I attended the second MSU presidential debate yesterday at 12:30pm in Gilmour [...]]]> There are nine candidates for MSU president this year which is quite a turn out compared to previous years. MacInsiders has a few threads dedicated to the election so I encourage you to check out their site for links to the candidate’s website/Facebook groups.

I attended the second MSU presidential debate yesterday at 12:30pm in Gilmour Hall 111 and took some notes on my revived Pocket PC. Here they are somewhat unedited (there were a lot of short forms so I expanded them).

Please note: These are transcribed from my short form notes. Anything that is italicized is a comment I added while writing this post. If you would like to add bacon to this post click here.

Sam Minniti, Executive Director of MAPS welcomes everyone and explains the rules. This will be a question period rather than an actual debate (I was told earlier that it would be too difficult to have an actual debate between all the candidates). The candidates will have a minute thirty for opening and closing remarks and one minute for answering questions.

Opening Remarks

Matt Terry

• Has a four step plan for Quarters
• Wants to cut student fees and give money back

Matt Hopper

• Quarters needs to control liquor sales to stop losing money

C.J. Smith

• Fix Quarters underachievement
• Set up a book swap
• Make campus more environmentally friendly
• Keep HSR on campus

James Lim

• Giggles and laughs when he stood up but didn’t say anything of importance

Greg Elvikis

• Looking to bring accountability to MSU et. al.
• MSU needs strong leadership
• He was reading off this paper a lot and stumbled a few times

Vishal Tiwari

• Wants a water bottle free campus (pointed out he had an aluminum bottle) by offering refill stations
• Support for community outreach programs through funding
• Review of Quarters

Joy Singh

• Stronger sense of community
• Bring wind and solar power to the student centre

Mitch Zinally

• Corruption in the MSU will be stopped

Florence Prabhu

• Commented that she was last in order of speakers (candidates drew numbers at the beginning to determine seat position)
• The HSR service is a big problem that needs to be worked on

QUESTION 1

(paraphrased) What issues would you advocate on behalf of students?
MH

• Restrictions must be put in place on student housing around campus

CJS

• Need to find a bargaining chip with the university (i.e. something we can hold against them)
• Limit the number of students in a house

GE

• Advocating for lower tuition is a waste of time
• Need to concentrate on controllable costs: books and courseware by talking to the university and profs
• Having a housing licence will increase the cost of rent to students
• Reiterates that there is no use in advocating for lower tuition

VT

• Mentions he has experience advocating (has met with MPs and MPPs in Ottawa)
• Asking for money in today’s economy is not an option, instead let’s use what we have now
• Mentioned limit of working hours to receive OSAP should be raised or eliminated

JS

• Need better value for our tuition money from our education

MZ

• Need the right people fighting for student’s money

FP

• Need cheaper courseware by printing elsewhere (off campus/Underground)
• We depend on buses so they need to stay on campus; bus terminal is the only option right now, need to find another option
• Advertise bursaries and health plan
• No advocacy is needed

MT

• Not realistic to expect thousands of dollars cut off tuition
• Why not go to alumni like the university does when it needs money

Question 2

(paraphrased) How would you fix the Quarters problem? Give specific examples of actions to be taken.

CJS

• Not the only campus pub which is losing money; many others have deficits so they close
• Current management needs to be replaced

JL

• Asked how many people there, by show of hands, are not involved with the MSU, SRA or a campaign team. Went on to comment that it was an insanely small number of people. I would estimate maybe 10-15 hands went up
• “Shut the fucking place down. I would just shut it the fuck down!” He then proceeded to hit his water bottle off the table

GE

• Managers not surprised at the losses
• Need to cut down on staff (too many bouncers)
• New food and beverage manager position within the MSU will help with this
• Make it a study place

VT

• The current exec team cut down Q’s losses by $30,000
• I know who to get to look at the business model to fix it.
• Do an internal review and get student input

JS

• Would not mix studying and bar unless students wanted it
• Need more accountability from managers
• Control sales and losses, make it a hot spot for food
• Promotions and outside sponsorships

MZ

• Need accountability
• Mocked idea to make Quarters a study space
• Student body doesn’t revolve around alcohol
• Experience promoting events; promotes MES events and they are sold out

FP

• Don’t want profits but we want it to break even
• More theme nights (poker, mahjong)
• Find a way to bring people to Quarters

MT

• Has 4 point plan
• 1. Meet with all stakeholders
• 2. Meet with campus groups and bring them into Quarters
• 3. Have a student marketer; new job position
• 4. Reassess business model so its not in red.

