Despite last term’s vote by the SRA that MSU members would no longer pay part-time fees during summer sessions, the McMaster Association of Part-time Students has plans to continue collecting these fees anyway. The two organizations are now at odds with each other in terms of what will happen with student fees this upcoming summer.
A December media release from MAPS opposed the MSU’s stance and outlined preliminary plans for a “summer advocacy program” based on survey results as a suitable way to spend summer student funds.
MAPS president Andrew Smith said the program “will be designed to identify aspects of the summer academic term that may be changed to improve the student experience of our members.” Smith suggested this will specifically entail comparing the summer session with the fall/winter term, course availability and comparisons to other universities.
Some aspects of the media release, however, don’t hold water under further scrutiny.
MAPS claimed, “Between the date of this agreement (1986) and last year, the MSU decided that their membership lasts for twelve months of the year (they decided this unilaterally). They say because of this, full-time students should not have to pay student fees if they take courses during the summer, and they want this change to happen for this May.”
In actuality, the MSU amended their bylaws at an SRA meeting in 1988, clarifying their 12-month membership. Kyle Johansen, MAPS' executive director from July to December 2013 was at that 1988 meeting as an SRA Social Sciences representative and spoke in favour of the amendment, suggesting that “full” be added regarding MSU membership holders in order to be clearer.
Another claim by MAPS that the University might not be able to “identify MSU versus MAPS students during summer session registration” was also refuted in recent conversations the Silhouette had with the Office of the Registrar.
Additionally, after reiterating that the original MSU-MAPS agreement always intended for MSU members to be reimbursed for summer fees, the release goes on to say that in May 2014, “To temporarily deal with the MSU's demands, at least for this year, MAPS would refund summer student fees to MSU members, upon request.”
Jeffrey Doucet, VP (Finance) of the MSU, disagrees with MAPS’ ability to collect such fees.
“Collecting the fee would be effectively ignoring the MSU’s governance mechanism,” he said. “It was the SRA that empowered MAPS to first collect the fee and now the SRA no longer views the fee as legitimate," Doucet said.
It is unclear as to why, historically, MSU members have not sought – or, perhaps, known that they could seek – reimbursement of summer session fees.
“MAPS has no record of the MSU ever exercising that option,” Smith said.
At the time of the Sept. 29, 2013 meeting in which the SRA voted unanimously to break from the 1986 agreement, MSU President David said repeated attempts had been made for eight months to meet with MAPS and renegotiate the agreement.
“We’ve done everything we could to negotiate in good faith,” Campbell said. He described unilaterally breaking from the agreement as “our only option.”
The University's administration is unclear in terms of how the two organizations will resolve the conflict. Associate VP (Students and Learning) Sean Van Koughnett said, “There is no specific process to determine the final outcome of this situation, but rather, the outcome will be determined over the next two months in large part through any further discussions between the two student organizations and based on the wishes of our students.”
After months of negotiation with the HSR, the McMaster Students Union has reached an agreement with the transit organization to offer two options for service improvements to McMaster students.
With student electoral support, McMaster’s student bus pass could include extended service for Route 51-University, a 12-month bus pass, or both.
MSU President David Campbell and VP (Finance) Jeffrey Doucet represented students in the meetings.
Doucet wrote a memo to the Student Representative Assembly detailing the options.
“Our goal has been to negotiate fair options for service increased and then present them to students through referendum,” he said.
Current McMaster bus passes are included in student fees and cost each student $126.50—equivalent to 145 per cent of the price of a monthly adult pass.
Campbell said that discussions kept in mind the current bargain.
“Here at Mac we do get a pretty good deal on the bus pass, when you think about the cost,” he said. “We were just looking for add-ons and improvements.”
Two options will be voted on by students pending SRA approval, which would include additional costs voted into effect.
A motion will be brought before the SRA to add the issue as a referendum during the MSU presidential election in January. Whatever changes are voted in by students will be implemented in Sept. 2014.
One option is enhanced service on Route 51-University. For an extra cost of $6.50 per student, the 51 will increase its frequency between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. to every 10 minutes, rather than the current 15. Also included in this option is increased service between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m. Presently, the last 51-University of the night runs through campus around 11p.m.
Route 51-University would be the first bus in Hamilton to run until 3 a.m.
“If a student takes the bus once during their school year as opposed to taking a cab, they will have earned their money back on their investment,” said Doucet.
