Voter turnout for this year’s McMaster Students Union sat at 28 per cent, reflecting the first time in five years that less than 40 per cent of the undergraduate student population voted in an MSU presidential election.
While this year’s low voter turnout rate is a problem, it is unclear why this problem emerged in the first place.
As highlighted in a news article from the Silhouette’s Feb. 1 issue, the last time the MSU saw a similar voter turnout was in 2013, when 29.3 per cent of the MSU voted for former presidential candidate David Campbell.
This year’s low voter turnout rate is a problem as it weakens the MSU democracy and makes MSU policy less reflective of McMaster students’ voices. The MSU needs to do more to find out why this is the case.
While it would be easy to cite student apathy as the main factor, doing so would only be speculating as it would be impossible to prove that after five years of persistently high MSU presidential voter turnout rates, an arbitrary increase in the amount of apathy was the driving force behind this year’s drop in the number of votes. It also seems implausible.
According to a Maclean’s article from 2012, in 2009, the last year that the MSU presidential election was conducted via paper ballots as opposed to online voting, voter turnout sat at 13 percent. In the years following the transition from in-person to online voting, however, the turnout rate improved significantly.
This year’s low voter turnout rate is a problem as it weakens the MSU democracy and makes MSU policy less reflective of McMaster students’ voices.
After the McMaster Students Union made the transition to online voting, which enabled students to vote through their laptops, iPads or smartphones for the first time, turnout increased 22 per cent the following year, 24 per cent the next year, and 33 per cent the year after.
Other Canadian universities also witnessed this trend. For instance, the University of Windsor Students Alliance saw a 42 per cent voter turnout increase after it made the transition to online voting.
In addition, when they switched to online voting, Wilfrid Laurier University, Queen’s University, the University of Western Ontario, Simon Fraser University, Brock University and the University of Manitoba saw their respective turnout rates spike.
While the cause of these increases is elusive, the strong correlation suggests that the switch to online voting, which improved the convenience and accessibility of voting for students, significantly contributed to the increase in turnout rate.
To identify the most plausible explanation for this year’s low voter turnout, it is essential that we first look at concrete policy changes that have also been implemented at other universities.
If a major policy change, such as the switch from in-person to online voting, did not occur this year, we should examine McMaster-specific policy changes and other actions that have been taken.
For instance, in 2011, Queen’s University started to embrace “Do It Yourself” videos, which sparked renewed conversation about the election and likely contributed to the increase in voter turnout.
According to an article in the Varsity, at the University of Toronto, voter turnout rates typically increase when the presidential candidates invest more effort into campaigning and engaging students outside of the student union.
Rather than invoke voter apathy and claim that the only remedy is social change, we need to do more to understand what factors may have contributed to the turnout for this year’s election to make sure that it does not happen again.
Not to blame the candidates and say that the problem is not student apathy, but considering the trend at the University of Toronto, we should be asking ourselves: Did the candidates campaign in ways that they traditionally have not? Did they campaign at as many classes as they did last year? Did they all promote the debates? Did they show up at the debates? How did their debate performances compare those of the candidates from previous years?
Students may be apathetic and disengaged from the MSU, but we need to do more than complain about it.
By understanding how policy changes contribute to voter turnout, we can reverse those policies or prescribe new ones. It is only after we gain a more nuanced understanding of the problem that we can remedy it.
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There are a number of full-time positions open to graduating students that the McMaster Students Union employs each year. Each one for the 2018-2019 academic year are currently up on the MSU website or will be in the coming days and weeks. These range pretty drastically in the responsibilities outlined and the skillsets needed for each considering the services they are attached to, e.g., the Silhouette, CFMU, Campus Events and the Underground.
While I would encourage anyone reading this to apply if interested, I would reapply to be Editor-in-Chief myself if returning staff were allowed to during the first hiring efforts, there are a few things you need to know.
The first is that the mandated 35 hours of training before the commencement of your employment will likely be untracked and not actually reach 35 hours. While it is convenient that there is no punch card system or anything similar over the course of the regular year, it will mostly be up to you to make sure the union and its hierarchy are held responsible for training you in the job they hired you for.
This may get a bit messy on paper. Despite it not being included in the job description that training a successor will be necessary, each Editor-in-Chief has been trained by the previous one.
This will likely not be too much of a worry given the presence of supervisory and management staff for most places also running a Student Opportunity Position. It is still worth asking about in the initial interview to make sure they have a solid training process in place.
