Originally Posted by Afzal

What's wrong with their availability?

Nothing unless students are living under a rock. A google search of centro and 5 clicks tells me that
Chicken Pasta with Alfredo Sauce at Centro is approx 830 calories and 47g of protein.

Originally Posted by rtongsta

Nothing unless students are living under a rock. A google search of centro and 5 clicks tells me that
Chicken Pasta with Alfredo Sauce at Centro is approx 830 calories and 47g of protein.

Ingredients. Not nutritional facts alone. They're two different things. Then again, I'm only taking an educational guess to what she means.

Originally Posted by herBs

Ingredients. Not nutritional facts alone. They're two different things. Then again, I'm only taking an educational guess to what she means.

you mean like how many milligrams of salt, pepper, and fennel and how many grams of pork in the sausage?

or how many grams of flour, sugar and eggs are in a muffin?

Originally Posted by rtongsta

you mean like how many milligrams of salt, pepper, and fennel and how many grams of pork in the sausage?

or how many grams of flour, sugar and eggs are in a muffin?

I think they mean just a list of all the ingredients, not the quantities of each.

Originally Posted by Afzal

As another member said. Those $250 provide us with indoor track, basketball courts (6 full courts!), ping pong tables, volleyball nets, swimming pool, equipment from DBAC, 6 squash courts, a racquetball court, some wrestling stuff and change room facilities.

Pulse is already quite subsidized when you compare to external gyms. I think you should focus on something else instead of this non-issue.

1. What do you mean by redefining equity role within MSU?
2. What is the "Space Reallocation Strategy"?
3. Why is there a need for a Spiritual Center?
4. Why the MSU Student Research awards? Who will pay toward this?
5. What do you mean by availability of food ingredients? We already have Mac Farmstand and Fortinos and Metro pretty close to campus.

Hi Afzal,

The issue I am bringing forward is that we have 20,000+ students all obligated to pay with the majority of them not using the space. All I am advocating for is to revisit ancillary fees and assess the value to students. This fee just happens to be one of the fees we as students need to shed more light on.

~$122 provides students access to the services you alluded to, the rest goes into paying the mortgage and the operating costs of the building, which is more than $2.7 million. Besides my core belief that we as students should not be paying for the heat and hydro of the building based on a referendum that was passed in April of 2003 (which so happens to be a time of low student engagement), I am aware of the legal agreement in place which holds students accountable to paying off the mortgage until 2012 and be left with paying half of the operating costs after that, literally forever with annual increase in CPI.

With that in mind, I want to ensure that when all students are paying towards a fee, they are truly finding value, at least to impact the majority of them. This is a very reasonable pursuit as a potential representative of all students.

Regarding your questions:
1. What do you mean by redefining equity role within MSU?
We have 20,000+ undergraduates, all with their own unique backgrounds that need to be catered for, represented around the table and moving further to being represented at the Student Representative Assembly. Equity and Inclusiveness are highly associated with the students’ identities and any related issues need to be more prioritized within the MSU. One manifestation of this is to return the current part-time manager position for Diversity Services back to full-time, as it was 3 years ago. Having complete insider knowledge of this role this year, I think the best approach is to do just that. Not only does this position in need of more hours, but also a more proactive and advocacy role as it should be. There are mental health campaigns in need of establishment and awareness, there are human rights movements in need of support, there are committees within the MSU that need a qualified individual to actively participate in such as the Women and Gender Equity Centre Committee, the Democratic Reform Committee, the Leadership summit for women and never mind the meetings the director would need to work on with other clubs and groups to try and address all these concerns. On top of that, we have a partnership with Hospitality Services over Bridge Café with programming in need to be held there. All that and I haven’t mentioned planning events yet, which are another challenge all on their own.

2. What is the "Space Reallocation Strategy"?
The purpose behind this platform point is to ensure stronger representative voice of students with regards to space allocation on campus. Within a year or so, there will be groups transferring to other buildings such as the Wilson Building and the Forsyth Building across from the Student Centre. Further, there is a new building in the budgeting process which will be located near the T28 and T29 buildings. As an MSU, we need to ensure that whatever space that will be vacant after these groups leave or when a new building to be up, a strategy is developed to ensure this space is optimally used for student needs. It's about committing the MSU to having strong collaborations with stakeholders and through that ensure the space is used wisely through its advisory role.

