Sing the anthem. Raise the flag. Do, uh, a salute or whatever.

Because in a week’s time, McMaster will be host to pageantry a year in the making. With shades of incandescent green and eyesore yellow, MUSC will look less like a dirty zoo and more like a colourful, dirty zoo. Election campaigns will parade into classes in order to win the votes of people who don’t know an election is going on, who couldn’t name the current president of the MSU, and who are wondering if they are in the right class in the first place. Cheers will hiccup across campus, songs will blare, and the world will revolve around the halls of McMaster, if only for a few people.

But in between the screams and badgering, the prodding to vote for one candidate over another, some of you won't share the buzz on campus. You'll instead feel like you are but a piece on an indiscriminate checkers board, a vote who is drowning in competing ideas, and though you are you, you alone is not important enough.

Let’s do something about that gnawing apathy. Let’s make you fight against it all by becoming it all: Let’s run for the MSU Presidentials together.

I know, I know. Why would you want to do that? You don’t know jack shit about jack shit, talking to people turns you into an unsettling, sweaty mess, and besides, look at you: you’re a meat-wagon wrapped in unwashed sweatpants, a mustard-stained t-shirt, and your hair is a knot even a Scout hasn’t seen.

But that’s the point: you often convince yourself you’re a loser already – the blemish of mustard is your proof – and the first way to sweep the Presidentials is knowing that it takes losing in order to win. Luckily, you’re already half way there.

Next is your platform, or more importantly, the lack thereof. In a few weeks time, no one will care what you say. There will be no accountability or follow-up. You’ll win, you’ll spend a year waffling around, and boom, just as you’re about to pick a pen because someone shuffled outside your office door, you’ll be off doing something else with your resume padded nicely.

So promise only the very absurd. Promise big, grand things. Promise gold, qualify that you meant silver, and give nothing but dirt.

The next step is simple: smile everywhere. The shower? Smile. A photograph? Smile. Pooping? Smile. You need to convince everyone that with pearly whites that look like heaven’s Pearl Gates, you’re happy, even and perhaps especially, when you shit.

I’ll admit that your face will find itself constipated more often than not, and you might not be able to find reasons to grin. You’re unhappy after all; that’s why you’re going to be knee-deep in this election in the first place – you want to change things to make them better for yourself and others, you want people to depend on you, and you want to belong to something greater than yourself.

Yet these elections will wear you out. You’ll be exhausted. And with all the people around you vying for your attention, with all the banners and speeches and impossible demands, you’ll feel lonely even though you might not be alone.

But this emptiness in a world that seems so full of life is not trivial because the next step in winning these MSU elections is being able to lie. Throughout the snafu, you’ll need to string together mendacities that convince others and yourself most of all. People will say, “Your campaign colour is blue; isn’t that depressing.” And you’ll reply, “Is it?” They’ll say, “It is.” You’ll say, “Isn’t the world gray, though? Aren’t things never black and white?” And the person will clap and you’ll be victorious in a few weeks and then you’ll think back and remind yourself that you don’t actually know if things are black or white. You were lying. You are lying. You have become a lie.

Remember, though, that you’re going to be the next MSU president. It’s a sacrifice in order to help, right? You’re willing to forgo truth if it means that others can have it eventually. You’re a hero. A god damn saint. And in the next year, you’ll be our leader.

So here’s my, uh, salute or whatever we do here, President.

Photo: last year's presidential pub night. c/o Myles Frances, The Silhouette

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.

 

On Nov. 5, about 100 students and community members gathered to show support for gender and sexual diversity on campus. The annual MacPride march, organized by the Queer Students Community Centre (QSCC), started in North Quad and made its way to BSB and then Mills Lobby. Andrew Pettitt, from McMaster's department of athletics and recreation, and Rosalyn from The Well in downtown Hamilton addressed a mixed crowd on the importance of the event.

Photos by Sarah Janes.

The McMaster Students Union has released audits of its financial statements, showing the state of the union’s money from the past academic year.

The MSU, a multi-million dollar organization, is responsible for maintaining a number of services and organizations across campus, which is done through the accumulation of student fees from each full-time undergrad. It collects additional funds through its businesses, including Union Market and the Underground.

“KPMG combed through all the financials of the past twelve months,” explained MSU VP (Finance) Jeff Doucet of the process. The external auditing firm was called in, as part of standard procedure, to assess the organization’s financial health.

