Voter turnout for this year’s McMaster Students Union sat at 28 per cent, reflecting the first time in five years that less than 40 per cent of the undergraduate student population voted in an MSU presidential election.
While this year’s low voter turnout rate is a problem, it is unclear why this problem emerged in the first place.
As highlighted in a news article from the Silhouette’s Feb. 1 issue, the last time the MSU saw a similar voter turnout was in 2013, when 29.3 per cent of the MSU voted for former presidential candidate David Campbell.
This year’s low voter turnout rate is a problem as it weakens the MSU democracy and makes MSU policy less reflective of McMaster students’ voices. The MSU needs to do more to find out why this is the case.
While it would be easy to cite student apathy as the main factor, doing so would only be speculating as it would be impossible to prove that after five years of persistently high MSU presidential voter turnout rates, an arbitrary increase in the amount of apathy was the driving force behind this year’s drop in the number of votes. It also seems implausible.
According to a Maclean’s article from 2012, in 2009, the last year that the MSU presidential election was conducted via paper ballots as opposed to online voting, voter turnout sat at 13 percent. In the years following the transition from in-person to online voting, however, the turnout rate improved significantly.
This year’s low voter turnout rate is a problem as it weakens the MSU democracy and makes MSU policy less reflective of McMaster students’ voices.
After the McMaster Students Union made the transition to online voting, which enabled students to vote through their laptops, iPads or smartphones for the first time, turnout increased 22 per cent the following year, 24 per cent the next year, and 33 per cent the year after.
Other Canadian universities also witnessed this trend. For instance, the University of Windsor Students Alliance saw a 42 per cent voter turnout increase after it made the transition to online voting.
In addition, when they switched to online voting, Wilfrid Laurier University, Queen’s University, the University of Western Ontario, Simon Fraser University, Brock University and the University of Manitoba saw their respective turnout rates spike.
While the cause of these increases is elusive, the strong correlation suggests that the switch to online voting, which improved the convenience and accessibility of voting for students, significantly contributed to the increase in turnout rate.
To identify the most plausible explanation for this year’s low voter turnout, it is essential that we first look at concrete policy changes that have also been implemented at other universities.
If a major policy change, such as the switch from in-person to online voting, did not occur this year, we should examine McMaster-specific policy changes and other actions that have been taken.
For instance, in 2011, Queen’s University started to embrace “Do It Yourself” videos, which sparked renewed conversation about the election and likely contributed to the increase in voter turnout.
According to an article in the Varsity, at the University of Toronto, voter turnout rates typically increase when the presidential candidates invest more effort into campaigning and engaging students outside of the student union.
Rather than invoke voter apathy and claim that the only remedy is social change, we need to do more to understand what factors may have contributed to the turnout for this year’s election to make sure that it does not happen again.
Not to blame the candidates and say that the problem is not student apathy, but considering the trend at the University of Toronto, we should be asking ourselves: Did the candidates campaign in ways that they traditionally have not? Did they campaign at as many classes as they did last year? Did they all promote the debates? Did they show up at the debates? How did their debate performances compare those of the candidates from previous years?
Students may be apathetic and disengaged from the MSU, but we need to do more than complain about it.
By understanding how policy changes contribute to voter turnout, we can reverse those policies or prescribe new ones. It is only after we gain a more nuanced understanding of the problem that we can remedy it.
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After deliberating once again, the McMaster Students Union elections committee has decided to disqualify the unofficial president-elect, Ikram Farah. After tallying the votes once again, Muhammed Aydin is the new, unofficial president-elect.
As of Feb. 5, Farah has five business days to declare her intent to appeal to the elections committee. Rabeena Obaidullah, who was originally disqualified on Jan. 25 and whose disqualification was maintained, has five business days to declare her intent to appeal to the electoral appeal board. In all cases, the electoral appeal board’s decision is final.
Farah plans on appealing her disqualification to the elections committee in the coming days. Obaidullah also plans on appealing to the electoral appeal board.
