By: Elizabeth DiEmanuele
The Student Success Centre and Graduate Studies have introduced new positions for 2019-2020 to support the academic, personal and professional success of international students.
“Enhancing the experience and academic success of our international students is a shared responsibility, which is why we are excited about creating a campus-wide support network around our students,” says Gina Robinson, assistant dean of Student Affairs and director of the Student Success Centre. “We want international students to know that we all care about their individual needs and are working together to get them to the right services on campus.”
Ana Pereira has supported McMaster’s international students for eight years. In this role, she helps students adjust to their new lives at McMaster and in Canada through transitional services, personal development and the International Student Buddy Program.
“Being an immigrant myself, I understand many of the challenges facing students and love helping them feel comfortable in this new place they now call ‘home’,” Ana says.
Francesca Hernandez joins the team in this role and will focus on establishing campus-wide partnerships that can support and contribute to the development and success of international graduate students.
“We want to ensure that the academic, social and cultural needs of international graduate students are met through new programming and engagement opportunities,” Francesca says.
“We also want to expand promotion of existing programs and services so that students and their families are aware of supports offered by McMaster and the broader community. We want them to enjoy a successful journey in their new country.”
In addition to programs and services, one-on-ones are also available. Andrew Staples, student success coach, will support both graduate and international students with their academic concerns, financial difficulties, transition, and navigation of university life. This position will support students on an individual basis and provide a more seamless support system.
Andrew shares, “We want to make sure students feel supported and welcomed during their time at McMaster, so we are encouraging students to ask questions and share any concerns they may be experiencing.”
Lajipe Sanwoolu, immigration and mobility advisor, can provide immigration consulting from both an inbound and outbound perspective, including international and domestic students who are interested in working in Canada or abroad.
“International students contribute greatly to our community,” says Lajipe. “It is important and beneficial that we continue to provide them with opportunities to contribute and develop themselves.”
International students provide an invaluable knowledge and perspective, both in and outside of the classroom. Lajipe’s role will support developing relationships between international students and employers, providing education about international hiring and dispelling hiring misconceptions.
Appointments with Andrew Staples and Lajipe Sanwoolu are bookable through OSCARplus.
For those interested in collaborating on initiatives to support international student success, email iss@mcmaster.ca.
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From the Student Representative Assembly requiring a survivor to disclose their assault in order for the removal of a perpetrator on the assembly to news of rampant sexual assault within the McMaster Students Union Maroons, this past year has been filled with controversy.
Given the events of this year, and what has occurred in the past, it is shocking that the MSU lacks a formal human resources department.
HR departments exist to deal with workplace disputes and ultimately ensure that employees are aware of their rights as minimally outlined by the Ontario Employment Standards Act. This includes the creation, implementation and enforcement of policies and structures that support employee rights like formal complaint structures and disciplinary policies.
Currently, the only HR presence that exists within the MSU is through the operations coordinator, Maddison Hampel. Though Hampel has formalized HR training and experience, her role does not allow her to adequately support all HR functions of the MSU.
Unfortunately, the only HR-focused training for student employees ends at the mandatory online workplace health and safety training modules that all employees of McMaster University are required to complete.
The majority of student employees, myself included, have never even been formally introduced to Hampel or made aware of our employment rights during our training sessions.
If we had a formal HR department, it is extremely likely that the Maroons sexual assault allegations would have been dealt with appropriately.
In fact, with a proper HR department, policies for sexual assault and workplace harassment would likely already be in place, and be created by individuals with the expertise to do so.
A formal HR department could also allow for better and more comprehensive hiring practices wherein individuals who were previously reported to the department are properly dealt with and not re-hired for other positions within the MSU, a consistent problem of the institution.
At the very least, an HR department that is independent of the MSU could allow student workers to feel comfortable reporting any issues. As it stands, I report my workplace issues to my direct supervisors, but this gets complicated if my concerns are about individuals in positions of power.
An HR department can ensure supervisors are accountable for their actions and held to an expected level of professionalism.
Josh Marando, president-elect of the MSU for the 2019-2020 year, has acknowledged that the lack of a formal HR department is an issue. One of his platform points is to restructure the internal operations of the MSU.