The audits were publicly released at the end of October and were put up for discussion at a meeting of the Student Representative Assembly on Nov. 3. Representatives took the opportunity to pick through the details of the reports, asking questions of the VP Finance before ultimately voting to approve the documents.

The MSU finished the 2012-13 academic year with a surplus of more than $300,000. While this represents only about three per cent of the MSU’s operating budget of $12,235,578, as a registered not-for-profit organization it is meant to be completely revenue neutral.

Doucet acknowledged the need for a plan for the extra money, as recommended by the external auditors.

“We need an actual capital growth plan. That’s a plan we don’t necessarily have right now,” he said.

While the organization as a whole ran a surplus for the year, certain services within the MSU saw a deficit in 2012-13, among them the Emergency First Response Team, the McMaster dental plan, and Compass Information Service.

Compass, for example, saw a drop in revenue of about $600,000 and ran an overall deficit of $30,486.

“GO Transit has moved to Presto cards, which is very convenient for students, but obviously it’s resulted in less revenue for Compass—when we sell tickets at Compass we’re earning a percentage of revenue,” explained Doucet.

On the other hand, McMaster’s campus radio station, CFMU, finished the year with a surplus of $193,785, a significant portion of the organization’s revenue, most of which comes from a portion of student fees. However, McMaster students voted in January 2013 to decrease the levy given to CFMU from $17.45 per student to $12.50, which is buy viagra soft tabs expected to eliminate the large surplus in future.

The results of the audit are publicly available, accessible on the MSU website.

 

At a Public Works meeting on Nov. 4, MSU president David Campbell and VP (Finance) Jeffrey Doucet briefed councillors on the MSU's proposed improvements to HSR service. The MSU is exploring a 12-month HSR student discount or a student opt-in during the summer, in addition to expanded service on the 51 route.

The MSU-HSR agreement expires every three years and is currently under renegotiation.

The MSU's proposed changes would cost roughly $400,000 more, according to the HSR's estimate. Negotiations are underway regarding how much of the cost would be shouldered by students and how much the City would invest. The results of the negotiation, including potential student fee changes, are expected to go to referendum in January 2014 during the MSU presidential election.

Before Campbell and Doucet began their presentation at City Hall this morning, some committee members questioned whether the MSU should address the committee with negotiations underway.

"I just need some clarity on the delegation - are we in negotiations with McMaster?" councillor Powers asked. "This is very awkward."

"You're going to have people who are negotiating with the City speak their case in public while binding the City from speaking their case in public," another councillor said.

The meeting's chair clarified that the committee was only to listen to the presentation and not take action.

After the initial confusion, Campbell emphasized that the MSU wanted "to give an update on the work [they are] doing with transit as it relates to retention in the city."

Currently, students pay $126.15 for an 8-month bus pass effective between September and April. Summer students may choose to buy a discounted HSR pass at $71 per month.

"Students are very happy with the value of our bus pass...but students have indicated to us that they want to invest more into transit to target enhanced service to the campus during the day as well as summer service. Those are the two issues students want us to work on," Doucet said.

The MSU also proposed that a further discount on summer bus passes would give students incentive to stay in Hamilton during the summer and consider staying in the city long-term.

When asked about summer student demographics, Doucet said about 6,000 students took summer classes last year, but most were taking just one or two courses.

"We see a lot of students getting research-type grants and who are working on campus but might not be in classes," he added.

During the question period, councillors were interested in whether enhanced service would lead to an increased student presence outside of Westdale.

"Students staying around in the summer - it's a huge factor in them being able to see the value in living in the city long-term," Campbell said. "We think the two main obstacles to students staying around in the summer are jobs and then the difficulty of getting to the jobs."

The MSU will meet with HSR representatives later this week to discuss their proposal submitted in August.

 

Watch the live-feed from the SRA meeting on Sept. 29. The bulk of bylaw 5 discussion begins at 40:35. For the full video feed, click here.

After a tumultuous week in the world of student politics, the question of ancillary student fees has been put on hold.

The proposed amendments to a McMaster Students Union bylaw which would see five student groups go to triennial review by referendum did not pass at the meeting of the Student Representative Assembly on Sept. 29.