According to the MSU’s announcement, the elections committee did not disqualify Farah on Jan. 25 as they did not believe the violations her campaign had accrued had affected the integrity of the election.
After deliberating on Feb. 5, the elections committee reconsidered some of the original complaints levied against Farah and decided she had violated two additional rules, resulting in her disqualification.
In particular, they ruled that Farah’s electronic media had not provided a sufficient link to the main Elections Department website. She was also penalized for knowingly violating a rule.
Farah plans on appealing her disqualification to the elections committee in the coming days. Obaidullah also plans on appealing to the electoral appeal board.
If a candidate has one “severe violation”, the elections committee considers disqualification. A candidate is only disqualified if their actions were deemed to have affected the integrity of the election.
According to the meeting minutes from the Jan. 25 meeting, the elections committee also considered disqualifying Aydin.
Aydin received two severe violations for sourcing campaign materials outside of the MSU Underground and for deliberately breaking a rule. They ruled that these infractions did not affect the election and maintained the legitimacy of his campaign.
They also discussed disqualifying Farah at this meeting, who received severe violations such as incurring more than $30 in fines for the same violation; a fine for deliberately breaking a rule, disrespecting the deputy returning officer of the MSU Elections department and for campaigning in bad taste.
According to the meeting minutes, Farah’s campaign team ignored the DRO when she asked them to stop using unapproved amplification equipment, something the committee deemed disrespectful towards elections officials. Farah was also fined for “bad taste” due to some of her campaign team smearing another candidate’s platform. During the Jan. 25 meeting, however, the committee felt that these violations had not swayed voters.
Following their Feb. 5 meeting, the committee ratified two more severe violations and deemed it grounds for disqualifications.
Obaidullah was disqualified during the Jan. 25 meeting because they believed her severe violations compromised the integrity of the election and gave her an unfair advantage.
In particular, they took issue with the violations concerning posts in closed Facebook groups, as this not only broke one of their main rules but also could not be traced unless people in those closed groups disclosed them to the elections committee.
Evidence presented to the election committee showed that multiple posts had been made on behalf of Obaidullah encouraging people to vote for her, a direct violation of one of the campaign rules. This violation, compounded by others such as mass messages and campaigning in bad taste, were the rationale for Obaidullah’s disqualification.
Before this election, presidential candidates have only been disqualified three other times. The last time a presidential candidate was disqualified was in the 2016 election, when candidate Sarah Jama was disqualified. Jama was disqualified for spending over the spending limit and for campaigning in bad taste. Following the appeals process, she was reinstated and came in second place.
For now, Aydin is the next MSU president-elect. The exact rationale behind Farah’s disqualification is still unknown as the elections committee has not yet released their meeting minutes from their Feb. 5 meeting. Until the appeals process is over, all results are unofficial.
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This is the first time since 2013 that less than 40 per cent of students voted in the McMaster Students Union presidential election. The number dropped almost 12 per cent from last year, and represents almost 3,000 students.
There are about nine months until the Hamilton municipal election. If you cannot get students to vote for their own union’s president, how do you ever expect to will them into voting in a municipal election that has less direct influence on them?
Time and time again, student needs are passed over by the city and the complaints pile up. The addition of bylaw officers as a knee-jerk response to Homecoming, the fines students have paid because of these officers, the lack of consultation with students on issues affecting them, the continued struggles with the HSR or the attempted shift in ward boundaries that would have split the student vote and diminished the effect of the $1.5 million Area Rating Reserve Fund for students all add up.
Most of these have been within the last few months. Ask yourself what you really expect to find if you look back at the city’s decisions since 2014. Why would the city cater to a population that does not vote for them?
Efforts after this immense drop in voter turnout need to start immediately. Communication has been a constant problem for the entire year as little improvement has been made since the Sept. 28, 2017 editorial, which stated as the kicker, “While the focus is on big projects, students need more updates on more things”. These results prove it.