The other option is a 12-month bus pass. For an additional $6.00 per student the student bus pass would be extended from an 8-month to a full-year pass.
Regarding the summer extension, Doucet said, “We believe we have delivered incredible value for students as this represents just over two bus rides paying by cash.”
The per student cost of the service enhancements will be made possible because the HSR will contribute funds to the improvements as well.
Increased service of the 51-University will cost approximately $240,000. McMaster student fees will pay for $140,000 and the HSR will cover the other $100,000.
Once the issue comes to referendum, McMaster students will vote for one of several options moving forward.
Students can vote to keep the current eight-month pass at 145 per cent of the adult monthly rate, pay $6.50 more, per student for enhanced 51-University service, pay $6.00 more for a 12-month pass, or vote to adopt both changes and incur an extra cost of $12.50 per student. They may also vote to reject all agreements and have no bus pass in Sept. 2014.
Negotiations have been ongoing since before the start of the school year.
“We met almost once a month from August until now,” said Doucet.
He continued, “I think the reaction will be pretty positive…we’re going to be trying to educate students about the options, that we think are a really good value, and let them decide.”
Campbell agreed, saying “We tried to get the best deal to put in front of people, ultimately it’s up to the students, but I think the deals are really good.”
For two summers during my undergrad, I worked at an office in the Hamilton downtown core. I took the bus from Westdale Village every morning, and rode the HSR home every afternoon. And every day, I resented having to pay for a service I used endlessly for a small flat-fee during the regular school year.
Call me entitled; in many ways, that’s an accurate description of my attitude towards the absence of a summer bus pass. But when McMaster graduate students have a year-round agreement with the HSR and the summer pass is only available to Mac undergraduates enrolled in summer classes (and still only saves students $16 a month), my disappointment in the current MSU agreement is warranted.
Now that the MSU-HSR contract is up for renegotiation before renewal, I hope to see some changes.
David Campbell (MSU President) and Jeffrey Doucet (MSU VP Finance) have been pushing hard on the student transit issue since August, and an announcement regarding a new agreement is expected for next week. Major points the new agreement is expected to address include summer service and expanded hours of service through campus to cater to late-night student activity.
I hope the powers-that-be sit up and take notice of the argument that summer and late-night service is important not only to student life enhancement but also to stimulating the Hamilton economy.
Graduate rentention in a city notorious for appearing heavily unattractive to prospective McMaster students, and for those students then staying within the “campus bubble” while at school, is an important issue for the City to address.
One step towards keeping educated, energetic grads in the city is to make Hamilton more welcoming when they are students, be that encouraging them to stay and work through the summers or to simply explore the city at all hours.
Hopefully the new MSU-HSR agreement reflects students needs and the potential students have for rejuvenating the Steel City.
Come next fall, full-time students may not have to pay an extra fee if they switch to part-time status in the summer.
On Sept. 29, the Student Representative Assembly voted to nullify a 27-year agreement between the McMaster Students Union (MSU) and the McMaster Association of Part-Time Students (MAPS).
The end of the agreement suggests summer MAPS fees will no longer be collected from students who have already paid fees to the MSU. The decision would be imposed in 2014/15, barring any disagreement from the University’s board of governors.
MAPS would have its budget of roughly $500,000, funded entirely by student fees, slashed by about 50 per cent.
Prior to the SRA vote, full-time students who took a part-time course load during the summer had to pay $7 per unit to MAPS despite paying an MSU fee covering a full 12 months. MSU president David Campbell told the SRA at the Sept. 29 meeting that they had a “moral obligation to act” to end the duplication of fees.
At the end of the discussion period, the SRA voted to end the agreement 26-0 with three abstentions.
“The MSU did not like one provision in an agreement so it threw the baby out with the bathwater. Frankly we don’t know what they want now,” said interim MAPS director Kyle Johansen.
Johansen was hired in July to pick up the pieces of the MAPS spending scandal that had former director Sam Minniti fired.
Regardless of the outcome, Johansen said, "MAPS has no intention of abandoning part-time students. We will continue to advocate for all part-time students."
At the SRA meeting, the atmosphere was tense as Johansen hurriedly read off a statement on why the agreement should not be dissolved. Johansen wanted the matter to be discussed in November rather than be decided last night.
“A year ago, a unilateral decision to end this agreement might have been acceptable to the university community. I don’t think that’s the case today,” Johansen said. He said the new MAPS board was more willing and capable to discuss the issue but needed more time.
