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By: Dev Shields
I have a hard time digesting the typicalities of “mental health awareness” events. There are hashtags and buttons and stickers. There is yoga, tea, and treats. There is some form of discussion. The week ends. We are still mentally ill. I will still attend a class for the first time in three weeks and someone will say “why can’t you just come to class?”
MacTalks is a relatively new happening, first set in motion by former VP Education Rodrigo Narro Perez. The first MacTalks week was held last year alongside McMaster’s newly unveiled “Student Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy.” Unfortunately, the attempt misses some crucial points.
Firstly, mental health awareness weeks tend to cater to “high functioning” depressive or anxiety ridden people, meaning someone who is at least partially able to carry on about your day and fulfill commitments (but doesn’t necessarily mean they are “not as sick”).
There are a couple of immediate issues with this. What about those who are not high functioning? People who can’t even manage to make it out of the house in the morning aren’t going to benefit from an event being held in the atrium.
Accessibility seems to have become something of a buzzword, but it is ironic that the events that are supposed to support accessibility for people with mental health issues and mental illnesses are well... inaccessible! The absence of online forums or streaming services for these events makes them off limits to those who find themselves too sick to leave the confines of their bedroom.
Secondly, what about those who are not dealing with depression or anxiety? Both are serious, debilitating and powerful illnesses. I struggle with them on a daily basis. However, it seems to me that most of the dialogue at events such as MacTalks does not address any other types of mental illness. You are hard pressed to find an abundance of discourse around PTSD, schizophrenia, psychopathy/sociopathy, bipolar disorder, depersonalization disorder or dissociative disorder, to name a few. Leaving out important information on these illnesses is defeating the purpose of having an awareness event in the first place.
This kind of dialogue leads to sanitized discussion. For example, while there is acknowledgement that self-harm exists and is widespread, there is not nearly enough focus on it. We are quick to romanticize people who have “overcome” their self-harm — their story is triumphant, acceptable, palatable — but there is no adequate support while the harming is ongoing. While SHEC will be holding an event about self-injury, the description available on the MSU website seems to imply that there will be no explicit talk of dealing with the actual physical wounds themselves. We know it is going on, so why can’t we be frank about it during a week devoted to mental health? Where are the forums about self-injury? Where are the pamphlets about how to clean wounds and avoid infection? How about support groups? Instead of involving ourselves and becoming aware, like these events promise, we dismiss the things that seem too touchy.
People who can’t even manage to make it out of the house in the morning aren’t going to benefit from an event being held in the atrium.
I think intention is important, and it is valid, but impact is by far more important. Awareness events like MacTalks have left a bad taste in my mouth. Dismissal of large groups of people who identify with being mentally ill or having poor mental health sabotages the idea of an all-encompassing and inclusive event.
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By: Emma Mulholland
Next month, McMaster is saying farewell to its mainframe computer, which will no longer be open to general access as of March 18.
The mainframe computers have been used at McMaster since the late 1960s. The computer that is currently in the process of being decommissioned was initiated at McMaster in the 1980s.
“[The mainframe computer] refers to a specific machine, that actually sits in a space … in a larger, more abstract sense it’s a set of applications that are on a specific hardware, that use a specific operating system, coded in specific ways … it’s the whole operating system,” explained Sheldon Smart, Public Relations Manager with the McMaster Office of Public Relations.
Most of the technology used in the mainframe date back to the mainframe’s beginnings in the 1980s, and include applications no longer beneficial to the university. “We no longer use those applications, or we’re phasing them out. There are a few left that we’re just in the last stages of turning off, then we will get rid of that hardware,” said Smart.
McMaster is now transitioning a new Enterprise Resource Planning system. “[The mainframe] was quite high performance hardware in its time. Back in the day, mainframe computing was all there was. But now there are many options, some of which suit what we are doing here better,” said Smart.
Mosaic, the student service centre introduced last year, is part of the new ERP system. With the introduction of the ERP system, it is no longer necessary to maintain the old mainframe hardware and software, so the university is in the process of shutting it down.
“Mosaic uses different hardware, software and base operating systems than the previous system, the mainframe … we no longer need the mainframe — this is just part of a natural transition,” said Smart.