All of the debates, the campaigning and the promises of each candidate were meaningless to a population that is apathetic or unaware of what the union does. It is a lot to ask a student who believes that barely anything has improved to listen to promises for the future.
That editorial also mentions, “The fortunate part for this paper is that many of our news articles, no matter how big or small, are breaking stories,” which still remains completely absurd. Despite the constant criticism in nearly every single issue against them or against issues on campus that still have yet to be fixed, the Silhouette has likely printed more positive news about the union than they have provided themselves. It is ridiculous.
The union needs to act immediately and not wait for Ikram Farah, the president-elect, to step in and save everything. Any union that fails to engage the people who pay for it is a failure, and losing the dedication of about 3,000 of them to apathy in a single year is a crisis.
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Lindsay D’Souza’s platform includes eight different pillars, but it remains unclear what new projects she plans to take on. This is especially the case with respect to her points concerning student wellness.
Under her student wellness pillar, it is unclear what D’Souza would do in addition to the work that has already been done by other groups on campus. For example, D’Souza says she will introduce case managers to student residences. A case manager’s role would offer additional support to community advisors and residence managers in special cases.
D’Souza wishes to introduce case managers under a three-year pilot and use the data from that experience to improve mental health strategies on campus.
This, however, ignores the work already done by the McMaster Students Union and Housing and Conference Services. According to Simon Wilmot, the Housing and Conference Services coordinator, there have been discussions planning the creation of a case manager for some time now. They are currently in the process of finalizing the job description.
It is currently unclear what D’Souza is actually advocating for here, considering that this project is already underway and that the pilot program would, at best, be one-third done by the time she would finish her term.
D’Souza is also unclear with regards to how she will make student voices heard with respect to how space will be used in the new Student Wellness Centre being built as a part of the Peter George Centre for Living and Learning, given that the university has already broken ground with that project. While consultations may still happen after the building is done, the building will not be opened until well after D’Souza’s term, if she is elected.
Similarly, D’Souza also states in her platform that she would like to aid the SWC in restructuring their website, but they are already currently in the process of doing so. D’Souza also plans on promoting WellTrack, a wellness app offered through the SWC that may help students manage their symptoms while in between appointments.
Most of the points D’Souza offers in her wellness pillar are either projects that are already in the works or conversations the MSU president is already expected to be a part of, given the advocacy aspect of the role. She does not make clear what she specifically would bring to these conversations nor does she bring forth any supplementary ideas that are not already being explored by either the student union or other campus groups.
This is a consistent pattern throughout D’Souza’s platform; while she offers projects here and there, many of her points only rehash projects already being discussed by various groups on campus, whether it be the Student Representative Assembly, the board of directors or external campus partners. She has offered little substance for students to work with, thus making it difficult to completely trust her platform.
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Though Kyle Pinheiro can only achieve the platform points in his “Food” pillar by working with McMaster Students Union and university stakeholders, Pinheiro has yet to consult them.
Pinheiro’s first platform point in this pillar is aimed at relocating Mac Bread Bin’s Food Collective Centre to a larger space. Currently, the FCC, the university’s on-campus food bank, operates out of the basement of the Refectory, which is near Bridges Cafe.
According to Taylor Mertens, the Director of Mac Bread Bin, the MSU Board of Directors have been pushing for a space expansion for the FCC. As such, the FCC has been able to secure a custom space on the third floor of the Student Activity Building, which is projected to be completed in 2020.
Although Mertens would support an effort to reduce the amount of time it takes for the FCC to be relocated to a larger facility, this is not an effort that Pinheiro will undertake should he be elected, at least not according to his platform, which contains no mention of the SAB deal.
Rather, Pinheiro expresses interest in relocating the FCC in the first place, not reducing the amount of time it will take to bring the existing deal to fruition. It should also be noted that Pinheiro never cites a location to which the FCC should move.
