6
Feature
www.thesil.ca
Krista Schwab News Editor
Patrick Kim Assistant News Editor
Ana Qarri Opinions Editor
Christina Vietinghoff Features Editor
TEDDY SAUL, MSU PRESIDENT
Thursday, November 27, 2014
MSU DIRECTOR
Teddy Saull is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the McMaster Students Union. As the spokesperson for the MSU, the President represents the student body and advocates for its needs to the university administration, Hamilton community, and national organizations. Outlined in a letter to the MSU at the beginning of his term, Saull’s mission statement can be summarized with two key ideas: community and a focus on the positive. This has indeed come to define many of his goals, and there have been varying degrees of success in his initiatives.
JACOB BRODKA, VP ADMINISTRATION Jacob Brodka is the Vice President Administration and he is responsible for supporting the managers that operate the Student Union’s services. He is also one of the key coordinators of Welcome Week and assists SRA members with training and projects. The VP (Admin) is also unique in having discretion to pursue projects of personal interest like sustainability or leadership development. His enthusiasm has led to 23 objectives, leaving him with insufficient time to dedicate to many of the important administrative tasks of the VP (Admin), like providing year plan templates to PTMs. Jacob’s year plan was only added to the VP Admin page on the MSU website when The Silhouette contacted him about it on November 25th, eight months into his term.
PLATFORM LEGEND COMPLETED
CANCELLED
STATUS OF PLATFORM POINTS •
MSU Clubza
•
Participatory Budgeting
•
Exam upgrades
•
Off-campus safety
•
Peer Tutoring Network
COMMUNICATION
Saull is largely absent on social media: he is not present on Facebook, and his Twitter is only used as a personal account. “I think students would probably appreciate it if I was on Facebook, because then you could just search me up and send me a message... [but] it’s not the way I like to communicate,” he said. “I think people get the real version of me when we meet, rather than the quick, censored, typed version.” But as the voice and representative of the entire student body, the President should have better and more convenient avenues to communicate with students than through email and in the Student Centre. Although Saull has taken up the unique initiative of engaging students in the Student Centre for an hour once a week, better methods could be pursued.
DELAYED
FULFILLING JOB DESCRIPTION
In his own mission statement, Saull described his primary goal in bringing together the community. He’s been successful in bringing small initiatives and improvements to students in CLUBZA and exam upgrades. Meanwhile, his largest plans are still in progress; the outcome of the expanded Student Life Enhancement Fund and Frost Week will give a better picture of his work as President. This year, SLEF has seen a 400 percent increase in student idea submissions, so the returns appear to be positive. But Saull has yet to prove himself on his biggest initiatives and ideas in bringing the community together. His approach to community has indicated a somewhat insular view of the student body, and the response to the year end celebration was a demonstration of the misplaced direction he initially struck. Overall, the unique, and perhaps inefficient choices Saull has made in terms of engaging the community have yet to hit their mark. Although he has had success in achieving his platform points so far, Saull’s biggest promises – Frost Week, peer tutoring network, and now the year end celebration – are still on the horizon.
BRODKA’S FINAL GRADES
STATUS OF PLATFORM POINTS
ACHIEVING PLATFORM GOALS: B-
•
Revamp MSU Committee workspace
COMMUNICATION: C
•
New Welcome Week rep training
FULFILLING JOB DESCRIPTION: C
•
Conduct space audit in November
•
Facilitate and collect year plans from part time managers
OVERALL:
C
SAUL’S FINAL GRADES ACHIEVING PLATFORM GOALS: A COMMUNICATION: BFULFILLING JOB DESCRIPTION: B OVERALL:
B+
•
Conduct sustainability audit
•
Text-based peer support
•
Women and Gender Equity Network launch
COMMUNICATION
Communication with the VP (Admin) has been problematic. Part-time Managers report difficulty getting in touch with Brodka by email, and despite an open door policy, some say they have difficulty finding him in his office even when his calendar says he is unoccupied. During the VP elections Brodka promised untraditional office hours, like working at the
seating area in MUSC to engage students. Although he did this during the summer, since school started he hasn’t done this as much. “That’s very tough, it’s a lot easier said than done,” said Brodka. On the positive side, Brodka is said to always be courteous and respectful in person and willing to put aside his work to talk to people that visit his office, when he’s there.
FULFILLING JOB DESCRIPTION
Brodka has not accomplished some key responsibilities of the VP (Admin). For example, parttime managers were not asked to create year plans. “The number one priority for someone in this position is to simply work with your parttime managers to make sure their services are going well and that they feel supported,” said Brodka. However, some part-time managers report not feeling this sense of support. He also acknowledges that he hasn’t taken on any special projects of areas of passion like past VPs, instead taking on many small projects. “Something like working to get text-based peer support or a number of smaller things that were incorporated into my year plan,” he said.