With the introduction of the ERP system, it is no longer necessary to maintain the mainframe hardware and software, so the university is in the process of shutting it down.
Mosaic’s ability to integrate information from various sources, such as student records and financial accounts, is representative of the new ERP system as a whole. “The hallmark of ERP is that it tends to combine multiple pieces: our finance system, human resources system, student administration system . . . they all interconnect with each other,” explained Smart.
The new system allows easier access to transcripts and the ability to independently choose class timetables. McMaster is not the first institution to make the move to more integrated systems. Western University and the University of Waterloo both use similar programs to what is now implemented at McMaster.
As with any new structure, it will take some time to get used to the new system. Regardless, there are many advantages to the new ERP system when compared to the mainframe, which was limited in its capabilities due its age.
“It will take some time for the university to become completely comfortable with all the new functions, but in comparison the system it replaced was set up in the early 1980s,” said Smart. Anyone who is interested in keeping track of the mainframe’s last days can visit the University Technology Services website to find a timer counting down to the mainframe’s official end, as well as a more detailed history of computing at McMaster.
Photo Credit: Sheldon Smart
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Following a three-week long election period, the race for MSU President has finally come to an end.
After Sarah Jama’s reinstatement into the presidential race and the retabulation of votes on Friday, Feb. 5, Justin Monaco-Barnes remained the winner of the 2016 presidential election. Jama came in second overall, and Jonathon Tonietto fell to third place.
Justin Monaco-Barnes is now officially the MSU President for the 2016-2017 year. Some highlights from his platform to look forward to in the next year and a half include: his promise to print cheaper courseware through Underground, work towards sustainability at McMaster and efforts to continue addressing sexual violence on campus. The Silhouette interviewed Monaco-Barnes for our Feb. 4 issue which can be found on our Issuu page.
Sarah Jama was initially disqualified due to charges of misrepresenting expenses to the Elections Committee and a severe violation of “bad taste.”
The Elections Department released the minutes for the Jan. 28 post-election period meeting alongside the appeal decision. Following Bylaw 10 of the elections process, disqualification was briefly considered for Monaco-Barnes, Gill and Tonietto as well.
To counter the claim that she spent $500 on her website, Jama presented evidence that her campaign website was designed by a volunteer on her team who is also a co-founder of a website design company. Jama chose to display his logo on her website to promote the volunteer’s company as a sign of gratitude for his volunteer work. However, Jama told The Silhouette that she was still fined for not including her website designer as a part of her core team.
Jama’s campaign was also fined for a controversial retweet by one of her volunteers of an anonymous account that accused another candidate of sexual assault. The CRO acknowledged, as the candidate herself posted on her Facebook page, that Jama took quick action to delete the tweet and remove two members from her team.
The retweet played a significant role in Jama’s initial disqualification. However, as stated in a press release by the MSU, following their deliberations on Feb. 5 the Elections Committee decided that the tweet did not significantly affect the integrity of the election.
With the end of perhaps the most contentious MSU election in nearly a decade, we can all go back to forgetting about student politics until the Student Representative Assembly elections in early March. See you then.
Photo Credit: Michael Gallagher/ Production Editor
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By: Sophie Geffros
Someone you know has been homeless.
This can be hard concept to wrap your head around — if you’re lucky, homelessness is something that happens to other people, and we can only conceive of homelessness as what housing advocates call “street homelessness.” According to a 2013 report by the Wellesley Institute, for every individual identified as street homeless, another four are part of what advocates call the “hidden homeless” population.
Think of your high school friend who surfed couches when his parents kicked him out after discovering he was gay. Think of the sibling that struggles with addiction and is in and out of halfway houses. Think of the friend who confessed tearfully that she and her mother spent the summer in a women’s shelter after leaving a violent spouse. The majority of the homeless population is intermittently homeless, and therefore hidden. Even if you don’t know anyone like I just described, I promise you that statistically speaking you have worked with, or attended classes with, or been friends with someone who has been homeless. It’s not the kind of thing you talk about, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t present.