According to his #BuildTogether platform, he plans to divide the current full-time staff position of operations coordinator to create a specific HR coordinator who is independent from the board.
While the operations coordinator’s role would be shifted to focus largely on supporting clubs and internal operations, the proposed HR coordinator is meant to “support our students through connecting with university programs that have a focus on equity and anti-discrimination.”
Though creation of an independent HR coordinator is an important first step, it is not enough. The MSU is comprised of over 40 full-time permanent staff and 300 part-time student staff. A singular HR coordinator cannot possibly support this vast number of employees.
The lumping of the HR coordinator role with equity and anti-discrimination programs can also be problematic. Certainly the future HR coordinator can and should consult with equity groups to ensure their policies are consistent with student needs, but it is important that the two ultimately remain separate.
This is because it is possible that issues concerning diversity and discrimination may arise from the HR department. This would then make it difficult for individuals to report issues to the same department where the issues stem from.
What the MSU needs is a full-blown autonomous HR department, with policies in place and trained personnel. Only through implementation of an HR department can the MSU truly account for the safety of its student employees.
It’s important to remember that students employed by the MSU are employees. They deserve the same respect and safety enforced by a HR department in any other workplace.
Honestly, student workers should be unionized to ensure their rights are defended. Until they are, the MSU must do a better job in the 2019-2020 year of protecting their employees through implementation of formal HR resources and personnel.
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Students entering university are faced with many new things: new classes, new friends and sometimes even new living arrangements. But students living in on-campus residences should not have to worry about their safety.
To help students transition into living away from home, and to enforce the rules of residence life, McMaster University community advisors live with first-year students in their residences. Their purpose is to “develop and maintain an environment that is conducive to learning and personal growth.”
To be a CA, one must fulfill many qualifications including maintaining a minimum sessional average of 6.0, being a full-time McMaster University student, demonstrating responsibility and leadership abilities and have a working knowledge or building community within students.
But for all the listed requirements, CAs are not required to complete any sort of police background check, including a very important vulnerable sector check.
VS checks are a collection of offence information that is restricted to applicants seeking employment or volunteering in a position of authority or trust over vulnerable persons in Canada. They can be obtained easily from the police service in your residing jurisdiction.
The lack of VS checks for CAs is problematic for many reasons. For one, many incoming students are under 18-years-old. In these cases, it is evident that these students are considered vulnerable persons and subsequently require additional protection from those in positions of authority and trust like CAs.
But even for incoming students who are legally adults, their role as a first-year student inherently places them in a lower position of power relative to their CAs. This power dynamic can be harmful if the CAs have a history of offensive behaviour.
CAs have a lot of influence over the first-year students under their supervision. CAs are oftentimes students’ first interaction with upper-year students and are meant to be the go-to person for questions about campus and residence life. To not conduct a proper background check on them is negligent of the university in ensuring that students are protected.
The lack of VS checks is not an exclusive issue of CAs. In addition to CAs, residence-affiliated positions such as the residence orientation representative are not required to complete VS checks.
In fact, part-time managers, the board of directors and other McMaster Students Union positions do not require the completion of a VS check.
Considering that almost all of these roles involve interaction with and power over a vulnerable population of students, it makes no sense why these roles do not require VS checks. If anything, the lack of VS checks puts students in avoidable danger.
In addition to VS checks, McMaster University should do a more thorough job of ensuring that individuals hired for their positions are positive reflections of the university. This includes ensuring that these individuals have not been reported to university administration or asked to withdraw from their positions previously.
The lack of sufficient and necessary screening of individuals in positions of power within the university is alarming. For McMaster University to truly commit to ensuring student safety, they must create better hiring policies that begin with implementation of VS checks.
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By: Tanya Kett & Jillian Perkins Marsh
Some say that when they last attended a job fair employers told them to apply online, so they felt it was pointless to attend. If you have similar sentiments, I urge you to keep reading.
Employers may tell you to apply online (it does save paper!), but the real reason they are there is to get a sense of the person behind the resume that is submitted online — YOU.
Who are you? What do you have to offer? Why are you unique? Are you personable? Do you seem genuinely interested? What do you know about them? Answers to these questions can only be conveyed in an application to a certain extent. Make a real connection so that when your application does come across their desk, your name gets noticed.