The second platform point in Pinheiro’s “Food” pillar involves developing a frozen food delivery service aimed at providing more food to Hamilton’s homeless shelters.
In his platform, Pinheiro specifies that this initiative would not detract from the current system, which allows McMaster students to take unused food at the end of each day. Instead, it would ensure that leftover food that would otherwise be thrown out would be donated to shelters on behalf of the MSU.
Pinheiro did not consult Mac Bread Bin on this platform point either.
Although Mertens says that this may be feasible, accomplishing this platform point would require working with Chris Roberts, the Director of McMaster Hospitality Services, who would decide which food items get donated to the community and which are provided to McMaster students.
When asked, Roberts said he was not consulted by Pinheiro. He expressed concern over the fact that Pinheiro included this initiative in his platform. According to Roberts, Pinheiro’s platform point addresses a complex issue Hospitality Services is looking into, both internally and in collaboration with Mac Bread Bin.
It should be noted that Pinheiro also failed to do sufficient research when it comes to his promise to develop an Avenue To Learn app.
Brightspace Pulse, an app connected to Avenue To Learn that allows students to track their courses, assignments, readings and grades, already exists. In his platform, Pinheiro does not address Brightspace Pulse and its capabilities.
Pinheiro considers his platform to be aimed at improving students’ lives “FASTR,” not slower. Without consultation with key MSU and university stakeholders, however, Pinheiro may need to amend his slogan.
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In the “Revamping Your Campus” pillar of her platform, Ikram Farah highlights her interest in increasing lighting in low-traffic locations on campus and in student-populated locations off-campus.
Farah argues that poor lighting conditions have decreased students’ sense of safety, noting the municipal government’s effort to upgrade street lighting on residential streets in Hamilton. This pillar of Farah’s platform is aimed at pushing the city of Hamilton to include more LED lighting on and off campus in the next year.
It should be noted that Farah’s promise to improve lighting on streets off-campus is not new, with former McMaster Students Union presidential candidate Aquino Inigo and 2014-2015 MSU president Teddy Saull inquiring about lighting in the past.
Last year, Ward 1 councillor Aidan Johnson stated in an email to the Silhouette that former councillor Brian McHattie encountered feasibility problems when residents pushed back against increased light pollution.
Although the replacement of all residential street and LED lights in Hamilton is currently being undertaken by the Hamilton municipal government, LED replacement for the off-campus McMaster area will not necessarily be prioritized.
According to Joey Coleman, a local journalist, the implementation of Farah’s off-campus objective is only feasible should the MSU have sway in City Hall. As such, the extent to which the McMaster area will be prioritized will depend on whether McMaster students vote en masse in the upcoming municipal election.
It should be noted that the MSU has struggled to incentivize students to vote in municipal elections in the past. During the 2014 Ward 1 election, for instance, only 40.7 per cent of all voters in the area cast a ballot for a total of 8,870 votes. McMaster's population of 26,780 undergraduates means if just half that number voted in the election, it would have equated to 151.0 per cent of the previous Ward 1 turnout.
Coleman states that the MSU president needs a plan to mobilize the student vote, particularly one that starts on May 1, in order to be effective. Nevertheless, a plan to increase civic engagement amongst McMaster students is not outlined in Farah’s platform.
In light of these facts, Farah’s promise seems elusive.
Moreover, in the “Revamping Your Campus” pillar of her platform, Farah also promises to make the campus more accessible to students who experience physical barriers.
Farah notes that areas on campus continue to be inaccessible, citing the need for more accessible pathways, roads, stairways and parking lots.
In her platform, Farah does not specify what her plan to improve physical campus accessibility will entail. Although she mentions that she has been communicating with McMaster’s director of maintenance about this platform point, Farah does not highlight specific policies or initiatives that she seeks to implement should she be elected.
While Farah does mention her interest in investing money into making university infrastructure more accessible, she does not highlight precisely how much money she aims to invest, where the funding will come from or whether the initiative will require a multi-year effort.