The Degroote School of Business’ “5 Days for the Homeless” both ignores these populations and gives a false idea of what street homelessness looks like. 20 percent of the street homeless population are youth 16-24, of whom at least 40 percent are LGBT and about 60 percent are Aboriginal. When surveyed by Covenant House, they identified the greatest risk to their lives to be physical and sexual assault while sleeping rough or in shelters. Spending five nights sleeping outside the Student Centre gives a false idea of what homelessness is, and is far safer than the conditions street homeless youth actually experience.
It is good to raise money for charity. Nobody is denying that. But donating food to middle class students so they can pretend at homelessness borders on self-parody. If you have a genuine desire to alleviate suffering in the Hamilton community, donate your time or money directly to the Good Shepherd, or the Hamilton Dream Centre, or the Hamilton Community Core, or any of the dozens of other neighborhood food banks and housing programs that assist the vulnerable in our community. The campus OPIRG runs an excellent program called “Food Not Bombs,” and you can begin the process of helping them out without even leaving campus.
Programs like 5 Days for the Homeless appeal to us because they sanitize housing insecurity. They make us feel good about ourselves for caring, without having to be confronted with the unpleasant realities of homelessness. Advocates for the campaign will say that it raises awareness of street homelessness, but raising awareness for street homelessness is absurd. If you are honestly unaware that people are sleeping on the streets in our city, you are willfully ignoring the men and women sleeping rough by every downtown bus stop.
Spending five nights sleeping outside the Student Centre gives a false idea of what homelessness is.
I want to ask you a question: do you look at street homeless people when you see them on the sidewalk? How many of you are willing to donate your food and converse with the students aping at homelessness outside of MUSC, but ignore the man at the bus stop asking for change? How often do you justify not helping when you are confronted with the need by saying “well, they’re just going to spend it on drugs anyway?” How often do you willfully look away when you are confronted with suffering? Too many of us fail to recognize the humanity and dignity of others when confronted with their pain. We can all strive to be better at this. Pretending to understand a struggle that is not ours so that we can write heart-warming Facebook posts about what we’ve learned is not the way to go about it. The unkempt street homeless man who asks you for a dollar is just as human as the commerce student sleeping outside the student centre.
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By: Ajit Singh & Mike Van Arragon
We are certainly the odd ones out at clubs fest. Sitting in front of a big red banner, the words “Communist” and “Socialism” loom over our little table. A force field of political distrust seems to glow in this corner of the Student Center; and we’re wondering what does it mean to be a Communist at McMaster? Somebody approaches us with the question: “What are you guys? Like, Hitler?”
For the record, we aren’t anything “like Hitler”, however, we continue to hear the word “Communist” used as a pejorative on campus. One example was during the MSU Presidential election, making it clear that many still see Communists as mysterious boogeymen. Unfortunately, this is not surprising given the long history of anti-Communist hysteria, including the recent proposal for a monument to the “Victims of Communism,” envisioned in a particularly frightful moment of opportunism by former PM Stephen Harper. Due to the confused and, at times, hostile, buzz about our presence on campus, we think we owe our peers a proper introduction.
Communism is an ideology and movement that seeks to establish an egalitarian society without classes, “from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs.” Generally, Communists see capitalist society as a global system with a key feature: separate classes with conflicting interests. This results in a class struggle between the few, the propertied or “bourgeoisie” (think: CEOs and bankers), and the many, the property-less workers or “proletariat” (think: teachers, nurses and retail workers). Since the proletariat control no property (technology, machinery, and materials) of their own with which to meet their basic needs, they are forced to sell their labour to the bourgeoisie in order to survive. Communism seeks to establish a society where there is a collective ownership of property in order to direct the economy towards common interests. Ensuring clean air, housing, healthcare, food, and education for all, before thinking about more frivolous things. We believe that such a society can only come about through a complete transformation.
While it is true that Communist societies have not been without their problems, they have continuously faced persistent aggression from Capitalist regimes (including the invasions of the Soviet Union, Korea, Vietnam, and Cuba). This must be accounted for when evaluating the development of Communist states. In spite of this aggression, Communism has raised the living conditions of millions of people worldwide. While facing an illegal blockade since 1960 and a militarily occupation since 1898, Cuba has achieved an average life expectancy which exceeds that of the United States.