How can you differentiate your application from other ones in the application pile?
Do your research. Explore the event website for the list of employers confirmed to attend and do some research on them before the event.
Tailor your elevator pitch. Make eye contact and shake their hand. Be bold, assertive, and with some confidence, introduce yourself. Tell them what you do or want to do, what you have to offer and why you are interested in them. Customize your pitch based on your research.
Ask useful questions. Based on your research, prepare some thoughtful questions to generate conversation after your introductions.
Be an active listener. Really listen to what they have to say; it is easy to start thinking ahead to what you will say next, but concentrate on being in the moment. After the conversation is over, jot down any suggestions they had for applicants before you forget.
Be ready to dig deeper. If you encounter an organization of interest that is not hiring in the area you are interested in, don’t despair. Remember that organizations recruit for many diverse roles and hiring timelines are often not predictable.
Invite to connect on LinkedIn. Visit your new contact’s profile and send your request from there, so you have an option to ‘Add a Note.’ Reference something from your conversation when you invite them to connect and thank them for their time in speaking with you at the event.
After you attend the event and employ the tactics above, you are ready to submit that online application. Don’t forget to mention the contact you spoke with at the Career Fair or Company Recruitment Event. Incorporate their suggestions and offer something you learned from them in your cover letter as part of why you are interested in applying.
Now imagine you did none of the above, just attended, had a few conversations and just applied online. Which application would you be most interested in?
Use what you’ve learned in this article at our SCENE networking night on March 21. This event is open to McMaster alumni and students in their final year. Register here: alumni.mcmaster.ca under Event Listings.
Read the full article on our Medium page.
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By: Eden Wondmeneh
As a first-year student in social sciences, the bulk of my tutorial grade is determined by my participation in discussions. For someone who would rather be restricted to eating at Centro than be forced to speak in public, tutorials are not my ideal environment.
As the fall semester progressed, I noticed that some of these discussions supported learning while others were downright problematic. Speaking to other students in social sciences, specifically students of colour, it was clear that teaching assistants, who greatly influenced whether tutorial discussions were the former or the latter, were overwhelmingly white.
The lack of diversity in TAs is often juxtaposed with a somewhat diverse student group — where students of colour bond over the shared discomfort or hilarity of the awkwardness that settles across the room anytime a ‘hot topic’ like white privilege is brought up.
Discussions about race are often excluded from acceptable topics in an environment that claims to encourage academic discourse, especially when initiated by a person of colour: a fact that aided in my decision to stay relatively quiet in tutorials.
Regardless of their intentions, these TAs are in a position of power where they facilitate discussions about systems of oppression that they themselves benefit from and resultantly teach students through this narrow-privileged lens. If topics of race are not dismissed after a moment of awkward silence, they always seem condescending; what qualifies non-POC TAs to lead these discussions?
I have a friend whose TA explained how common sense differs between cultures using a blatantly racist analogy of African children never having seen a stove thus not knowing that it is unsafe to touch. When called out for their ignorance, the TA’s response was some variation of, “I’m not racist”.
The Teaching in an Accessible and Inclusive Community section of McMaster University’s 2013 TA guide shows that the diversity and inclusion issue in tutorial sessions is much worse than it appears. The university is aware of the power imbalances that are inherent to the limited diversity amongst TAs — they just aren’t doing anything about it.
Despite their ability to recognize that acknowledgment of systemic racism is not enough to let them off the hook, they boldly state that McMaster staff and faculty work “against often invisible systems of privilege and oppression,” without giving TAs any guidance in how to further this effort within their own tutorials. In fact, the guidebook makes it clear that it is naïve to believe that even a well-intentioned TA could use any tips provided to create an equitable space within their tutorials.
To be clear, I don’t think that TAs are intentionally leading their tutorials to isolate students of colour and validate the dominant privileged narrative that exists within our society. I do believe though that the hiring process for TAs is flawed, as it works directly against McMaster’s “fight against invisible systems of privilege and oppression”.
There should be a great number of Black TAs who are able to lead tutorials with a different perspective, engage with Black students and have important conversations about race when the course calls for it.