In response, MSU president David Campbell said the MSU board was frustrated with MAPS’ unwillingness to negotiate or meet until Aug. 8 despite repeated attempts over eight months.
“When we met with [Johansen] on Aug. 8, he told us in no uncertain terms that he did not consider what we were discussing a priority. He had bigger things that he was hired to address,”Campbell said, after the SRA meeting.
“Our only option was to unilaterally decide that the agreement was null and void,”Campbell said. He added that he did not see how putting off a decision would change the situation.
Campbell said the motion to end the duplication of student fees was in the works in June 2012, before the MAPS spending scandal was exposed in January. Ending the agreement was also part of Campbell’s presidential platform earlier this year.
After the vote, MAPS issued a statement condemning the MSU’s decision to walk away from the contract.
“Unlike the MSU Board who are full-time paid employees, all members of the MAPS Board are volunteers. They have been working practically non-stop to save this organization for seven months,” the statement reads.
MAPS questioned whether or not students could still transfer between the two student associations under a 2007 agreement amending the initial contract.
Campbell dismissed the claims made in MAPS’ statement.
Campbell said the MSU “fully intends to uphold the transferability mechanism.”
“We have an agreement here that is extremely unusual – there is no exit clause except if both parties come together,”Campbell said, of the 1986 agreement. “We’ve done everything we could to negotiate in good faith. This was our only option.”
“In our bylaws, if you’re a member in September, you’re covered for 12 months,” Campbell said.
MAPS stated that their board will meet this week “to review the options are available to us, but our primary focus is to finish the task at hand and present revised by-laws and policies to the Provost for his comments.”
Bus service changes were part of President David Campbell’s platform during the election race last January, and now he’s set to make good on those promises.
“The [Hamilton Street Railway] bus pass fee is triannual, so every three years we renew it with the HSR,” said Campbell. “Our current agreement is expiring in April, so it was already going to come to referendum in January. That’s what inspired me as part of my platform to say ‘there are a lot of improvements to service we could think about here.’”
The improvements Campbell is seeking give this year’s negotiations a different level of importance.
“In the past, when it was getting renewed, it was a lot of ‘let’s just renegotiate the cost for similar levels of service.’ But now we’ve taken a more aggressive approach in the sense of early on in the year we wanted to make contact with the HSR and say ‘we obviously want to renegotiate our current agreement, and where can we make some improvements,’” said Jeff Doucet, VP Finance.
The McMaster Students Union has prioritized what it hopes to accomplish, and an agreement regarding bus service for summer students tops that list. A Facebook poll found that students, too, overwhelmingly regard it as a chief concern. Thousands of students remain on campus in the summer taking classes or working, but currently the bus pass included in tuition expires at the end of April. Students taking classes can purchase a slightly discounted summer pass at Compass, but the rate it is significantly more expensive at $72 per month than the $63.08 students pay per semester in the Fall and Winter.
Also among the MSU’s priorities is extending bus service later into the night. That’s a concern that the HSR says it has heard from other groups in the community.
“We were surprised,” said Doucet. “We’re not the only people saying the buses aren’t running late enough. One o’clock, 1:20 a.m. is pretty early to stop the buses in a major city.”
“It’s a safety thing, too, right? It’s adequate provision of service,” added Campbell. “It’s not just drunk people getting home, it’s people getting home safely from the bars, from work, from wherever they might be.”
In addition to adding more bus service at night, the MSU would like to see current bus times changed to better service the university. Currently, the HSR increases the amount of buses through campus at busy times, but the increase is spread evenly throughout the hour rather than clustered around times when classes start or finish.
“Let’s look at the University 51 and say ‘this has been identified as a line for the university […] maybe this is the one we can play around with,’” said Doucet.
They are looking to other municipalities, such as Doucet’s hometown of Ottawa, as a guide for what service may be appropriate. However, they’re also keeping their expectations measured.
“[Changing the bus schedules] is a major change. That’s the one that sort of ranks lower in our priorities because we recognize how difficult it would be for the HSR to do,” said Campbell.
Still, a positive aura surrounds the discussions as a whole. “We’re getting along well and we’re really optimistic about what can happen. There’s been a lot of give and take,” said Campbell.
Hopefully come January, students will see some of these options on the ballot.
For many students, water-damaged windows and roofs, out-of-order toilets and insulation peeking out of broken ceiling tiles are familiar sights. Throughout the year we experience dozens of minor, everyday inconveniences and brush them off as something that will be fixed, eventually. Until then we do our best to ignore the water dripping from the ceiling into a yellow bucket.