Corporate profit margins in Canada were at a 27-year high, yet we are inundated by talk of recession, balanced budgets and the need for “belt-tightening.”
Influenced by Karl Marx, modern Communists believe that various oppressions, including gender-based violence, sexism, transphobia, racism, colonization, criminalization of the poor, ableism, religious bigotry and stigma surrounding mental health are actually relationships of exploitation, which emanate from and cannot be done away with in class-based, capitalist economies. Built upon colonialism, slavery, and other forms of labour and resource exploitation, capitalism creates inequality, accumulating wealth in the hands of a few. According to Oxfam, 62 individuals are as wealthy as half the world’s population). To ensure this constant accumulation, military and economic wars are waged to open up and control the “free market” and bring into submission any societies which resist. Factories and mines rise up on lands stolen from indigenous peoples. Their sovereignty and dignity seen as an intolerable extravagance. The surviving working class lives precariously, as Capitalist governments privatize and cut social services and environmental protections to accommodate big business. Last year the CBC reported that corporate profit margins in Canada were at a 27-year high, yet we are inundated by talk of recession, balanced budgets and the need for “belt-tightening.” Why is it always the working class that has to pay the price?
When Communists are told to be patient, to wait for the “right actors” to come into parliament and change things for the better, we point them towards the recurring crises of Capitalist democracies. For some reason, whether Liberal, Conservative, Democrat, or Republican, no Capitalist government is able to ensure that the environment is protected and that the entire population has adequate housing, food, education, and health care.
Confusing conversations aside, our experience at clubs fest demonstrated that people do care about the big issues. As the past month’s election campaign has shown, students care about politics and are seeking to create change. Fortunately, if history tells us anything it is that things are always changing, but it’s up to us to choose the right way forward.
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By: Bina Patel
Each year, the English and Cultural Studies Department hosts the Mabel Pugh Taylor Writer-in-Residence. This four-month program seeks to attract highly accomplished Canadian writers, from which a selection committee narrows down to the top three authors who they believe are best suited to occupy the position in subsequent years. The recipient uses their knowledge and experiences to engage McMaster and the wider Hamilton community in the craft of creative writing.
This year, that resource is author and teacher Kim Echlin. According to Jeffery Donaldson, McMaster English professor and Chair of the Writer-in-Residence Committee, although published work gives an applicant eligibility for the position, selecting the ideal candidates goes beyond just the technicalities.
“We want to have some idea of what skills the writers will be bringing. Do they have the skills that we would expect them to have in editing and advising students? The more they know about the publishing community, the better advice they can give. We want to feel that the writer is a writer of reputation,” said Donaldson.
And of reputation she is. Echlin’s publications include Elephant Winter, The Disappeared, Inanna and Elizabeth Smart: A Fugue Essay on Women and Creativity. She is the winner of the Torgi Award, CBC Literary Award for non-fiction, Barnes and Noble Award, and has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize as well as the Chapters/Books in Canada First Award. It is distinction of this nature which indicate to the selection committee that the applicant inhibits what they consider are core skills in making a significant impact during the residency, which include one-on-one mentoring to students.
Her mentee and McMaster History and English alumnus Nichole Fanara, recounted her experience working with Echlin, whom she approached for assistance in writing and graduate program application. “We worked on my novel. She helped me get to the standard so that it would be good enough and was really great, really helpful,” Fanara said. In addition to mentoring aspiring writers, the Writer-in-Residence also reaches out to the wider community through public readings and lectures. One of these instances was during Prof. Donaldson’s Creative Writing Inquiry course, where Echlin shared her wisdom with the class of writers. “She’s brilliant. When she was talking she was making suggestions and little lights were going off in my head. She was saying things that you would think would be no brainers but they hadn’t occurred to me to say to my students,” he said.
Echlin has had a passion for writing since her childhood. Her most recent book, Under the Visible Life, follows the lives of two women in different parts of the world: Hamilton and Afghanistan. Despite having struggled through stigma and systematic oppression, both find their freedom through their love of music. “I explore the kinds of oppressions that women from all over the world have lived with and how they continue to make themselves free,” she said.
