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Another August performance from Streep August: Osage County strikes an uncomfortable chord >> pg. 5
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CANADA’S ONLY DAILY STUDENT NEWSPAPER • FOUNDED 1906
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2014
VOLUME 107, ISSUE 54
Team Whelan releases self-evaluation LTC gripes Jesica Hurst ONLINE EDITOR In late January of last year, Team Whelan — then still a trio of candidates for their current positions on the University Students’ Council — released a 19-page platform consisting of goals they would like to accomplish if elected. Since their term started, the executive team has been working to make progress on many of these platform points, and will be making this progress public today. According to Jas Irwin, vicepresident communications for the USC, a detailed progress report will be released to students via e-mail and social media and published on westernusc.ca. Irwin provided an interim draft of the report to The Gazette, including details on what progress has been made for each original platform point, with a colour-coded ranking system — green for completed, yellow for in progress and red for items that haven’t been addressed. In an interview with The Gazette, Irwin explained that, to her knowledge, this is the first time the USC has released a progress report. “We’ve been putting an effort into keeping track of our progress internally, because the platform isn’t just a tool to get someone elected, it should be a series of actual commitments or goals for that person or slate’s team,” she said. “In the process of looking it over as a team, it occurred to me that we’ve never actually communicated that progress back to students.” “Before the elections start again, I thought it would be good for us to go, ‘This is what the progress has been, and this is what we’ve been able to achieve,’” she continued. “Not only will that reinforce to students that the elections are important, but will also be an educational tool to bring everyone up to speed.” According to the draft provided to The Gazette, the USC executive
has completed 42 per cent of Team Whelan’s original platform points, while 11 per cent of the platform points have either not been started yet, or didn’t work out. The executive gave 47 per cent of the platform points a “yellow,” which Irwin explained means they have made some progress, but still have more things they want to accomplish. When asked how the executive decided on which colour to assign to each platform point, Irwin explained that while it may not be a good formal criteria, she approached it as if she was explaining the points to her grandmother — the report is meant to be as honest and sincere as possible, she said, while having the understanding that every point on the platform is going to be an ongoing process. USC president Pat Whelan explained he was happy with the progress his team has made, saying he was excited that information on the progress would finally be able to reach the student body. “We report to council every council meeting, and we tell them exactly what we’ve been up to, what our priorities are and what our progress has been along the way,” Whelan said. “It can be difficult to sort of disseminate that information down to students all the time, so we really wanted to do a comprehensive report on what we’ve been doing, especially when it is related to what people put us in office to do.” Whelan explained this report isn’t about showing students that they have or haven’t done a good job — it’s more about showing confidence in the student government as an idea, especially with elections approaching next month. “In real-life politics people like to show they’re doing a good job because they’re hoping to be able to continue doing the job,” he said. “I think this is a really good way to say, ‘Look, this is our progress to this point, now let’s have a conversation about what lies in the next chapter of the USC.’”
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directed at Fontana Richard Raycraft NEWS EDITOR A mysterious flyer appearing at numerous London bus stops is urging frustrated LTC passengers to phone the mayor’s office to protest the service. It is unknown who posted the flyer, which suggests that LTC users should contact Mayor Joe Fontana any time a bus passes them by. It includes a phone number and an e-mail to the mayor’s office. “Last year during the budget process the mayor voted against buying larger buses. Let us tell him how much we want better public transit in the city. Contact him today and every day you are left waiting because public transit is underfunded,” the flyer states. While The Gazette spotted flyers on both on-campus and off-campus locations, the on-campus flyers had been removed by yesterday afternoon. Fontana spoke to The Gazette about the criticisms mentioned in the flyer, denying the accusations flatly. “They say I voted against larger LT, that’s not the truth,” Fontana stated. “Secondly, we are one of the most efficient transit systems in Ontario — I think we’re second best not only in terms of performance, we’re carrying 22 or 23 million passengers per year.” “I’ve never voted to reduce the LTC buses, and I’ve supported the [University Students’ Council] in order to make sure that their bus pass system could be expanded to include after-hour service,” he continued. Despite this, the mayor admitted that the service needed improvement. “The main question is do
Mike Laine GAZETTE
>> see LTC pg.3
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