These annoyances are symptoms of deferred maintenance (DM), a problem that’s getting bigger all the time. It boils down to a simple enough idea: things are breaking, and there isn’t the money to fix them. Of course, when you spread that idea out over a 300 acre campus, tens of years, and multiple university, provincial and federal budgets, it gets complex – fast.
DM is defined as “work on the maintenance of physical facilities that has been postponed on a planned or unplanned basis to a future budget cycle or until funds become available,” and its severity really came to the university’s attention in December 2012 when facility services released a comprehensive report called the Asset Management Plan. This 38-page document systematically categorized the issue and revealed a staggering $300M DM backlog.
That figure was a surprise, even to the university administration. “The University knew about a backlog of $150M prior to 2012, which was based on an old Condition Assessment Survey,” said Mohamed Attalla, assistant vice-president and Chief Facilities Officer. “However, there was not a clear and detailed analysis that highlighted the urgency. Also, there was no clear plan and priorities to move forward.”
DM has the potential to severely affect research and teaching on campus, and is made more problematic by its often behind-the-scenes nature. “It deals with things you can’t see,” said Attalla. It’s hidden in the walls in fraying cables and leaky pipes; it’s hidden in the basement in rusting boilers and dusty transformers; and it’s hidden off-campus in a power substation that is serving beyond its intended lifetime.
Robert O’Brien, a professor of Global Labour Studies, spoke about the difficulties associated with teaching in such an environment. He complained about a lack of Wi-Fi access, A.V. equipment, and proper ventilation. “About half of my teaching takes place in rooms like that,” he said.
With the full scope of the mountain of maintenance revealed, the university moved to begin addressing it. Prior to the report, the DM budget for facility services was $2.2M, just 0.14 per cent of the current replacement value (CRV) of the campus. CRV is calculated by multiplying the square footage of campus buildings by a dollar amount standard for all Ontario universities, and the Council of Ontario Universities recommends a minimum annual budget allocation towards maintenance of 1.5 per cent of the CRV of buildings and infrastructure. It warns that an amount less than this will cause the DM backlog to grow.
In response to the Asset Management Plan’s recommendations, Mac administration intends to increase DM funding by $2M annually until it reaches $10.7M. This means that, for 2013/14, $4.9M has been budgeted for DM. Though an improvement, it’s still a far cry from the $23.4M necessary to reach the recommended 1.5 per cent of campus CRV.
It’s also much lower than some universities similar to McMaster. The Asset Management Plan compared Mac to Ottawa and Western, universities of similar size, and found that even back in 2011, they were budgeting $26M and $11M respectively towards DM.
The insufficiency of the current budget is known to administrators. “Based on what we have here, the current funding we agreed to, we’re not looking at making a dip or a dive in the deferred maintenance. It will continue to rise actually, but it will rise at a slower pace,” said Attalla.
So it’s more, but still not enough. Attalla acknowledges this, but emphasizes the complicated nature of budgeting for a large institution like McMaster. “The university needs to make decisions. There are lots of unfunded priorities […] but you need dollars to fund them. The agreed-to level of funding here takes into consideration the other pressures we have somewhere else in the university,” he said.
“The hope is that after we deal with our current pressure, hopefully five years from now we’ll be able to increase 10M dollars even more to reach some other universities.”
MSU President David Campbell echoed that sentiment. “Very understandably, often deferred maintenance comes up against academic priorities, and sometimes rightly so. The maintenance becomes deferred because there are more pressing priorities. And I think everybody would agree that that is a necessary thing sometimes,” he said.
“But it’s when you start getting into these critical priorities like ‘in the next 12 months this wall might fall down but we can’t find the money to fix it.’ That critical aspect is when it needs to be addressed right away.”
The Asset Management Plan defines components as critical “if they are still in operation and are operating beyond their designed and useful life […] It is important to note that McMaster’s total DM backlog classified as critical amounts to $28.86 million and by definition should be corrected within the next year.” Accounting for the recent budget increase, the difference between needed critical repairs and funding is $24M, not including components that may have decayed to become critical since the report was released.
That means that McMaster is running with at least $24M of its equipment and buildings operating beyond their intended lifespan.
Last year the MSU published a policy paper outlining students’ position regarding DM. “Our first recommendation was that in the short term [the university’s contributions to DM] should go up to $12.5M,” said Campbell. “Our long term recommendation was that contributions should go up to $25M, and that should be a collaboration between the university and the province, since both bear part of the burden on this.”