Although having a Writer-in-Residence has largely to do with fostering the creative imagination of students, Echlin makes clear that the advantages are mutual. “This is the first time I’ve been a Writer-in-Residence, and I really like it. At McMaster it’s very interesting because in the Humanities program you have a lot of alternative forms of storytelling. You have creative writing with Jeffery Donaldson, but also you have Daniel Coleman and he’s working with a lot of different forms of narrative.”
Donaldson added that although McMaster has not yet established a creative writing program, having an individual of such literary prowess to consult with is inspiring for young writers.
Photo Credit: McMaster University
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On Feb. 4, Naomi Klein came to McMaster to discuss her latest book, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate. Her overall message was simple: our current methods of living — and especially making money — are not sustainable.
I’ll be honest, I have only ever been peripherally involved in environmental movements. My activism tends to focus on social issues that affect people: racism, sexism, ableism, transphobia, and classism. To an extent I convinced myself that environmentalism was a whole other world disconnected from mine, but Klein related many of the issues that I care so deeply about directly to the environment because of the connection between capitalism and climate change.
This got me thinking, what are we doing here at McMaster to tie environmental activism to our other work? Why have I become so complacent about the environment? Climate change is directly connected to other issues I greatly care about, yet I am significantly more passionate about other topics. Part of it is undoubtedly the overwhelming amount of work to be done to help save our planet. When I consider the enormity of the problem I can almost hear the sound of a door slamming as my brain shuts down. “No thank you, this is too much to bear, and I’m not interested in engaging with what you are selling.” While overwhelming panic is undoubtedly behind my inaction, I’m starting to think that complacency is the bigger culprit.
So how are we fostering complacency on campus? One example is water. McMaster’s sustainability website boasts advances in water conservation on campus, from “ultra low-flush” urinals in DBAC, to a rainwater conservation system at the Engineering Technology Building. In an attempt to engage students in water conservation, the MSU has created “plastic-bottle-free zones” and retrofitted fountains with spouts designed to refill bottles.
While the sentiment behind these changes is great, I am skeptical of their efficacy. Every time I fill my reusable water bottle, the fountain tells me that X number of bottles — including my own — have been saved from a landfill, but this isn’t strictly true. Just because I refilled my bottle doesn’t mean I otherwise would have purchased bottled water. Apropos purchasing water, if the MSU is invested in a disposable-bottle-free-university, why are bottled beverages still sold across campus? I don’t think that the steps we have taken are necessarily bad, nor should they be repealed, however I do think that they have given us a sense of false security. While we may indeed have reduced the use of disposable bottles on campus, our initiatives have given us a good excuse to pat ourselves on the back and consider our environmental sins absolved.
If the MSU is invested in a disposable-bottle-free-university, why are bottled beverages still sold across campus?
At McMaster we have fallen into the exact trap that Kline warned against: attempting to make our current capitalist system slightly friendlier to the environment as opposed to understanding that the system is the problem. McMaster’s environmental initiatives, such as recycling, are framed as important for saving money. Our campus waste audit report in 2015 listed the ways in which recycling could reduce operating costs, but not the potentially positive impact it might have on the environment. Recommendations were described as “appropriate and cost effective.” It is easy for us as students to feel ambivalent about sustainability efforts when they are framed as a way to reduce overhead. Outside of our tuition costs — which would not directly correlate to recycling efficiency — are any of us concerned enough about our university’s budget to religiously recycle in an effort to reduce spending?
Instead, we need to call for reforms that are less budget-friendly and more environmentally sound. Klein called for McMaster to follow the examples of Oxford and Harvard in demanding our university cease investing in corporations profiting from oil production. Divesting from fossil fuels is a fantastic place to start. We need to go beyond reusable water bottles and energy efficient urinals, because we don’t demand more, complacency will be our demise.
Photo Credit: Jon White/ Photo Editor
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By: Lauren Beals
If you were walking through IAHS on Feb. 9, you probably noticed travelling bands of kinesiology students taking selfies on their trips across campus. Ignore your first impressions, as those dedicated students were not skipping class to capture the perfect Instagram moment, but rather documenting their exploration into health and wellness research at McMaster.