The amendments, proposed by the Finance Committee under the leadership of Commissioner Daniel D’Angela and with the support of VP Finance Jeff Doucet, sought to bring greater financial transparency and accountability to the set of non-MSU, non-university administered groups.

Each of the affected groups was given an opportunity to voice their concerns at the meeting.

“We think there are better, more effective ways to bring conversations with students, and to create more meaningful conversations,” said Kathryn Chan, co-president of Engineers Without Borders, to those present. She explained that her organization was interested in transparency, though not through what they considered time-consuming referendums.

“We think that [the referendums] come at a cost of decreased quality in the work that we do,” Chan said.

Miranda Clayton, president of the McMaster Marching Band, echoed Chan’s sentiment.

“While the changes have good intentions, they ultimately harm the groups involved,” she said.

The McMaster Marching Band was granted a student levy to the amount of $0.90 per student for the 2013-2014 academic year after winning a referendum in January 2013.

Although each of the five groups opposed proposed bylaw framework, the discussion highlighted that issues with the amendments were rooted in the drafting process.

While the groups felt a referendum was taxing, Doucet and the Finance Committee believed such a model was best for maintaining group autonomy.

“All these groups are very different, so…it’s hard to come up with a solution,” he explained. “But one thing they all had in common was going to referendum to get student money.”

Lexi Sproule, co-president of EWB, felt that the perceived lack of consultation was a miscommunication between groups.

“It’s a pretty classic misunderstanding between people making strategy decisions and people on the ground.”

After nearly two hours of discussion, the decision was made to send the proposal back to the finance committee for a more thorough consultation process.

D’Angela explained that the Finance Committee has now asked for policy suggestions from each group on “how to improve students democratic input into the fee” and a period of consultation is expected to follow.

 

Sophia Topper
The Silhouette

It’s report card time, but not for students. On Sept. 24, the Justice Center for Constitutional Reforms published its annual report on freedom of speech on Canadian campuses.  The report grades both administrations and student unions on their policies and actions.

The McMaster administration received a B for policy, and a D for its actions. These grades are largely due to the discrepancies between the Statement on Academic Freedoms and the Student Code of Conduct, as well as various other anti-discrimination policies. To receive an A, an institution must have "no prohibition on speech which a listener might find ‘offensive, ‘discriminatory’, ‘disrespectful’, ‘inappropriate’, or ‘creating a negative environment.’”

The grading methods, however, are controversial. Gord Arbeau, Director of Public and Community Relations for McMaster, stated that “there does not appear to be a clear connection between grades and the university.” He also noted that “this was the first [the University] had heard of the report…[JCCF] did not attempt to contact anyone at the university to discuss our approach.”

Indeed, the incident that the report centered on, where students were prevented from displaying an “Israeli Apartheid” banner, was in 2008, despite the fact that this is an annual report.

President of JCCF, John Carpay, revealed that for the University or the McMaster Students Union to improve their grades, they would need to release a public statement apologizing for their handling of prior incidences, or to “reverse existing policies.”

Arbeau reputed that the University has “clear commitments” to both the principles of free speech and of ending discrimination, and continued that the Statement on Academic Freedoms and Student Code of Conduct “rely on and inform each other.”

The MSU received Cs for both policy and action. Their grades were also based on the “Israeli Apartheid” incident, and the report alleges that the MSU bases their decisions on allowing free speech on the Human Rights and Equality Services office. It also draws attention to MSU’s policy on advertising and promotion, and accuses the MSU of wording it such that it could be used to censor clubs.

David Campbell, MSU President, describes the conflict between harassment prevention and freedom of speech as “difficult, that’s the crux of the issue…[but] we feel very confident in our policies.”

He also defended the MSU’s use of Human Rights and Equality Services in an advisory capacity, and responded that he didn’t find the JCCF’s critique “quite fair.”

“[Human Rights and Equality Services] doesn’t dictate any outcomes… the final decision rests with us,” he said. “[But] they do have expertise in the field”.

Despite the JCCF’s criticisms, both McMaster and the MSU received passing grades, unlike 51% of Canadian public universities. McMaster’s grades have been stagnant for the last two years, and neither the University nor the MSU is eager to revamp their policies by removing bans on discriminatory language.  Without a single university attaining an A average, it seems like McMaster will keep surfing the grade curve.

Photo credit: Silhouette stock photo

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.”