Kathy, the MSU president is a student of McMaster, or an alum. But yes, it is a fulltime job. Vishal has taken a year off from his studies to do this job. I think that still counts as him being a student.

Originally Posted by KaylaG

LeannaT thanks so much for the post. It's about time someone decided to thank Vishal for all his hard work. The people on here are ridiculous and obviously have no idea what is going on in the MSU. There is tons of work going on behind the scenes including contacting school officials to get ELM working, and thanks to Vish, it's working great now You all need to get off your high horses and start appreciating the things that the MSU is doing for us. It doesn't matter how many posts we have on these message boards, after all, we're students and would rather be studying than aimlessly browsing through these forums reading all the negative comments. I joined today just to show my love for Vishal and reflect on the positive things that are going on at MAC. I feel bad for you guys who don't feel this way because you're clearly missing out. Vishal is a great person and he's doing some great work, and I will be one of the first to admit that.

It's pretty ignorant of you to say it's because of Vish that ELM is working fine now, there were probably hundreds, if not thousands of complaints made by students about ELM, and Vish didn't magically make the ELM team work faster on fixing the problems with ELM. The ELM team knew that ELM had problems, and they did their best to fix it as fast as possible, you actually think Vishal had anything to do with that? I'm sorry, but that's pretty delusional.

Originally Posted by LeannaT

Kathy, the MSU president is a student of McMaster, or an alum. But yes, it is a fulltime job. Vishal has taken a year off from his studies to do this job. I think that still counts as him being a student.

I guess I misread what your post was supposed to mean. I thought when you said "He is a student just like us", you meant "He is juggling school and work just like us, so he can't do everything", which isn't the case.

So in a sense, yes, I guess he's technically a student. But I don't think having a full time job and one course per term is the same as what the rest of us are doing.

I guess what you meant was "He is young and might go back for another year of school, just like us" ..?

Originally Posted by Souldier

It's pretty ignorant of you to say it's because of Vish that ELM is working fine now, there were probably hundreds, if not thousands of complaints made by students about ELM, and Vish didn't magically make the ELM team work faster on fixing the problems with ELM. The ELM team knew that ELM had problems, and they did their best to fix it as fast as possible, you actually think Vishal had anything to do with that? I'm sorry, but that's pretty delusional.

I did not say it was JUST because of Vishal that ELM is working now. But I'm assuming you haven't gone to talk to Vishal about issues, whereas I have now. I talked about the issue of ELM and he said they have definitely been working a lot on it. So, no I'm not delusional. Rather than just complaining about issues, I went out there and figured out what was going on. I suggest you do the same.

1. CA's are paid. I believe it is around $3000 for the term. of course it's not enough to cover residence.

2. LeannaT, you don't like people asking why you love this guy. So what is the point of this thread? Do you think forums are your personal blog? You provide no claims of why Vishal is so great other than that he was supposedly a good CA. Nothing to back up anything you write.

3. LeannaT, KaylaG, both agree with each other, both are newly joined members and both sound like they would toss Vishal's salad in a heartbeat.
same person?
Vishal, that you bro'?

This is most definitely not Vishal, lol. I simply wanted to post a thread to appreciate Vishal not only as a president but as a person. He's been really great and while I do NOT claim this as a personal blog, I just wanted to show some love, as I am sure there are others on these forums who agree! I don't claim to know the answers to everything. You need to calm yourself down and do something other than gang up on a person. You are wasting your energy. Regardless of whether or not you have liked Vishal as a president, he is still president for three more months and your hatred is not going to terminate that prematurely. Thanks
Leanna Tallmeister (again, definitely not Vishal. )

Also, I'm sure you have been to 1280 this year? It's a striking improvement from the previous Quarters. As far as I'm aware, Vishal played a pivotal role in its transformation, among other things

Ignoring the fact that there is still 3 months left, or 1/4 of Vishal's term left, and the fact that the role of President has a lot of things outside of your control that take up a significant amount of time, I think there is one area that I can confidently commend Vishal on. His leadership style. Vishal is a very good manager and figure-head. He is very highly respected by the University Administration and does a very good job communicating to them. His leadership style has also been very suitable for the role as he has supported and worked with the rest of the Board of Directors and Full-time Staff rather than attempting to micromanage. It is important to keep in mind that the President sets the direction of the organization with their platform and ideas, but it isn't always their job to accomplish a lot of the tasks. That's what the VPs are there for, the Full-time staff and our services. Some of the "shortcomings" being listed don't completely fall back on Vishal.

I don't think we're ever going to get a perfect year out of a President for many reasons. 1) It's only a year, 2) There is a significant learning curve, 3) There is a lot of tasks that the President must do that are consistent year to year that are overlooked when developing platforms, 4) The President will always be a young student which obviously lends itself to a lack of life-experience.

I'm not trying to come up with excuses for any short-comings...just trying to emphasize that it's not easy and there will always be criticisms.

ahaha Leanna is not Vishal, I know her, she was a Whidden Rep back in 07.

haha, yes and in 08! Whidden Whidden Whidden!

8.35 for irish nachos, no thanks, I really miss quarters the irish nachos were much cheaper.

Originally Posted by healthsci1

8.35 for irish nachos, no thanks, I really miss quarters the irish nachos were much cheaper.

Well then students need to decide if they want a campus bar or not. 1280 has had significant increases in patronage, but with the cheap prices is still losing money. Students are going to have to decide in the upcoming years whether they want a campus bar or not because it is not sustainable for the MSU to continue losing a lot of money on 1280 each year. Increased prices are inevitable if the bar is to stay open.

i dont drink so i do have a bias but id rather they close the bar down, and allocate the money to each faculty with more being given to the social sciences and humanities. Its not the bar that makes the school, its the education, and with recent cuts to the art programs, Mcmaster is not proceeding in the right direction.

Why don't you just lobby for increased tuition then? That's basically what you are suggesting. The MSU gets it's money largely from student fees, so then if we were to give that money to faculties to improve education it would be accomplishing the same thing as tuition. I know several people on MacInsiders have suggested lowering student fees but keep in mind only a little over $100 per student goes to the MSU Operating Fund. The rest of your supplementary fees go towards things such as your Health/Dental Plan, HSR Bus Pass, etc. The MSU offers a lot of valuable services to students through that money including provincial and federal representation, clubs, our many services (such as SWHAT, EFRT, SHEC, QSCC, The Silhouette, etc.). Although some students argue that they don't care - the majority of students are affected in a significant way by these services. So really, your best bet then is to start lobbying for a tuition increase.

Although I do think having a new President that comes from an Arts background will be useful towards helping those programs.

Um. PG was Dean of Social Sciences... the notion that Dr. Deane is going to be different is a bit flawed in design.