Attalla is also hoping the university can collaborate with the province, saying that “the hope is that with lobbying the provincial government, it will put more money into this sector.”
But hope won’t double-pane Mac’s windows. It’s important that the university continue increasing DM funding for years to come. “The university’s made a commitment to continue increasing deferred maintenance contributions over the next few years, and I think we should be pushing to have that continue happening, whether that’s through new campaigns or an official lobby,” said Campbell.
Until that happens, though, students will just have to pray it doesn’t rain too hard.
As the first week of September rolls in, a new batch of first year students are being introduced to life at McMaster. Welcome Week 2013 is in full swing as upper-year students, campus organizations, and administration gather to welcome incoming Mac students to their new school.
The current Welcome Week marks the second year of a mandatory MacPass, a policy requiring every incoming first year to pay a $110 levy to participate in the week of events. While new to the Welcome Week, the levy was met with success by the MSU last year and a similar model has been followed this year.
“There haven’t been too many big changes, mainly small things,” MSU VP Administration Anna D’Angela said of the planning. The VP Administration is traditionally one of the main organizers of the week.
Though the week is about half done, MSU President David Campbell is already pleased with how things are going.
“I want to knock on wood saying this, but I think it’s been going pretty smoothly so far,” he said of the programming.
The 2013 Welcome Week has also continued the trend of increasing options for students living off campus.
“I do think again the focus was on trying to get more off-campus [students], because they tend to be the most prominent group of people who don’t necessarily get involved as much but are now paying to be involved,” Campbell explained.
Such events as the SOCS Sleepover, available after the Tuesday night concert so off-campus students could stay on campus, were repeated this year, having been first implemented in 2012.
The weeknight concert, a regular part of Welcome Week activities, was headlined this year by Tommy Trash, while Friday’s concert in Faculty Hollow is set to welcome Lights and The Arkells back to Hamilton.
[MORE] Storified tweets and photos from you.
Mac students can feel safer this year thanks to the development of a new Security Services app.
It’s called the McMaster University Safety, Security and Transit app, or MUSST, and it’s available for free on iPhone, Android, and touchscreen Blackberry devices. The app provides contact numbers for emergency services and campus resources in addition to information about transportation and safety guidelines.
Upon loading the app, users are greeted by a conspicuous red button that lets them call either Campus Security or 911 with one touch. The front page also links to the McMaster Daily News twitter page and lets one call the Emergency First Response Team (EFRT) and the Student Walk Home Attendant Team (SWHAT), both run by the McMaster Students Union.
EFRT responds to campus medical emergencies and SWHAT will walk you home at night. In another tab, app users can find clinic and hospital locations and familiarize themselves with campus safety procedures.
In addition to these safety measures, MUSST seeks to help students out with transportation. It allows them to call two local taxi services and uses Google Maps to find HSR bus schedules. There are also links to the websites of other bus services, such as GO Bus and Greyhound, but those pages are not consistent in their design for mobile users and can be cumbersome to use on smartphones.
MUSST was developed by Weever Apps, which operates in McMaster Innovation Park, and is a collaborative effort between McMaster Security, Student Affairs, the MSU, and Public Relations. It was inspired by Queen’s University’s SeQure App.
First released in May, it was updated in August and was fully operational in time for the start of this school year. Staff Sergeant Cathy O’Donnell, a security manager at Mac, said that the university will be launching an extensive advertising campaign for the app.
MUSST can be downloaded for free on your touchscreen smartphone. In addition, students living in residence can find a QR code on the cover of their key card that downloads the app when scanned.
Not all of my Saturday nights are that exciting. I have to admit it. I have certainly spent many a weekend night bleary-eyed and hopped up on caffeine in order to write a paper that should have been done days earlier. We’ve all been there, I think.
So when MSU presidential hopeful David Campbell offered up a potential extension of library hours, I was excited. And I doubt I was the only one. With limited weekend hours (Mills stays open to 5:45 on Fridays and Saturdays, as do Thode and HealthSci), McMaster has not exactly been accommodating.
On July 12, after two months in office as president, Campbell and the MSU were able to reach a deal with the University Library for new hours. Such an announcement should come as welcome news—and yet, something isn’t quite right.