MH

• Experience running bars
• Need inventory control and student promotions
• Want people to want to be there
• Separate restaurant from bar/club; make Quarters a good restaurant during the day and a good place to party at night

Question 3

Pick one campaign idea from a competitor and explain if you agree or disagree and why?
JL

• Overpass idea. We should be able to cross the street ourselves. We’re in university now

GE

• Agree with replacing Quarters management

VT

• Studying at Quarter’s, my idea is better than the others’ because I want to expand services such as wifi
• Not make it a strict study space

JS

• Don’t give cash straight to students. Invest it in long term projects.

MZ

• Studying at Quarters? “Do a shot then do another calculus question? Do you guys really think this is a good idea?”
• No light, not a good studying space
• Use the MSU offices instead if you want more study space for students

FP

• Hope overpass was in jest
• Want water bottle refill station
• Don’t know what to do with the surplus
• Don’t see Quarters as a study area

MT

• Don’t agree with the water bottle refill stations
• “Already have them, they’re called water fountains”
• No use changing Quarters during the day

MH

• Overpass idea was his. In Calgary they have overpass over high way near university
• Disagrees with making health plan opt in; students need it
• Health plan one of the best in Canada

CJS

• Refilling water bottles? Bigger issues to deal with instead such as recycleable coffee cups at Union Market
• Disagree with the saying not doing philosophy

Question 4

Federal budget: Do you know what happened in it and what will you lobby for from the amounts set aside for education?

GE

• Accessibility to education for under represented groups
• Did not watch / read about the federal budget

VT

• We’re in a recession
• Text n Tech grant came from lobbying
• Need to push for more funds for students

JS

• Quality of education must go up
• Put more money towards education not so much into research

MZ

• Go for what you believe in
• Get something you want

FP

• Happy she’s not the only one that hasn’t looked into the budget
• Will devote more time to learning about these issues as president; has tests and assignments now
• Make more materials optional rather than required to save money

MT

• Spending money is a waste if we don’t get a good return from it
• The budget wasn’t kind to students

MH

• There are people in the MSU more educated on the subject that he’s looking forward to working with
• Doesn’t know enough on the subject but will look into it and post on his website

CJS

• Ask for policy through advocacy
• Ask for tuition freeze not necessarily a reduction
• Use older editions of textbooks

JL

• The federal budget is out of scope for the MSU president, other things to worry about closer to home

At this point the person who asked the question wanted to answer but was denied

QUESTION 5

This question was from the Executive editor of the Silhouette
Neither he nor student body impressed with candidate feeling good about her and the others’ ignorance of the federal budget.

Should students be encouraged to move downtown and how can we have a better image in the community?

VT

• Help out outreach programs with funds set aside
• Encourage students to explore Hamilton and if this means living downtown that’s ok

JS

• Westdale must realize how important we are to their community
• We provide services in the community not just trouble
• If students are encouraged to move downtown, let’s improve quality of housing

MZ

• Downtown is not a good solution
• Need to work with city to integrate McMaster community with downtown

FP

• Not the job of the MSU to tell students where to live
• Students shouldn’t walk in a dark alley at night
• We have SWHAT to help walk students home
• Support Hamilton by going to the Farmer’s market
• Already doing a lot for the community

MT

• Only candidate from the city
• Downtown is a great place; Bulldogs next closest thing to Habs
• Community outreach is a good program presented earlier in the year but other groups

MH

• If students move downtown we need to increase the number of buses coming in
• Need more communication between between MSU and Westdale community
• Control parties

CJS

• Housing bylaws limiting number of students per house will force students downtown
• Students do things for the community that are not appreciated (i.e. shovel neighbour’s driveway)
• Burst the bubble program was a great idea

JL

• Wants to give his time to the person who asked the question about the federal budget

GE

• SOCS random acts of kindness program
• Community must know students are helping and good for it
• It will encourage students to stay in Hamilton after grad will improve

Closing Statements

FP

• Need cheaper courseware and student services that don’t lose money
• Recycle pizza boxes
• Want to represent students

MZ

• This is all a popularity game
• Need to question why the problems exist in the first place
• Need more accountability in the MSU

JS

• Need services to break even
• A green student centre; wind/solar powered
• Convenient HSR services and 24/7 study areas
• Better community relations
• Better healthcare

VT

• Cut spending
• He’s done his research
• Win or lose he will follow up with his ideas

JL

• Sorry there aren’t enough students to be representative of the majority. Not even 1% of the student population

CJS

• Set up a bookswap
• Improve recycling
• Run Quarters well
• Cut president pay; MSU pres is not a job but a privilege

MH

• Contact him for more info on the campaign
• Explained preferential voting system

MT

• Realistic plans for Quarters
• Cut CFMU fee
• More communication between MSU and students

Voting happens on Wednesday, February 4th and Thursday February 5th. Check the MSU Website for more information and for voting locations.