The second is that your job description is likely outdated. Mine mentions supervising 14 staff members while we have 19. It also lists the need for knowledge in PageMaker and WordPerfect despite the fact the former’s last release was in 2004 and the latter was overtaken by Microsoft Word in the late 1990s. It also references “Assistant Editors”, which is a classification that no longer exists.
While everything is roughly correct in terms of general themes, you should talk to whoever is currently in the role to get the best idea of what their job actually entails.
The third involves some oddities with the full-time employment policy. Out of those in Student Opportunity Positions that I have talked to, no one has received a formal performance review as stated in the document. The mid-year review was supposed to take place in November.
This also overlaps with the fact that all employees start off on a six-month probationary period for the supervisor to assess their suitability to the position. If successful, they become a regular employee of the MSU. I have yet to be formerly told if I am a regular employee or if I am still on that initial probation.
There are a lot of things the MSU meticulously follows when it comes to the policy, especially when it comes to anything leave or financials related, but performance feedback is not one of them for Student Opportunity Positions.
Though there are only a few positions like this available, the union’s number of full-time employees is small enough that helping a few out would go a long way in effectively using student levies. Better training, clearer job descriptions and performance feedback are all things that need improvement or more formalized systems.
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By: Donna Nadeem
On Jan. 29, the McMaster Students Union submitted their pre-budget recommendations to city hall on how tax dollars ought to be used in Hamilton. The five main areas of investment that the pre-budget submission recommends are transit, student retention and employment, housing, by-laws and waste management.
The submission discusses having an increase in Hamilton Street Railway services on week-ends and in the summer, and have the 51 bus route running every day of the year. In 2017, the city of Hamilton decided to delay year three of the Hamilton 10 Year Local Transit Strategy. The MSU hopes that the $2.1 million that was ensured for the 2018 deliberations is eventually invested.
“Our budget submission more focused on the ten year transit strategy,” said Stephanie Bertolo, the associate vice president (Municipal Affairs). “Last year the council decided to delay funding year three, and that was due to a number of factors a lot of them for very good reasons. Now we’re just making sure that they do go ahead with funding year three.”
Regarding student retention and employment, the MSU would like to see an increase in jobs relating to interdisciplinary fields including political science, economics and labour studies. It is also put forward that opportunities like these should be advertised and made more accessible to students.
“The summer jobs program right now is very vague about what opportunities there are. There are jobs for recreation and landscaping, and those are very detailed of what you would be doing, and then there’s course-specific jobs, where they don’t actually tell you what you’ll be doing, you’re just supposed to tell them what your degree is in and then they’ll try to match you with a job but they don’t tell you what jobs are available and you don’t really know the criteria,” said Bertolo.
The MSU suggests advertising on-campus outlets such as TV screens and coffee sleeves in the McMaster University Student Centre because these advertisements would reach over 16,000 undergraduate students because it is a frequent high traffic area.
“We’d be advertising just that the jobs are open, because the jobs are open right now and I don’t think that anyone knows,” Bertolo stated.
Safety in student housing is a growing concern for the MSU as well. In order to ensure student safety, it is recommended that the city adopt a landlord licensing system to ensure that they are promoting their buildings as safe and clean environments.
“Every landlord [would have] to pay a fee in order to get a license and that just helps fund programs running for the city to do those proactive checks to insure that the unit is up to code,” said Bertolo.
The MSU also recommend that the City of Hamilton overhaul the current by-law enforcement tactics used in the neighbourhoods surrounding McMaster. The MSU suggests instead of punitively targeting students, the city should invest in educating students through the MSU Student Community Support Network program and form restorative justice and mediation programs.
“The by-law program that was recently increased, they are targeting lawn, snow and exterior by-laws, so its really important for students to know about like how long your grass needs to be, before you get a ticket for not cutting it,” Bertolo added.
Finally, in order to increase the amount of materials recycled, the MSU recommends the city of Hamilton should switch to a single-stream recycling program. McMaster University has adopted a single-stream recycling program as have many other cities including Toronto, Halton and Mississauga.
The MSU believes that if the council adopts these five key priorities, then the city of Hamilton will not only be a better place for students to live throughout their undergraduate career but also will intrigue graduates to choose Hamilton as a place to have a family and age successfully.
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After deliberating once again, the McMaster Students Union elections committee has decided to disqualify the unofficial president-elect, Ikram Farah. After tallying the votes once again, Muhammed Aydin is the new, unofficial president-elect.