Aside from increasing the diversity amongst TAs, there should be mandatory anti-oppression workshops and training. It is unrealistic to hope that TAs will suddenly diversify, but it is not unrealistic to hope that current TAs have an understanding of their bias and are able to react to being called out productively — not through cries of, “I am not racist”.
For myself to feel comfortable to contribute freely within these tutorials, I need there to be measures in place for the inevitable awkwardness that ensues when race is discussed and a guarantee that Black children won't be used in racist examples.
We don't live within a vacuum. To create the “inclusive and accessible learning environment” that McMaster desires, TAs need to reflect this inclusivity and accessibility students are meant to find.
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The Silhouette sincerely apologizes to Glenn De Caire for the false contents found in the previous version of the article "The hiring and requested firing of Glenn De Caire,” published on thesil.ca and distributed across campus on March 24, 2016. The disparaging statements made about Glenn De Caire are entirely untrue and are hereby unconditionally retracted by The Silhouette. Amendments to the online article were made on April 4, 2016.
On Dec. 18, 2015, McMaster announced that former Police Chief of Hamilton Police Services, Glenn De Caire, had been hired as the Director of Parking and Security Services, a senior administrative position within the University. De Caire announced his retirement from Police Services this past November and began his role on campus on Jan. 17 amidst a protest outside his office. The protest, organized by the Revolutionary Students Movement, was against the influence of police patrol on campus and has since spit-balled into a larger petition and campaign and a motion by the Student Representative Assembly for the Students' Union to advocate for De Caire's removal. While the student body is taking actions to protest De Caire's place on campus, members of the hiring board stand by their decision and the process that went into his eventual selection for the job.
Hiring the Director of Parking and Security Services requires a committee of known stakeholders from across the University’s administration. This year’s committee featured six McMaster employees, all from different departments of the University. This year’s board included: outgoing Director, Terry Sullivan; Assistant Vice President and Chief Facilities Officer, Mohamed Attalla; Assistant Vice President and Director of Teaching and Learning at MIIETL, Arshad Ahmad; Assistant Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, Wanda McKenna; Director of Public and Community Relations, Gord Arbeau; and President of the McMaster Students Union, Ehima Osazuwa.
“This was a national search,” said Arbeau.
“There were a series of advertisements across the country to encourage applicants. I think we had well over 100 applicants for this position.”
“The job description was developed — it was the existing job description that was updated from the last time we hired a director — and it is quite a lengthy document … and then there were a series of advertisements across the country to encourage applicants. I think we had well over 100 applicants for this position,” he said.
The search committee had no shortage of applicants, with resumes coming in from across the country. To compile this extensive list, three members of the committee — Atalla, McKenna and Sullivan — worked with a third party hiring group to narrow down the search.
“I never knew the 100 people that applied, they narrowed it down to five people,” said Osazuwa, another member of the hiring committee.
“I got to read the applications and we had an interview process with each of the five candidates,” he said.
Terry Sullivan, the outgoing director and one of the key stakeholders in hiring, is a former employee of Hamilton Police Services. Previously working as a Superintendent and Division Supervisor with the HPS, Sullivan became Parking and Security Director in 2005. Him and De Caire have been known to be in touch through their connection to HPS, making his selection for the top five unsurprising.
“We looked for an understanding of McMaster, an understanding of its traditions and culture of inclusivity, an understanding and awareness of how this role fits into this inclusivity and its culture, and the committee would hear from the various applicants about how they would fit into this existing culture,” said Arbeau.
While the University stressed inclusivity in their hiring, the HPS and its members have a history with the controversial practice of carding, or “street checks.” Street checks were originally developed as a tool to document illicit activities in municipal areas and were previously known as Field Information Reports. The process allowed a registered police officer to stop and question someone on the street asking for personal information like their name, age, height, eye colour and a description of their activities at the time. Over time, carding in North America became a practice used to racially profile predominantly young non-white men, and legally document and target their actions through police surveillance. While De Caire denounced the racial profiling element of the practice, carding is still stated to be a violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and as of March 22, 2015, an amendment to the provincial Police Services Act states that carding will be an officially illegal practice as of January 1, 2017.
Information about HPS’ use of this practice over the past few years was publicly available, but the University did not present any of these details to the hiring committee. It was up to their own initiative to do any background checks outside of what would have been done by the three hiring committee representatives in the preliminary hiring stages.