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Poster welcoming Rick Mercer

Rick Mercer playing squash at McMaster

At least they have a warning message unlike previous years. Why can’t this university’s IT department get its act together? How many students could there possibly [...]]]> The time when McMaster University students try to change or add courses to their timetables and are locked out because the server cannot handle more than X connections.

At least they have a warning message unlike previous years. Why can’t this university’s IT department get its act together? How many students could there possibly be connected at one point? (BTW, if they’re really cutting off students based on number of connections, it’s the stupidest thing I’ve heard. Shouldn’t they use server load as a determinant?)

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In June 2007, the Board of Governor’s approved a fee of $40 to be charged to students [...]]]> McMaster University is always fun to write about. McMaster administration is a veritable collection of stooges (and in my mind they walk in packs of 3 and look like Larry, Moe and Curly but you know, more than three).

In June 2007, the Board of Governor’s approved a fee of $40 to be charged to students eligible for graduation. This fee would cover the rental of the Academic Regalia (i.e. gown and hood) for those attending convocation. If students elect to have the diploma mailed to them the fee is $25 and if they pick it up themselves it’s free. The legality of this fee is debatable, and it has been debated by Maclean’s and McMaster’s Joey Coleman (I couldn’t find the exact articles on the Maclean’s site but trust me, he did make mention of the fee).

In the grand scheme of things $40 is not that much and students would pay (admittedly grudgingly) it because after all, graduation is a momentous occasion (administration obviously knows this). Most students (at least according to the Facebook group “Concern for the McMaster “Graduation” Fee“) did not know there would be a fee until they saw a charge on their account for $40. One student “was charged the fee on December 19th 2007. Two months before [she] filled out [her] grad card to even indicate [she] was graduating.” Since the charge was made on the account in December, interest has been charged on accounts with the new $40.00 owing balance since then, about $0.50 per month.

Students were of course outraged by this behind the back charge. In a statement to be emailed to the “charged” tomorrow morning, the Acting Registrar Patricia Harris apologizes for “any anxiety or inconvenience that our initial collection process may have caused.” According to her, “[t]he initial implementation plan was to charge automatically all final year students the $40 fee and then to issue the appropriate refunds, once all of the Spring convocation ceremonies were over and the
pick-ups were complete.”

Oh that’s a great plan guys! Let’s put this on your account, not tell you, charge you interest, and then have the power to withhold your diploma or transcripts because you have a balance owing on your account of which you knew nothing about in the first place. That is wonderful! In the mean time your money will be sitting in a fund somewhere, probably at a bank, earning the university interest. But we’ll refund you after everything is done (it would probably be around July that the cheques would be rolling in).

You will be glad to know that the administration “due to the substantial feedback that [it has] received from students regarding this method of ‘collecting’ the new graduation fee” has changed the process. Surprisingly to one THAT MAKES SENSE:

The Registrar’s Office is implementing a “pay for service” process for the collection of the graduation fee. When you complete the on-line Graduation Response Form you will only be charged for the option you select (as noted above).

Wonderful. Late. But wonderful. Here’s a few things I’d like to know:

• Why didn’t they think to implement it this way before hand?
• Why did the administration feel the need to go behind students’ backs with this fee?
• Why did they not inform students?
• Why did decide to go with the illegal negative-option billing?
• Who came up with the idea and why was it approved?
• Will the university be penalized for these deceptive practices?

I call on McMaster University to issue a public apology to all of its students for this kind of unethical and despicable behaviour.

Full text of the email to the “charged” after the jump.

Hopefully, you are aware that the University’s Board of Governors approved a new graduation fee in June, 2007. The graduation fee is to be administered as follows:

• Graduating students who attend Convocation: $40 fee
• Graduating students who do not attend Convocation and who request their diploma to be mailed: $25 fee
• Graduating students who do not attend Convocation and who pick up their diploma (within the specified timeline): no charge.

The initial implementation plan was to charge automatically all final year students the $40 fee and then to issue the appropriate refunds, once all of the Spring convocation ceremonies were over and the pick-ups were complete. You have probably noticed a $40 charge on your student account, in this regard. However, due to the substantial feedback that we have received from students regarding this method of ‘collecting’ the new graduation fee, we have now changed the process.

Therefore, effective immediately:
1) The $40 graduation fee (plus any interest) on your student account will automatically be reversed, next week. If you have already paid the graduation fee, a refund cheque will be issued and mailed to you by the end of March.

