December 07, 2004

People of Laurier, I’m writing to let you know that I love you and that the revolution has been a failure. For eight months I tried to transform the Students’ Union into a more democratic and transparent organization, but despite my efforts and schemes little has changed. Today, the Union remains an obtuse organization that does little to adequately address student issues. However, this report will not advocate the violent overthrow of the existing student government. Rather, I want to tell you about the challenges the board faced this year, and how I as a director fulfilled my responsibilities and my platform. I want to tell you why I still have hope for meaningful change and a more progressive Union.

Challenges:

VP hiring has been a major concern, and not just because the board acts mainly as a rubber stamp. This year’s resignation of the VP: Student Activities has shown us that the existing hiring policies are muddled and ineffective. Consequently, I have asked for increased transparency and have identified several problems with the current policies. The motion I presented to the board did not pass but the debate is far from over.

Volunteer hiring has also been problematic this year; many returning volunteers have reacted negatively to the STARR hiring process because it doesn’t take previous WLUSU experience into account. I have gone to extreme lengths to voice volunteer concerns, and have strongly supported the motion introduced by Mr. David Alexander directing the VP: Human Resources to undertake a critical review of the WLUSU hiring process.

Employee satisfaction has been another contentious issue, especially since a number of WLUSU employees have publicly voiced their concerns. I have repeatedly pushed the management committee to find ways of gauging employee satisfaction through anonymous surveys. Though there was a lot of resistance to this idea initially, during the last board meeting the VP:HR mentioned that satisfaction surveys seemed more attractive.

Cuts in entrance scholarships, the RezNet service, and the Turret underage fiasco have also been representational issues which quickly fizzled in the hands of the board. In each case I passionately spoke about the severity of the issues, but after weeks of haggling the board simply returned to the status-quo.

Overall, I tried to fulfil my role as director by bringing student concerns to the forefront and advocating increased transparency. Even when my concerns were ignored, I articulated my views passionately to students. I did my best to inform people of upcoming issues through blogs, forums, and newspapers, thus fulfilling my election platform. I have tried to involved you, the people of Laurier, in a conversation about democracy and sometimes I succeeded.

If we can keep this conversation alive, people of Laurier, we can resolve many of the challenges above. Demand action, become politically involved, and your Union will evolve in the right direction. Engaging the public in political discourse is my main goal for my remaining four months in office. Hopefully, idealism is not entirely dead.