McMaster Health Crawl was a one-day event organized by the university to showcase different avenues of locally conducted, health-focused research. Throughout the event, researchers and staff provided guided tours through a selection of six state of the art labs and learning spaces across campus, giving attendees an inside look into how their students learn on a daily basis.
Jennifer Heisz, a professor with the Department of Kinesiology, encouraged her students to attend the event and record their exploits into the world of research. They were joined by other undergraduates, alumni, prospective students and curious members of the community.
Health Crawl was part of the School of Rehabilitation’s Building Healthy Communities Week. Featured researcher and physiotherapist Julie Richardson thinks that the Building Healthy Communities Week is important for future prosperity.
“This [research] has large implications not only for community health but for public health,” she said. “The population is aging substantially; everyone needs mobility … it just doesn’t happen by chance. Sometimes we have to do things to facilitate it”.
Health Crawl was also the fourth event in the larger “Big Ideas Better Cities” initiative, a yearlong series of events aimed at showcasing how McMaster’s research can help communities respond to modern challenges.
But it was not just ground-breaking research on display. Innovative campus facilities played a prominent role in the event, advertising McMaster’s novel approaches to learning. Annette Brown, Program Manager at the Center for Simulation Based Learning, gave attendees a tour of the recently expanded Simulation Lab.
Within the facility, students in the Faculty of Health Sciences learn clinical and communication skills through standardized patient programs, task trainers and re-created healthcare scenarios. The lab features a variety of practice environments including homecare rooms, standardized hospital rooms and a fully functional operating room complete with high fidelity mannequins.
For Brown the advantages of opening the center for tours was clear. “Often [one of the larger benefits] is awareness. If you are not in one of the programs … you may hear of other schools or hospitals that have these centers and wonder if McMaster has one, now you know.”
Photo Credit: Esther Barlow
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Over the past few years, McMaster has steadily worked on efforts to improve its course delivery. By implementing animations, social media and online modules, McMaster is gradually bringing university education into the 21st century.
This new approach to course structure, called blended learning, aims to flip the classroom. Lecture content is made available online so instructors can use actual class time to explore specific elements in more detail. While McMaster is not currently considered a leader in the development of this method of teaching, Zafar Syed explained that this is starting to change. Syed is the Associate Director of Digital Technology at the McMaster Institute for Innovation and Excellence in Teaching & Learning, the institution that has been the main driver of this change.
“For the past three to four years there's been a concentrated effort to increase the digital footprint that McMaster has, whether that means setting up and supporting an institute like ours here to help faculty with technology integration, or funding courses to be redesigned for blended or online delivery,” he said.
The cost of redesigning a course ranges from $12,000 to $75,000. “That's not to say that one course is better than the other. It just depends on how much media production is necessary,” explained Syed. He added that a course that uses social media or Avenue to Learn in a unique way are additional ways courses can be technology-infused.
Instructors have approached blended learning in a variety of ways. As a cohort, the Biology Department decided to revisit two courses: the first year cellular and molecular biology class as well as its second-year continuation with a greater focus on cell biology. The former was launched in the spring of 2014, while the previous fall saw the beginning of the cell biology modules. According to Prof. Rosa da Silva, the department worked together to update the curriculum by creating a type of narrative structure for the course to follow. “We thought how can we make our first year experience better, how can we add more to the classroom without taking away, and we thought going blended would be the best way, so that we could offer core material online, and then really bring in class the opportunity to diversify material,” she explained.
The blended learning approach is being explored in other faculties as well. Prof. Emad Mohammad, who bridges the faculties of Commerce and Engineering, has worked to make his course Commerce 1AA3, an introductory financial accounting class, customizable. He has implemented a strategy where students read the course material on weekends and explore it through animations and videos. They are quizzed on the material and based on the results, Mohammad tailors his in-class lectures to focus on the areas students struggled with.
“Blended learning works best not because you put some content online, but because of what happens during the face-to-face component."
Both da Silva and Mohammad agreed that the blended approach has helped boost marks in their respective courses. While Mohammad admitted that not all students like the blended approach, he has noticed more A+ grades and fewer failing marks. “The results are indisputable,” he said. Da Silva was also enthusiastic about the effect of modules in her biology courses. “We’re seeing that student grades are going up with blended learning, which is great.”