As of Feb. 5, Farah has five business days to declare her intent to appeal to the elections committee. Rabeena Obaidullah, who was originally disqualified on Jan. 25 and whose disqualification was maintained, has five business days to declare her intent to appeal to the electoral appeal board. In all cases, the electoral appeal board’s decision is final.
Farah plans on appealing her disqualification to the elections committee in the coming days. Obaidullah also plans on appealing to the electoral appeal board.
According to the MSU’s announcement, the elections committee did not disqualify Farah on Jan. 25 as they did not believe the violations her campaign had accrued had affected the integrity of the election.
After deliberating on Feb. 5, the elections committee reconsidered some of the original complaints levied against Farah and decided she had violated two additional rules, resulting in her disqualification.
In particular, they ruled that Farah’s electronic media had not provided a sufficient link to the main Elections Department website. She was also penalized for knowingly violating a rule.
Farah plans on appealing her disqualification to the elections committee in the coming days. Obaidullah also plans on appealing to the electoral appeal board.
If a candidate has one “severe violation”, the elections committee considers disqualification. A candidate is only disqualified if their actions were deemed to have affected the integrity of the election.
According to the meeting minutes from the Jan. 25 meeting, the elections committee also considered disqualifying Aydin.
Aydin received two severe violations for sourcing campaign materials outside of the MSU Underground and for deliberately breaking a rule. They ruled that these infractions did not affect the election and maintained the legitimacy of his campaign.
They also discussed disqualifying Farah at this meeting, who received severe violations such as incurring more than $30 in fines for the same violation; a fine for deliberately breaking a rule, disrespecting the deputy returning officer of the MSU Elections department and for campaigning in bad taste.
According to the meeting minutes, Farah’s campaign team ignored the DRO when she asked them to stop using unapproved amplification equipment, something the committee deemed disrespectful towards elections officials. Farah was also fined for “bad taste” due to some of her campaign team smearing another candidate’s platform. During the Jan. 25 meeting, however, the committee felt that these violations had not swayed voters.
Following their Feb. 5 meeting, the committee ratified two more severe violations and deemed it grounds for disqualifications.
Obaidullah was disqualified during the Jan. 25 meeting because they believed her severe violations compromised the integrity of the election and gave her an unfair advantage.
In particular, they took issue with the violations concerning posts in closed Facebook groups, as this not only broke one of their main rules but also could not be traced unless people in those closed groups disclosed them to the elections committee.
Evidence presented to the election committee showed that multiple posts had been made on behalf of Obaidullah encouraging people to vote for her, a direct violation of one of the campaign rules. This violation, compounded by others such as mass messages and campaigning in bad taste, were the rationale for Obaidullah’s disqualification.
Before this election, presidential candidates have only been disqualified three other times. The last time a presidential candidate was disqualified was in the 2016 election, when candidate Sarah Jama was disqualified. Jama was disqualified for spending over the spending limit and for campaigning in bad taste. Following the appeals process, she was reinstated and came in second place.
For now, Aydin is the next MSU president-elect. The exact rationale behind Farah’s disqualification is still unknown as the elections committee has not yet released their meeting minutes from their Feb. 5 meeting. Until the appeals process is over, all results are unofficial.
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By: Razan Abujarad
As the presidential campaign season has come to an end and students have elected their new MSU president, here are a few points on why I think that student politics are preparing us for the real stuff.
While many students (including myself) are not thrilled about the fact that the MSU president is getting paid for a whole year out of the pockets of students, I believe that there is a justifiable reason.
From an outward perspective, a few analogies can be made between student politics and actual politics.
The very framework within the MSU functions is a democracy, in which, the president is elected by the people for the people by a majority vote. If none of the candidates have the majority vote, multiple rounds of elimination based on the number of votes take place until there are two candidates left standing.
The reason students vote for a certain candidate over another is decided based on the promises that the candidate in their campaign platforms made during the campaign period.
Although there are no political parties in student politics, students compare the candidates based on their presidential platforms and vote according to the candidate they agree most with.
Similarly, citizens and residents vote for a candidate based on their political experience and policies in government elections.
The very framework within the MSU functions is a democracy, in which, the president is elected by the people for the people by a majority vote
When a candidate is elected to become a representative for the student body, we, the constituents as the students and a part of the student union are contributing to the president’s salary and should recognize that as reason to vote.