“I expect the university to do that background [check] before presenting candidates to me,” said Osazuwa.
Osazuwa also mentioned that during the hiring committee’s assessment of De Caire’s interview, resume and cover letter, none of the members brought up the darker details of his history with Police Services.
After the interview process, De Caire was selected for the job and offered a Letter of Employment from the University. The letter does not define a set amount of time for De Caire’s role on campus, and instead the position will exist for him as long as he chooses to continue in the job and is not removed from campus.
The job will see a drop in salary for De Caire, with the most recent Director, Terry Sullivan, making $133,852 annually, but the long-term position also delivers a level of security that his previous police job did not offer.
BACKLASH
Nick Abrams, a fourth-year Anthropology and Religious Studies student, is a member of the Revolutionary Students Movement and one of the key planners in the initial protests and campaigning around De Caire’s hiring.
The first protest against De Caire’s hiring happened on his first day on the job. The assembled team of students eventually turned the protest into an online petition that received 228 signatures of support in its first week. Shortly after the release of the petition, the campaign was translated into a motion at the MSU’s General Assembly on March 14.
The General Assembly accepted proposed motions from across the student body, and the RMS, in partnership with the McMaster Womanists, the Revolutionary Communist Party, McMaster United in Colour, and several other student groups motioned for “the General Assembly [to] endorse this campaign to get Glenn De Caire Off Campus … call on the university to terminate Glenn De Caire from [his] position of head of Security and Parking … call on the university to end its campaign of increasing the presence of police on our campus.”
“We have to force awkward conversations between the President of the MSU and President of the University, which I’m excited about,” said Abrams.
The University has not officially attempted to increase the presence of police on campus, but the hiring of a former police officer has led some to speculate about the future of on-campus security.
“I expect the university to do that background [check] before presenting candidates to me.”
The full motion passed with more than 80 percent of voters in favour at the General Assembly. But since the GA did not reach quorum, the motion was taken to the Student Representative Assembly to make a final decision on the MSU’s stance.
At the March 20 SRA meeting, the governing body of the MSU voted in favour of the motion, meaning it is now a responsibility of the MSU to talk to University administration to advocate for his removal and clearer outlines for the future of campus security.
“The goal is to get him off campus … and to also implement something to ensure that something like this doesn’t happen again,” said Kayonne Christy, a fourth-year Life Sciences student, President of the McMaster Womanists and one of the campaign’s coordinators.
The motion also called for “the university to form a new hiring committee made up of students, faculty, and campus support staff to make the new hire.” The current hiring committee is not seen as fit to make a new decision if De Caire is eventually removed from the campus.
“Something like this should have been a lot more known. And the fact that they hired him during exam time seems pretty sketchy,” said Christy. “A lot of students are going home, a lot of students are stressed with schools, and no one’s really focusing on that… They should have been a lot more transparent and a lot more honest about this.”
“In general, it just seems weird that the university would hire someone that used to be a Chief of Police to the position — are the students criminals?” added Abrams.
NEXT STEPS
“Realistically speaking, the University is not going to get rid of Glenn because we ask them to. But I think it is important that we have these student voices,” said Osazuwa, the link between the MSU and University administration.
After the March 21 SRA meeting, Osazuwa spoke with President Patrick Deane about the motion, and hopes to continue the conversation with Deane and Gord Arbeau for the rest of his term.
“I read the motion as one way: trying to make the campus safer for more people. And if there are certain individuals people feel uncomfortable around, we need to address that issue… I don’t know if getting rid of Glenn is the best solution, but we need to do something,” said Osazuwa.
Osazuwa feels that there are a variety of measures that can be taken to create the safer space students are demanding. It is all part of an ongoing discussion and no concrete plans or intentions have been put forward.
“Part of me is also worried that summer months are coming and that the conversation is going to die off. I don’t think that is the right approach, I think we need to have this conversation head on and try to come to a solution that is best for all parties — the MSU, Glenn, the University, the people that are uncomfortable — I don’t want it to slip under the rug.”
While Osazuwa is the current liaison, some responsibility to pursue these changes also rests on the shoulders of incoming President-Elect Justin Monaco-Barnes who will assume Osazuwa’s responsibilities as of May 1.
