not all of you have the same degree of background experience with the SRA. I strongly encourage all of you to come out to our meeting this Sunday and see the SRA in action.

The agenda for the meeting, as well as the relevant reports and proposed policy changes that will be coming forward, can be found here.

Hope to see you there!

Hi Matthew,

Thanks for the invitation, but I will not be attending due to focusing on school for the weekend, but I will review the agenda and policy proposal.

FYI I am very familiar with the SRA, I sat on it in 2006-2007, and had a great time doing it.

-Ash

Originally Posted by ash0000

I sat on it in 2006-2007, and had a great time doing it.

Thats what she said

Originally Posted by c.erl

Thats what she said

bahahahahaha

definitely sounds inappropriate when you isolate thatcomment, good catch!

I really hope the students that actually vote end up voting for the candidate with the strongest platform, and not for any other reason. Don't vote for someone because you think they're cool, hot or any of that crap. Vote for the candidate that you think will represent your university the best. Remember, there are things that candidates promise you that will either never happen or are just said to attract more voters. I have followed the presidential campaigns closely, have read all the candidates' platform points and "dissected" them thoroughly. I am preparing a document with questions so I can pose questions during the presidential debate. I would ask questions on Facebook but I would rather catch candidates off guard with questions to see if they are well prepared. I have seen so many unrealistic platform points that were probably only put together to draw the voters.

If a candidate with unrealistic platform points ends up winning, they will just end up letting down the students. Students already have bad opinions about the MSU. It would just make matters worse...

Furthermore, I see quite a number of candidates with lots of new ideas. Though there are ideas that are certainly great and could possibly work, I feel like that's the last thing the MSU needs. The MSU needs to fix the flaws that it currently has first before new ideas are implemented. Now I'm not saying new ideas are bad or anything. They could very well work if they provide solutions to current issues within the MSU. This is why I'm saying that the MSU needs a long term plan. One year of being MSU president isn't going to fix everything within the MSU. The MSU needs better transition...

TOTALLY Agree Fadil! Not just transition between service managers but overall. The MSU NEEDS long term plans. Too often Presidents make plans for one-year goals so that they can have something completed by the end of their term, when in reality we need to lay the grounds for some things that can't be completed in just one term! I hope more Presidential candidates address this!

I'd like to point out that one of the biggest points on my platform, the endowment fund, is a long term goal. The same with my overall theme of progress.