Overall, certain aspects of Farah’s platform do not seem feasible without better planning.
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One of Muhammed Aydin’s major platform points involves creating a landlord rating system, which would allow students to rate landlords and act as a measure to promote tenants’ rights. It is clear that Aydin has not checked with the current McMaster Students Union on what they have already done on this front.
In his Jan. 17 report to the Student Representative Assembly, MSU vice president (Education) Ryan Deshpande confirmed that the landlord wiki is already underway and should hold a soft launch by the end of the term.
In addition, the Municipal Affairs committee released the MSU Landlord Report that outlines the research they have compiled detailing the relationship various students have with their landlords. The report also discusses various different models of landlord rating systems used in different cities, such as Philadelphia and Toronto.
While it is true that these documents were only released once the presidential race began, it is clear that this project has been in the works for a long time. In his Oct. 25 report, Deshpande stated that he was working on this project with associate vice president (Municipal Affairs) Stephanie Bertolo and that the project would be up and running sometime this year. According to the MSU Landlord Report, the report was compiled sometime in December 2017.
Aydin’s platform points concerning housing do not offer anything outside of what the MSU is currently working on. While it would be fair to promise to continue previous board members’ projects, all the documents released by Deshpande and the Municipal Affairs committee point to landlord wiki project being done within 2017-2018 school year.
Such a gap in Aydin’s platform illustrates the lack of research into the type of work the MSU has already committed itself to. It should be noted that information about current MSU projects can be found on the MSU website under the SRA tab and is generally made available a few days before it is physically presented to the SRA.
Overall, Aydin’s platform points concerning housing have already been completed by the current board of directors.
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By: Vanessa Polojac
Rabeena Obaidullah’s candidacy is about breaking barriers in accessibility, integration and community. But for a platform built on student interest, it lacks certain aspects of consideration and confirmation.
Centering the platform around five pillars, Obaidullah focuses most of the first pillar on transportation with the extension of a Go bus route while also bringing the car-share service of UberPool to Hamilton and the McMaster community. Obaidullah’s platform fails to better the lives of students with these new transportation plans.
In principle, a significant number of students on campus reside in Ancaster, Hamilton Mountain, Stoney Creek and Waterdown where HSR service is not routine. This makes for a long commute to campus. Obaidullah did not specify any plans to improve Hamilton Street Railway.
Obaidullah promises to extend the 40 Go bus route that takes students directly from Toronto’s Pearson International Airport to the Main and Paisley bus stop. Obaidullah argues that this bus route only works for students who live near the Westdale area, opposed to those who live on campus and in other student neighbourhoods where this route is not as accessible.
Obaidullah is proposing for this route to stop at McMaster University’s Go terminal to benefit international students, out-of-province students and students from different parts of Ontario. Obaidullah has not specified why she has focused on the 40 route, considering that many popular bus routes such as the 16 route to Union Station also do not service the McMaster University bus terminal.
Additionally, Uber already exists in Hamilton as a single-occupancy service. Ride-sharing options are not currently present in the city. UberPool pairs questions going to destinations close to each other to allow users to share the cost. It currently exists in larger cities such as Toronto.
The service has had many conflicts and difficulties in the city of Toronto and GTA with a delayed timing of arrival as well as payment issues. In an UberPool, both passengers will pay 20 per cent less than a standard UberX fare during off-peak hours and roughly five to 10 per cent during the night, according to Uber’s own calculations.
While bringing UberPool is a possibility under Hamilton’s new licensing laws for Uber, it remains unclear whether or not Uber would bring such a service to Hamilton, given that they have only rolled out UberPool in major urban spaces like Toronto.
With all of this said, Obaidullah does not list any points in her platform to improve the HSR despite students paying for an HSR U-Pass.
Overall, Obaidullah’s platform points focus on marketplace solutions, but do not address the difficulties of working with non-campus partners nor does she address how she plans on working with current community partners.