“[Justin] has been very good at listening to what is happening… I’m trying to do this as best as I can so I don’t leave Justin in a very uncomfortable situation.”
“I recommended to Patrick [Deane] that the university should have Glenn talk about this. Glenn cannot hide, it is good for him to come out and have this conversation.”
Parking and Security Services has yet to reach out to the MSU about this conversation and has instead routed McMasters Public and Communications Department to address the situation.
“I recommended to Patrick that the university should have Glenn talk about this. Glenn cannot hide, it is good for him to come out and have this conversation.”
De Caire contacted The Silhouette after our initial editorial on his hiring [“On background checks,” Jan. 28, 2016] was released. After recent attempts to reach out to him, we were redirected to Gord Arbeau. He stated, “Any questions about the Director of Security and questions about the process in which he was hired would be referred to [him],” according to a recent policy implemented by the University during these past few weeks.
As the conflict surrounding De Caire’s hiring and request for firing develops, we hope to hear from the new Director himself in regards to his plans for his time at McMaster and his reaction to this motion from the student body.
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Michael Ryu
The Silhouette
A recently published study called “Bridge That Gap: Analyzing the Student Skill Index” puts into the spotlight a critical problem: students who have graduated from post-secondary education are unable to uphold the quality of work that employers expect. In fact, employers are experiencing an increasing divide between the standard of work they expect from students and the standard that students actually provide.
The study interviewed 2,000 18- to 24-year-old students enrolled in two- or four-year college programs, and 1,000 hiring managers. Students were asked whether they felt qualified to work in a professional environment while hiring managers were asked to evaluate the readiness of recent college graduates.
The results demonstrated that students tended to overestimate their abilities. 50 per cent of students answered that they felt completely prepared for professional environments, while hiring managers answered that they believed only 39 per cent of recent graduates were prepared to work in their respective fields.
Students and hiring managers were then requested to name factors they found to be most important in the hiring process. 45 per cent of students thought the name of their institution was a large factor, whereas only 28 per cent of hiring managers thought it was important. 77 per cent of students believed that personal connections would help them secure a job, while only 52 per cent of hiring managers stated that it was significant.
Qualities that most hiring managers held in high regard were the demonstration of an initiative to lead, participation in extra-curricular activities and the completion of a formal internship prior to graduation.
Lynn Stewart, the director of Outreach and Community Engagement of McMaster’s Engineering Faculty said, “For engineering students. The divide is less about technical work than… the ability of students to interpret and navigate… the professional workplace. When students are on an engineering internship, many will identify dealing effectively with people in the workplace as a more significant challenge than dealing with technical problems.”
This problem was not exclusive only to the engineering community but applied to students as a whole. 63 per cent of hiring managers found that graduates were very prepared to apply technical skills to the task at hand but were relatively lost when they had to apply soft skills.
“The communication, the team-building, the prioritization and time management skills are… skills that employers are wanting more from students,” explained Lisa Barty, manager of McMaster’s Science Career and Cooperative Education office.
“Employers have changed their expectations of new hires,” said Sandra Preston, Assistant Professor and Director of Experiential online pharmacy no prescription Education of Social Sciences. “Employers want students to be job ready for their specific job and aren’t as willing to invest in young people who are just learning to navigate the work world… I do believe the discrepancy [between employer expectations and student performance] exists, but it has more to do with students not fully understanding how their skills do relate to the ‘real world.’”
The responsibility of diminishing the divide does not fall upon only the academic institutions but also the students themselves. The study highlighted the lack of soft skills that most graduates demonstrate.
“Students are under immense pressure to succeed academically, and maybe what we’re seeing is that students are coming out of post-secondary institutions lacking some of these skills because they have not found that balance between academics and all the other available [opportunities] that are going to help develop those [soft] skills,” explained Barty.
Preston pointed out that, “there are many opportunities on campus for students to gain the kind of experiences that will help them translate their skills from the academic to the employment world.”
Stewart agreed, and said “[We should] encourage students to develop these professional skills, as much as this is possible while they’re in school: participate in extracurricular activities, push outside of the comfort zone to interact with people from diverse academic backgrounds… it’s not just about getting good grades, it’s about both personal and professional growth.”