Both professors also mentioned the fact that despite the improvements in grades, not all students are satisfied with the new approach to lecture content. Da Silva explained that frequently, students in her courses who do not enjoy the mix of modules and lectures have a more difficult time focusing. “Students who have a harder time managing time… are the students that are hating it, they’re not scheduling it in as part of their week to week classes that they should be watching,” she explained.
Despite the enthusiasm faculty have for blended learning, they seem to be moving forward without a concrete plan. Syed and da Silva both mentioned long-term studies of the lasting effect of blended learning courses at McMaster, but neither offered specific ways in which the content will continue to develop beyond constantly improving modules. Syed is looking forward to the opening of the LR Wilson building as a way to encourage more active and blended learning in the Humanities and Social Sciences. “Blended learning works best not because you put some content online, but because of what happens during the face-to-face component. That people are able to engage in content in a deeper and more personal way and not just passively sit and listen to lecture, which they can do in their own time,” he explained.
Although there is more room for the assessment of blended learning’s overall impact, it is clear that McMaster is determined to continue implementing learning technologies into a greater variety of courses.
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We might be lying to you. We don’t actually know if Justin Monaco-Barnes will be your next MSU President. Given Sarah Jama’s disqualification, which she is appealing this week, it’s possible that if she is successful, the vote recount will tell us that Justin isn’t the winner of this year’s election after all. The truth is that for many people, including most of the candidates, the election isn’t over yet.
However, we made the conscious decision to give Justin the presidential cover page he deserves if he is, at the end of it all, still the president-elect. But we aren’t ruling out the possibility of having another presidential face on our cover next week either.
From an outsider’s perspective, these elections have been messy. However, more than anything else, we have been surprised by the shortcomings of the rules governing MSU elections. Several things have happened in the last week that point to the need for change in how elections are carried out.
The most glaring shortcoming was the public announcement of a candidate’s disqualification without providing clear and detailed reasons behind this conclusion. While the results of the elections were released when the Elections Committee finished their deliberations in the early hours of Jan. 29, the general rules that Sarah Jama broke that led to her disqualification were made public approximately 12 hours later.
The minutes for the meeting, however, are still not posted on the MSU website at the time of this writing. It’s understandable given that the Elections Department wants to make sure the information that they release is accurate and that those involved are also full-time students, but the lack of available information does a disservice to both candidates and the student body.
Currently, Jama’s post is the only place where a student curious about the events that have taken place can find a detailed account. The problem with this account is that it is told through the lens of a candidate who is appealing her disqualification. We emailed the CRO to ask her to confirm the details shared by Jama, however, she did not want to comment on the veracity of the post.
More than failing to provide students with information in a timely manner, the process as it stands now also tarnishes the reputation of the disqualified candidate. When appeals are filed right before the end of the elections period, the targeted candidate does not have the opportunity to respond to the complaint. In the case of severe violations, the candidate should absolutely have the opportunity to present counterevidence before a decision as extreme as this is made. Unfortunately, the current system allows for campaign sabotage, especially if the Elections Committee is failing to reach out to the campaign in question for information. There have been only two presidential candidates disqualified in the MSU’s history, and the last one, in 2008, was overturned following more than a month of discussion. It is clear that disqualifications are rare and the decision to disqualify a candidate should be carefully examined and as transparent as possible.
In a high profile disqualification such as Jama’s — one only has to look at the attention her page’s status on the disqualification has garnered — the current results of the election should not be treated as if they are official. While the MSU Elections Department makes it clear in their post that the results are unofficial, you wouldn’t know that looking at the posts Monaco-Barnes or any of the other candidates made on their Facebook pages.
Several things have happened in the last week that point to the need for change in how elections are carried out.
While we sympathize with the Election Department and Committee’s other responsibilities as students and understand that this is a sensitive process, we also think it is unreasonable to keep the student body in the dark so long after this decision was made. If the Elections Department is aware of its limitations, it should not make drastic announcements based on what appears to be incomplete evidence.
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