2) The Registrar’s Office is implementing a “pay for service” process for the collection of the graduation fee. When you complete the on-line Graduation Response Form you will only be charged for the option you select (as noted above).

The Registrar’s Office and Titles Bookstore will be sending out a graduation mailing during the week of March 24 so be sure to check your mailbox. You can also find details and information about convocation on the Registrar’s Office website after March 28.

In closing, please accept my apologies for any anxiety or inconvenience that our initial collection process may have caused. Our new plan is intended to be more “student friendly” and is hopefully, a step in the right direction.

Patricia Harris
Acting Registrar

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McMaster University has taken a strange – well it’s McMaster so probably not so strange – position when it comes to sleeping on campus in the lounge areas…there isn’t to be any. According to two of my very reliable sources (aka my eyes) posters such as the one below have appeared in the ITB lounge.

It says: Based on McMaster Health Initiatives, sleeping in common areas is NOT permitted. Upon notification by the staff, Security(they think they’re important with a capital in their name) will enforce this policy.

Please join me in a Whiskey Tango Foxtrot on three. 1, 2, 3: WTF? That is what I was wondering when I was first told about these…so today I shot off an email to security, oh sorry I mean Security:

From: “Danny Vacar”
Subject: McMaster Health Initiatives
Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2007 14:02:47 -0400
To: Security

Hello,

I have noticed posters around campus warning that McMaster Security
will be enforcing something under the name of “McMaster Health
Initiatives.”
I did a search of the McMaster domain but came up empty so I was
wondering if you had a PDF copy of these initiatives or if you could
forward my inquiry to some who does. I would be interested in learning
what they are.

Respectfully,
Danny Vacar

I am waiting their response and I’m very interested in knowing what these “Health Initiatives” are. At the moment they sound like a lot of *BS* unhealthy stuff.

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I can’t write too much on this due to time constraints at the moment, [...]]]> I have updated with my response to the letter. Please note I do not offer a solution just my opinion on the letter. As many people in our society nowadays, I’m an opinion-giver, let others do the work of fixing it.

I can’t write too much on this due to time constraints at the moment, but the Ontario Minister of Training Colleges and Universities responds to the Hamilton Spectator article condemning the government (on behalf of good ol’ Peter George – my entry on this) for not offering extra funding for the extra student McMaster decided to take on this year. The text of the letter follows, I will come back to this post later on so fix it up

The article/letter is here: http://www.thespec.com/printArticle/20947.

To summarize it for you: ministry says “hey we gave you money and you would have received it even if you hadn’t taken on more students.”

Some key points of the letter (everyone likes numbers and statistics. Makes you look cool, unless you fail probability and have to take it again cos the damn prof figured theory would be much better to test students on than…but I digress). Note: these are from the article, in full, I did not even paraphrase. Got it? Alright so here we go with my opinion on this letter and the article it responds to: BULL. To both. I have already explained why I think McMaster’s position is bull (they keep building and the projects keep going over budget). So the key points:

• Between 2002-03 and 2006-07, four years, McMaster’s operating funding increased by more than $60 million to $183 million, a 54 per cent increase in four years.

• I understand the number of students taught increased, over the same period, by 32 per cent, substantially less than the budget increase. We are funding every student, and more. In presenting McMaster’s budget challenges, the much larger contribution by the people of Ontario to education at McMaster over the past four years should be recognized.

In terms of the government’s response…alright I’ll give you the operating fund increase. It’s huge, although I don’t quite see the correlation between a 54% increase in funding and a 32% increase in students. Actually I just don’t see the point of the second statement I’ve extracted. “The number of students taught increased…by 32 per cent, less than the budget increase.” That’s all fine and dandy but are you saying a 1% increase in students should result in a 1% increase in costs and thus funding? [seriously I'm not being sarcastic or anything of the sort, I would just like to understand what you meant to say by that.] Sure it’s a smaller increase but:

What if each 1% increase in students requires more than a 1.6875% increase in funding? Say 1.69%. That alone amounts to a shortage of 0.08%. It doesn’t seem like much, but take that out of the operating budget of $183 million and you end up with $14.64 million $146,400. And all that because every 1% increase in students needed 0.0025% more funding than allotted. It’s amazing how numbers work isn’t it? [I'm not saying that's the math the ministry did, it's just what I understand from their letter. I welcome comments on it and everything else]

• The number of students McMaster takes is up to McMaster, not the Ontario government. McMaster would have received more operating money even if it had not taken additional students.