3. Why is there a need for a Spiritual Center?
Ever since 2004, a spiritual centre for those with/without faith has been a hotly debated topic. It's a need to enhance student life on campus, allow them time to ponder and reflect while an opportunity for peaceful dialogue to take place. It doesn't have to be a large space, a sitting area and a small library would do it. In addition, as the MSU Diversity Services Director and after numerous conversations I've had with the different faith-based groups on campus, they would really appreciate such an initiative. If there are many students on campus who wish to see this happen, think of spirituality as a fundamental aspect of their lives as students and the space can allocated, then I think this is a valuable objective to pursue.

4. Why the MSU Student Research awards? Who will pay toward this?
This stems from the idea to hold a campus-wide undergraduate research symposium in collaboration with the different faculty supervisors however logistically feasible they think this would be. MSU Awards would then be awarded to the students chosen by their faculties. This idea revolves around involving the MSU at a more direct level with the student's academic experience and recognizing their efforts a step further. The exact award system would need to be further cooperated on with the VP Education and the different faculties to have a concrete resource base before indicating an exact amount. However, I think it would be very feasible for the MSU to dedicate some funding towards this project. The organization is in a really great financial state at the moment and returning some of the money to the students via this approach, I think is quite feasible.

5. What do you mean by availability of food ingredients? We already have Mac Farmstand and Fortinos and Metro pretty close to campus.

As I had alluded to in my original post:
"This pillar further elaborates on ensuring the availability of food ingredient labeling across the different eatery on campus. Surprising we don’t have that despite the many dietary/religious/cultural and allergy restrictions students have."

This concern was actually raised by the Veggie Club and conversations in this regard within the President's Advisory Committee for Building an Inclusive Community (PACBIC) meetings. This is very feasible to accomplish since I have already had a conversation with Bill McFaden, the Hospitality Services Director on this issue, and he had promised his cooperation on the matter, especially since he had done a similar initiative at UofT.

I hope this addresses your concerns, Afzal! Thank you for taking the time to ask these questions.

I will get to the other questions I had not responded to yet as soon as possible.

Not sure about other things, but I'm sure McMaster would be perfectly fine without a Spiritual Center

Originally Posted by Israa Ali

3. Why is there a need for a Spiritual Center?
Ever since 2004, a spiritual centre for those with/without faith has been a hotly debated topic. It's a need to enhance student life on campus, allow them time to ponder and reflect while an opportunity for peaceful dialogue to take place. It doesn't have to be a large space, a sitting area and a small library would do it. In addition, as the MSU Diversity Services Director and after numerous conversations I've had with the different faith-based groups on campus, they would really appreciate such an initiative. If there are many students on campus who wish to see this happen, think of spirituality as a fundamental aspect of their lives as students and the space can allocated, then I think this is a valuable objective to pursue.

Why would people without a faith care about having a spiritual centre?

Would you be open to re-purpose/demolish divinity college for this spiritual space? Space is pretty limited on campus as it is...

Originally Posted by onedayy

Not sure about other things, but I'm sure McMaster would be perfectly fine without a Spiritual Center

You may not need/use/care for one, but there are others who do.

Originally Posted by RyanC

Why would people without a faith care about having a spiritual centre?

Would you be open to re-purpose/demolish divinity college for this spiritual space? Space is pretty limited on campus as it is...

Id be perfectly fine with opening a small room or something in the student center.

As for changing gym membership fees in the student budget: there are a lot of things the MSU supports that a lot of students dont use. Gym, bus-pass, radiostation, newspaper etc. Unfortunately sometimes you only get good deals when you have significant numbers. Id focus more on reducing costs. For example the HSR people clearly treat the MSU like children and are getting away with far too much.

Originally Posted by fatimaa

You may not need/use/care for one, but there are others who do.

Last time I checked, there were way more people without faith than those with faith.
Why waste valuable resources just to benefit the minority?
Like Ryan said, people without faith are not interested in having a Spirit Center.
I'd be much more interested in having more study areas during exam period.

