A lot of the ideas MacGillivray and Clarke present involve the creation of sub-executive positions. This worries me. These people are going to need to be paid if MacGillivray and Clarke want them to do the job they envision. More paid positions means one of two things will happen: funding to other departments and services will be cut or the promises won’t actually be kept. There is only so much money to be spent and as enrollment decreases, that sum gets smaller as well. So for their promises to actually be met, it looks like an overhaul of the budget and re-prioritization of services offered is in order. What I would like to know is what services won’t be making a reprisal next year if MacGillivray and Clarke get elected to office?
The platform is presented in 9 parts and I want to take some time to look at each one closely, discussing their merits and failings, a few at a time. The first sub-category in their platform is Health & Wellness, which consists of three parts: Health and Counseling Centre, Intramurals and Recreational Facilities.
a) Health and Counseling Center
Access to health and counseling services on campus is a major concern to the student body. We would strive to implement the following;
Plans are in the works for renovations to the 3rd floor SUB and it is our goal to push for an expanded health center. The center has the medical resources to reach the students but is lacking in physical space. This expansion would include creating a combined Counseling and Health Center which would provide a more positive and inviting space for those seeking counseling or health services.
We would look to work with the health center in creating an advisory council made up of students. This would keep the health center up to date on student health issues on campus.
We would push for a Dietician to work at the Health center a couple a times a week, to discuss issues such as eating disorders, coping with allergies and campus food services and any other dietary issues on campus.
All great ideas, although finances become an issue again, especially with the proposed introduction of a dietician to the Health Centre, which if students took advantage of could be a really beneficial addition. But who would pay this person – the U or administration? My other concern is the office space on 3rd floor – many important university positions are found there including the dean of students, as well as the Info Desk. If the Health Centre was expanded, where would these services go?
b) Intramurals
Improving the current intramural program. It inspires friendly competition between houses (and off-campus) along with increasing physical activity amongst the student body and is worth improving. There has been an unfortunate decline in participation and the quality of the intramural program in recent years and we propose;
A partnership between the union and the university to try and fix this integral part of student life. This would include the introduction of a new position; A Student Union Intramural Coordinator who would work with their university counterpart to develop ways to improve the intramural program as well as working with house intramural reps to further promote participation in intramurals.
This would all coincide with an advertising push from the student union communications department to try and help rebuild our intramural program.
Another good idea, although I’m skeptical that MacGillivray and Clarke will see the results they are hoping to achieve. Having another person trying to convince students of the benefits of participating in intramurals is probably not going to increase student turn-out, which would render this position ineffective. Perhaps a closer look at the role of the in-house intramural reps would be a better place to start. I think it’s going to take a lot more than someone solely dedicated to rallying interest in intramurals to actually get students out at the games.
c) Recreational Facilities
Recreational facilities on campus are not up to par with student’s expectations. The fitness center in the KMC is not large enough to accommodate the students and the community. The Oland Center is dated and needs improvements to its facilities.
We would push the university for improvements to the recreational facilities on campus.
Another great idea, but, again, I’m unconvinced this would happen if MacGillivray and Clarke were elected. The administration knows recreational facilities on campus need improvements. Many athletic events I’ve attended this year have included a plea from the Athletics Department for Oland Centre renovations. Anyone who walks into the building is aware of when it was built because it hasn’t been updated since. By the same token, the administration won’t just reallocate money because something could use a facelift. The current facilities are not exactly broken. The money has to be raised. It’s all about sponsorship. To achieve the most desirable results, I’ve always felt that it’s better to pick a few really important issues and push those as hard as you can, rather than half-heartedly fighting a bunch of them. Let’s face it, even if Matt and Julia have the best intentions, they simply will not have the time to press administration on all the issues they want to. It’s just not practical, especially as full-time students.
While the platform is a good base for what would come under a MacGillivray-Clarke administration, it’s hardly complete. I feel that the candidates would benefit from sitting down with current union executives and spending time discussing the plausibility of their ideas and perhaps deciding which ones are more important to them. If kept the way it is now, this time next year will see a burnt out student union with little to show for their work and an increasingly disinterested student body, frustrated by broken campaign promises. Elections are not about getting into office, but rather what you will do once there to serve the best interests of your electorate.
Stay tuned for the next post when I will address more of the MacGillivray-Clarke platform. Until then.
-Danielle
*The views expressed in this post are entirely those of the author and do not reflect the opinions of StFX's Students' Union.
3 comments:
"the administration won’t just reallocate money because something could use a facelift"
Have you seen the new NH parking lot?? Smaller, but prettier with some trees :S Wonder how much that cost?
I think they need to talk to the students to find out what they really want. Spending more money is not a big priority.
We appreciate the feedback on our platform and we would like to address some of your concerns.
We are only actually looking at creating 2 sub-executive positions, the X-Factor Coordinator and the Intramural Coordinator. Sub-executive positions are not as expensive as some may think, for example the honorarium for X-sitters is $800, the honorarium for the Marketing team director is $1500 and the honorarium for house presidents is $500. Most of these sub-executive are not in the job for the money they are in it for the invaluable experience that they will get out of it. Due to the recent cut of the yearbook funding there is some money to be allocated throughout the budget. It is not unrealistic that some of this money could go to these positions.
Based on research that we have done over the last few weeks we have found that if the health center were to have more available space then a dietician could be brought in a couple times a week. It is not the money that is the issue, it is the available space. This is just one example of various improvements that could be made to the heath center if it were renovated. In talking with the Bloomfield Center manager we have also found that their plans for the renovation of 3rd floor would include moving the info desk which would in turn create space for expansion of the health center. If you look at the renovations done to the 4th floor SUB you will see that office space increased drastically as a result of the changes. There is no reason the same can’t be accomplished on 3rd.
In response to the critique of our plans to improve the intramural program:
Having a dedicated person trying to improve the intramural program is EXACTLY what this program needs to see. The person in this position is going to be working with the communications department, the in-house representatives and the university athletic department to try to improve the program. This person at the start of the year will also meet with the in-house reps at the training that we have proposed in our platform. During this training the two can work to create a plan of action for the upcoming year of intramurals. From there the Intramural Coordinator will continue to stay in constant contact with the in house reps keeping them up to date on the current state of the intramural program within their respective houses.
In regards to the comment that we would not have time to press all these issues as full time students it’s been forgotten that if elected we would also be full time Student Union President and Vice President, a responsibility we take very seriously. We can press the administration for anything the students want and we should press the administration for anything the students want. This issue of recreational facilities is something that has been brought to our attention by students and so we feel that it is our responsibility to at least make sure the administration is aware of the issue. As the comment above pointed out the administration will often spend money to improve the look of the university so it is not unrealistic to expect them to spend money to improve facilities that have positive effects on students.
As far as comments concerning our contact with the current union executive, we have met and we continue to meet with these people. They are a very important resource as they already have experience in the areas we are trying to improve, and they have been very helpful. Further more we have met with a variety of other people associated with the initiatives set forth in our platform to ensure that they are in fact feasible and will have the greatest positive impact on students.
We appreciate the criticism of our platform from a student’s perspective, it allows us to further explain the details of the platform. Constructive criticism is helpful and it allows our ideas to grow so we thank you for that. And we look forward to your next post.
To our supporters we appreciate any defense of our platform but encourage you not to attack the authors personally. They are simply giving a student’s perspective of the slates platforms, which is critical for an election with informed voters.
Thank you,
Matt and Julia
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