Again, what are you saying? Of course the number of admissions is up to McMaster and not the Government. That’s just an obvious statement of fact, probably fort those of us who can’t see the obvious, obviously. You’re also saying “McMaster would have received more operating money even if it had not taken additional students.” Did you read the article? It was saying they took on students, and now you’re not giving them enough money. So what you’re saying is that even if you hadn’t taken on that extra 10% we would have given you the money that we haven’t given you anyway. Do you follow that? Because I certainly don’t.

The way I see this charade, university complains, Ministry responds generically. This response is so badly structured it might as well not have existed at all. The points it makes are confusing at best if not irrelevant. I’m sure the ministry’s PR people figured they should respond and wrote this after attending a pub crawl. At least I’m hoping, because if they actually put more thought than looking up facts and spewing them on paper…

~Last edited June 19, 2007 11:20 PM EST

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Not [...]]]> I’m not one to complain about my university….oh who am I kidding, of course I am. From inept professors who can’t speak English at a first grade level to teaching assistants with an uncanny way of making you want to lick that power outlet just to shock yourself back to coherence, McMaster has it all.

Not to mention university president Peter George. Our boy Peter decided he didn’t like the fact his statisticians failed him and more than the 5,000 students predicted to accept an offer from McMaster did just that. In fact apparently that number is 5,500. Whoops, I guess the prof stumbled on the words during that lecture for the math genius. In any case, Peter George “has come out swinging at the provincial government for pushing universities to take on more students while failing to keep up with funding…”

It seems McMaster will be dealing with a deficit of about $16 million, give or take a few legs and arms. According to George, the funding is not “tied to inflation” and thus “universities are actually receiving less money than they did in the early 1990s…” Well that kind of sucks. But I bet I’m paying more for tuition than I would have in the early 1990s.

It’s good to hear the university is tightening its belt though. Whether it’s in the right places(read: administrative salaries)…that remains to be seen. At least we don’t have any building projects which are behind schedule and over budget. Right? Oh that’s right the new fancy, shmancy stadium isn’t done yet. When’s it supposed to be open? Fall ’07? for $13 million? How much is it projected at now? $23 million, ah piece of cake. We definitely needed it though and that extra $10 mil is definitely going where it is most needed: to building a field.

I can’t wait to get back to Mac and see all the new buildings which are going to be erected, because we all know, education comes from the right building, not the right professors.

NOTE: I realize I started rambling at the end. Live with it. It’s 1 AM and I’ve been up all day.

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I am sad, however, to report that not much has gone [...]]]> It has certainly been a while since my musings have graced the canvas of this entry editor. In that time much has happened in the world. People have died, babies have been born, Star Trek Online moved ever closer to its release date…whenever that is.

I am sad, however, to report that not much has gone on in my world. Apart from going to work, working out, working, and coming home from work, my activities have included the random street basketball game, enjoying my recently downloaded 1980′s anime, and creating more culinary concoctions.

I did read an interesting article on Maclean’s online today about webcasting convocations (aka graduations).

I think webcasts of events such as graduations (or convocations for those so inclined) are a great idea. Face it, one way or another it will make its way on the information super-tube. If you go to YouTube and just search for ‘graduation’ you get a lot of hits…but nothing from a school (I didn’t go past the first page so I may be wrong). Put your school’s name in the search and if you’re lucky it will come up (I wasn’t a lucky one, big surprise). Putting them online through webcasts will definitely increase the availability and archiveability (yeah so maybe it’s not a word, big whoop) of the one moment you wait for while writing that stupid EE2CJ4 first test for the third time…graduation.

I can’t speak for other schools, but I foresee HUGE problems if McMaster ever joins everyone else in the new millennium and decides that maybe, just maybe an investment in making university more fun rather than a construction site would be worthwhile. Here’s the biggest reason it won’t work for Mac:

SERVER CRASHES – IF McMaster University decides to webcast graduations, we’ll run into the MUGSI Effect. For those of you not familiar with it, here’s a brief description of what it is:

McMaster University releases its students’ marks online. MUGSI (McMaster University Gateway to Student Information – or something like that) is the location where these marks are posted as they are available. The university had a great system: post the marks and let the students fight over the bandwidth to get at them. So every year up until I believe 2006, we would try to find that one special time of day, when the sun beam hit the mirrors just right to illuminate a path to our elusive marks. In short: the servers went down faster than an apple on Isaac Newton’s head.

If the university decides to broadcast online, it would not surprise me one bit to hear that people missed parts because they could not connect or that the “Network is currently experiencing a higher than normal load. Please try connecting later, after your son/daughter/etc. has walked across the stage.”

Yeah … Mac won’t be able to pull it off. If they do I’ll be impressed…for once.

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