Originally Posted by Israa Ali

It doesn't have to be a large space, a sitting area and a small library would do it. In addition, as the MSU Diversity Services Director and after numerous conversations I've had with the different faith-based groups on campus, they would really appreciate such an initiative. If there are many students on campus who wish to see this happen, think of spirituality as a fundamental aspect of their lives as students and the space can allocated, then I think this is a valuable objective to pursue.

Also just as a side note, our library space is very limited IMO, so if you are seriously considering this, then you should look for a different space.
And I think that you should also have some conversation with non-faith-based groups

The bonus of having more study space is it allows you to use other spaces for whatever spirital stuff you want to do without majorly impacting the majority (i.e. students who just use the university space to sit down and study in peace).

Basically you can't go wrong with more study space.

I don't know many people who have ever expressed need for a spiritual centre; this is begging the question and special pleading. Are there numbers or surveys to support people care about this particular issue apart from being positive towards it because they don't want to stir up trouble?

Most people don't even seem to like to share their faith, let alone 'express need for a spiritual space'. Those various events held by multiple faith clubs I see from time to time in the atrium are perfect opportunities for creating discourse between and among believers and non-believers, what would specifically having a Spiritual Centre do?

Thanks for sharing your platform with the MacInsiders community, Israa! And for using the forum to engage with students for discussion.

As others mentioned previously, the university already has an issue regarding space, especially study space. Thode gets very full very quickly, especially during peaks, like midterms and exams. If people need some place to think or pray (or whatever spiritual needs) a more private location such as the home would be preferred, at least that is the impression I have gotten so far.

And on the mention of food and certain catering needs I still don't understand what changes you exactly want. Are you asking for certain ethnic or religious foods to be included on camps (Halal, Kosher, etc) or for more nutritious food for less? The more vegetarian food is definitely an issue considering the fact that most people are omnivores and based on a financial level it does not make sense to have multiple food providers on campus all providing only vegetarian food. While the food at bridges is not something I enjoy, it is definitely better than a lot of the other food on campus and many places on campus do offer some vegetarian food of some kind.

I really like your idea to make food ingredients available to students. Living on residence, eating healthy can be a challenge and knowing what I'm exactly eating would help in making healthier decisions. I'm sure it will be very helpful for those with dietary restrictions as well.

As a person of faith, I am also curious about the purpose of Spiritual Centre. What needs will it meet that aren't already met by the various clubs/societies available on campus? Has the student body expressed the need for such a space?

Also, could you elaborate on your "Get Out To Vote" Campaign?

I think you're absolutely right, Ryan. We can't go wrong with more study space and just because I didn't address this issue directly in my platform, this does not mean it will be ignored. There is potential for study space in the promised student lounge across from the Student Centre at 88 Forsyth, which the university had bought recently. We can also return the study space hours at Bridges Cafe and look into other places on campus where studying can take place. Extended library hours is a project I would wish to build continuity on as well. Furthermore, there are spaces in other buildings which we can examine further.

We need to also be aware that the role of the President (at least how I think it should be) is to be flexible enough to accommodate and cater towards student needs as they arise. If study space is an issue that is brought forward, then they would ensure it's prioritized and is successful, perhaps even before committing to a platform point of theirs, for example in this case, establishing a base for a spiritual centre.

Regarding the spiritual centre specifically, I have discussed possible ideas within the space reallocation strategy which may possibly suit the space. It will be a small space for sitting, prayer, meditation, dialogue and even studying if students wish, it's really an open quiet area for anyone, but at the same time accommodates spirituality on campus. Similar to an office space, but rather more welcoming. It will not take away from study space, but rather enhance student life for those who pursue spirituality and a very calm place. There are individuals who are spiritual but don't have faith, they simply need to a quite room to rest/meditate during their day on campus. We can develop focus groups and research further before establishing the base for a spirituality centre and assess student interest to ensure optimal student satisfaction before moving forward with the project, after all we do want to cater to the needs of the majority of students at least. Despite the fact that I have strongly sensed the need for this space from many groups on campus, I do think it would be a healthy step to receive further feedback before proceeding.

To go back and emphasize further, study space is another issue I can take to heart and ensure accommodations are made, especially since it's an issue I've personally dealt with numerous times. This can very well fall under the space reallocation strategy and how as an MSU we ensure that the different spaces on campus are used to optimally benefit student life. That was an excellent point, thank you for bringing it up!