The announcement on the MSU website claims the hours will “dramatically increase.” Mills Learning Commons is to offer 24/5 access starting mid-semester (early October in the fall, mid-February for the winter), while Mills and Thode will extend their hours on Friday nights, remaining open to 9:45 rather than the standard 5:45 pm. Innis will follow suit during exam periods.
While it’s commendable for Campbell and his team to tackle a project such as this, as an avid user of the library I’m left disappointed.
Sure, time-wise the increase is dramatic. But such an increase is easily achieved by offering up Learning Commons til the wee hours of the morning on weekdays. It surely is easier to staff a single-room study area than it is to keep an entire 6-floor library up and running. Though while it makes sense from a library’s perspective, for the students this solution just isn’t good enough.
It’s all well and good to extend hours, but studying in the middle of the night is not a good solution for anyone. A stopgap measure like this appeals to a cramming culture that is definitely not a healthy part of an academic career. It suggests that what students need is a place to binge on information right before a midterm, not a consistent place to work all year long.
The exam hours that have been in place for years have encouraged this too. Maybe for some 24-hour access to Thode is helpful, but I’m left wondering why the focus is only during exams, why there’s not more done in the weeks leading up, when the workload is heavy and students are in the midst of final assignments and papers.
One noteworthy success of the new hours at least is the extension of Friday nights. Finally it’s acknowledged that Friday too is a night to work for many, and that midterms are scheduled on Saturday mornings.
But being a student truly is a full-time job, and Campbell and the University Library would be smart to recognize that and negotiate for longer hours on weekends, too.
It’s clear that we can’t magically create a solution to the need for study space and the proper services for students. After all, the people running the library are only human. But comparing Mac’s library hours to those of other schools, it seems an entirely reasonable feat to accomplish.
At a time when McMaster’s campus is bursting at the seams and students are forever in search of study space, I can only hope that such a feat does become a priority, and that this announcement is one of many steps in the right direction.
The Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance, OUSA, is concerned that McMaster's administration didn't seek student input before suspending MAPS from collecting fees last week.
A motion to stop the part-time students association from collecting students' money was announced last Monday on the Daily News. The motion was brought to the Board of Governors meeting last Thursday and passed without student input. The administration reasoned that the new MAPS board had not met expectations of transparency and accountability, and therefore should not collect any fees from students this fall.
Three days after the Board of Governor's decision, OUSA blogged about their concern over the way the situation was handled, with the understanding that the new MAPS board was working to address the administration's concerns.
OUSA, which represents 8 student organizations including the MSU, says McMaster's decision to impose the suspension goes against the autonomy of a student organization:
"Most concerning is the fact that the decision [...] was motioned and passed by members of the University Administration, rather than by the actual student membership of MAPS. This sets a dangerous precedent in which an institution has chosen to withhold fees independently of student input or support."
Ken Seville, a part-time student at McMaster and a Hamilton resident, commented on the post and expressed disappointment in the way the decision unfolded.
"I was shocked at how quickly this motion was brought forth and passed without any discussion or even questions from the BOG," he wrote. "I also find it disingenuous that the admin. claims to be protecting pt students but made no effort to consult them on the decision."
"The university has an email address for every MAPS member. Even something as simple as poll daddy would have sufficed," he wrote in an e-mail. He says he doesn't know what other part-timers think of the suspension.
"That's the problem about being a pt student, you are disconnected from campus life but decisions are made on your behalf without any consultation. For my part, I don't mind paying MAPS fees because I have confidence in the new BOD and them making the organization accountable," said Seville.
MAPS President Andrew Smith said the new board "has always been in agreement with strengthened accountability and transparency measures. He continued, "The MAPS board will not, however, agree to unrelated issues being attached to the resumption of fee collection."
A McMaster representative could not be reached for comment before this article was published.
MSU President David Campbell said he agrees with OUSA that an effort should have been made to reach out to students before the decision, even if that meant a non-binding question to part-time students over e-mail.
"We understand the reasoning behind it but [getting student input] would have set a different tone," he said.
However, Campbell also expressed some skepticism that the University would have received a large or unfavourable response to suspending MAPS, given the spending scandal that has severely impacted student confidence in the organization.
"Getting input would have been more of a symbolic decision," said Campbell, who noted that context plays a role.
The MAPS annual meeting in February was poorly attended by members. Several confusions came up because by-laws were not present at the meeting. In 2012, MAPS was denied a fee increase and audited by the University. In the weeks and months following, the organization's executive director was fired and its former board of directors replaced.
This article was last updated June 17 at 17:15 ET.
