MSU Presidentials 2019: Madison Wesley platform critique

Photo by Kyle West

By: Natalie Clark

One of Madison Wesley’s largest and most promising platform goals is to introduce a textbook rental service to the McMaster campus store. Although students would likely be fond of the idea, Wesley has failed to assess the challenges associated with this goal.

According to Donna Shapiro, the director of retail services at McMaster, the McMaster campus store explored this idea in the past but was unable to bring it to fruition.

“Each faculty would need to commit to their course material selection for several years in a row to pay off the initial cost of the book,” said Shapiro. “Without this commitment, it is impossible to move forward with a rental program.”

In addition, according to Shapiro, the issue of storage is also a concern.

“For the number of courses at Mac that are not taught on a regular basis, space for storage of the rental textbooks becomes an issue,” said Shapiro.

Wesley also has not consulted with the Student Wellness Centre regarding her promise to improve the mental and physical health of students on campus. The SWC would be an essential service to consult in order to implement the changes she is seeking.

One of Wesley’s main goals is to increase the number of counsellors on campus.

“The SWC has increased the number of counsellors this past year and is currently at capacity space and budget wise for the number of staff that the SWC can hire,” said Taryn Aarssen, a wellness educator at the SWC. “The budget for counsellors comes from student fees.”

Wesley would have to acquire additional funds to hire more counsellors. However, in her platform, it is unclear where specifically this funding would come from.

As for Wesley’s promise to introduce a walk-in clinic to McMaster, according to Aarssen, while the SWC is not exactly a walk-in clinic, it is a place where students can make health clinic and medical appointments on campus.

The SWC currently has a significant number of the same resources as walk-in clinics. In light of this, Aarssen notes that adding a second clinic on campus “would not be a valuable use of space or resources.”

Overall, Wesley’s platform would seem more feasible if she made efforts to consult a number of McMaster’s services prior to the start of campaign season.

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