EDITORIAL: Candidates not addressing key issue

For the first time in a while, every candidate in this year’s MSU presidential election is a serious one. With apologies to Mr. James Lim and Mr. Steve Running, we’ve got a full pool of candidates who are trying to get more votes more than laughs.

But somehow, everyone in this year’s election is still overlooking the most serious issue facing our students and our campus.

This size of our enrollment has outgrown our campus capacity.

It’s not exactly as if this is a secret. The university recently published a comprehensive study on campus capacity, one that clearly said we’ve squeezed more into this campus than we have space for.

But somehow, not one of the five presidential candidates have made a point in their platforms of putting pressure on the university to lower enrollment back to an appropriate level for the space we have.

The problems are pretty clear. More students are being offered space in residence than can be accommodated and our current MSU president ran last year on a platform decrying the lack of study space. Our exam period goes on too long – shortening the holiday break – because we don’t have enough buildings or space to accommodate the tests.

Some candidates have addressed that last issue’s symptoms, but not its cause. Siobhan Stewart wants to add a reading week-type break for first semester, but says the biggest obstacle is that the exam period needs to be three weeks long to accommodate all the tests.

If that’s such a big obstacle, why isn’t that a bigger campaign issue?

It’s not as if the University is in an easy position with campus space. Dalton McGuinty’s government wants to increase enrolment province-wide, and just ponied up nearly $50 million to build a new building that’s expected to make space for – you guessed it – more students. That’s not exactly the kind of gift the administration can turn down, and it’s not easy for a student union leader to fight against the powerful interests of the government and administration.

But that is exactly what the job requires. If there’s one group that has a lot to lose in this situation, it’s the students. And if someone is supposed to look out for students, it’s the MSU president.

Every candidate this year will spread their message about listening to what students want and letting the needs of the membership dictate their goals of their mandate. But it’s getting hard to believe any of that’s true if none of them have made a point of addressing the biggest problem staring us in the face already.

Brian Decker, Executive Editor