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Wong’s initial platform was centred around creative ideas of transparency, sustainability and inclusion. His main points reflected upon demonstrating the McMaster Students Union’s usefulness as an organization by making both advocacy work and financial plans conducted by the organization transparent to students, in addition to reviewing the funding behind Light Up the Night.
His adjacent platform initially saw two points, which included the replacement of all walkways on campus with canals and to block all stairways during inclement weather to ensure that other stairways did not feel left out.
Wong has since added six more platform points to his adjacent platform since campaigning began on Jan. 15. These points include suggesting a more modern motto for the university, revisiting the McMaster Student Absence Form policy and changing policies surrounding the length of SRA meetings.
Further, Wong hopes to ensure that students have “thicc” toilet paper across campus, research the logistics behind replacing all university and MSU administration staff with robots and enact a 24/7 monitoring of all microwaves on campus. Wong has also added a suggestions tab to his website in order for students to add their own ideas.
Wong’s changing platform demonstrates that his candidacy could have benefitted from further discussion with the student body.
One point, in particular, raises concerns as to whether Wong had conducted proper research within the undergraduate student population. His “Save Our Lakes” point raises serious concern over student safety.
Wong’s Save Our Lakes campaign sees the replacement of all walkways on campus with canals. Citing that this action will double as the restoration and preservation of our local environment, Wong and his team believe that it is time for McMaster to cave to the inevitable in light of recent weather trends.
This proposal is arguably a logistical nightmare. Primarily, only 56 per cent of North Americans can perform the main five swimming skills and over the past two decades, there have been over 10,511 accidental drownings in Canada. Wong has not commented on any precautionary measures that the MSU will take to ensure the safety of all students while implementing this platform point.
Further, temperatures have hit record-breaking lows in recent months, which raises concern as to how McMaster’s Facility Services will maintain said canals during winter months. It also raises concerns as to how students will navigate their way to and from classes on these canals during winter months, and in general. Again, Wong has not commented on whether the MSU will provide skates, gondolas or ice picks.
Overall, a major critique of Wong’s campaign is the lack of planning and the ever-changing nature of his platform.
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Kirstin Webb’s candidacy surrounds three pillars that include on-campus issues, community development and a collective between the MSU and the McMaster student body.
While these three pillars reflect upon issues that McMaster students face in general, Webb’s platform suffers from a lack of concrete planning and research while lacking sufficient coverage as to how each platform point will be implemented. Using tentative language to explain her platform points, it seems as though there is no concrete plan to put into practice.
Considering her “Community” pillar, in particular, Webb focuses primarily on student safety off campus while building a relationship with the city of Hamilton. Within this pillar, Webb calls for a #SaferMac through a safety campaign and through the exploration of adding safety poles within the community.
Although this may be a strong idea on paper, it is regretful that Webb had not addressed a consultation or collaboration with campus Security Services or Hamilton Emergency services to fully assess the feasibility in implementing this platform point.
The role of security poles on campus is for student protection and assistance on campus. When a phone is activated, Security Services is called and a special constable is dispatched to the scene if needed. The idea being that if help is needed on campus, there is help on the way.
McMaster is currently in the process of installing new assistance phones throughout campus. Over the next few years, McMaster will see 55 new assistance phones complete with new technologies and infrastructure principles, including a public paging system and a CCTV unit mounted on top.
Further, campus security is only able to respond to calls made from security poles on campus. If there is an emergency issue off campus, students are expected to call 911 to reach Hamilton’s Emergency Services who will then dispatch the appropriate emergency response team.
With McMaster’s current plan of implementing new assistance phones across campus and the overall unnecessary nature of additional safety poles off campus, this aspect of Webb’s #SaferMac campaign seems to be lacking a feasible structure of implementation, consultation and collaboration with on-campus resources.
Overall, Webb’s goals are limited to a campaign that is geared more towards smaller initiatives, rather than making a substantial change through more impressive projects.
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