This is comparable to the fact that as Canadian citizens or residents, we elect a prime minister and through payment of taxes, the prime minister can earn a salary in return for his service to the country.
In addition, the campaign team at university is the equivalent of the campaign team during federal elections.
The most valuable aspect of these elections is that student elections give us the opportunity to exercise our right to vote. Many first years are not yet 18 and are therefore inexperienced and not eligible to vote in provincial and federal elections.
The fact that students do not practice their right to vote brings an overwhelming disappointment. Getting involved in the MSU presidential election this year has opened my eyes to the bigger picture. People have been fighting for their right to make decisions about who governs the population and the fact students are neglecting it is deeply saddening.
Voter turnout for the 2017 MSU Presidential election was 41.6 per cent, as well as a 7.3 per cent abstinence abstention rate. These numbers imply that many students chose to not vote in any form, even simply to abstain.
Some may argue that having the right to vote includes having the right to abstain from voting, while this is true but would imply that one simply uninterested about whom they are governed by which eventually may prove to be problematic.
In Jason Brennan’s book, The Ethics of Voting, he states, “Voting changes the quality, scope and kind of government. The way we vote can help or harm people. Electoral outcomes can be harmful or beneficial, just or unjust.”
Simply put, whether a voting member decides to vote or abstain, they will become directly responsible for the resulting decision that will be made.
Each vote counts because each vote represents a voice in the matter which can recursively add up to create a bigger impact than anticipated.
For those who cannot find the incentive to vote, you must take into consideration what would happen if the majority of members did not vote and what the consequences would be.
On the scale of student politics, an example of the consequences could be inflation of meal prices instead of the reduction that was promised by a candidate who you didn’t vote for.
As members of an organization such the McMaster Students Union, we have a responsibility to ensure to voice our opinion on important matters such as who governs us as well as the referendas that are taken. Most likely the referendas will have a direct impact on our tuition fees which we must consider carefully.
Remember, a candidate will represent you whether you are voting for a student body president, the next mayor in city hall or the prime minister of Canada, the candidate will represent us as a union.
So vote when you have the chance, vote for the candidate you agree with, vote for the platform you approve of the most, because a vote is much more powerful than we take it to be.
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This is the first time since 2013 that less than 40 per cent of students voted in the McMaster Students Union presidential election. The number dropped almost 12 per cent from last year, and represents almost 3,000 students.
There are about nine months until the Hamilton municipal election. If you cannot get students to vote for their own union’s president, how do you ever expect to will them into voting in a municipal election that has less direct influence on them?
Time and time again, student needs are passed over by the city and the complaints pile up. The addition of bylaw officers as a knee-jerk response to Homecoming, the fines students have paid because of these officers, the lack of consultation with students on issues affecting them, the continued struggles with the HSR or the attempted shift in ward boundaries that would have split the student vote and diminished the effect of the $1.5 million Area Rating Reserve Fund for students all add up.
Most of these have been within the last few months. Ask yourself what you really expect to find if you look back at the city’s decisions since 2014. Why would the city cater to a population that does not vote for them?
Efforts after this immense drop in voter turnout need to start immediately. Communication has been a constant problem for the entire year as little improvement has been made since the Sept. 28, 2017 editorial, which stated as the kicker, “While the focus is on big projects, students need more updates on more things”. These results prove it.
All of the debates, the campaigning and the promises of each candidate were meaningless to a population that is apathetic or unaware of what the union does. It is a lot to ask a student who believes that barely anything has improved to listen to promises for the future.
That editorial also mentions, “The fortunate part for this paper is that many of our news articles, no matter how big or small, are breaking stories,” which still remains completely absurd. Despite the constant criticism in nearly every single issue against them or against issues on campus that still have yet to be fixed, the Silhouette has likely printed more positive news about the union than they have provided themselves. It is ridiculous.
The union needs to act immediately and not wait for Ikram Farah, the president-elect, to step in and save everything. Any union that fails to engage the people who pay for it is a failure, and losing the dedication of about 3,000 of them to apathy in a single year is a crisis.
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With January over, the McMaster Students Union has its unofficial president-elect: Ikram Farah, a level IV political science and labour studies student.
At the time of this article’s publication, the results are unofficial. Candidate Rabeena Obaidullah was disqualified but may appeal this decision to the MSU elections committee.
Of the first-choice votes, Farah received 38.6 per cent of the total vote, while every other candidate received under 20 per cent. With that said, due to the ranked voting system, it is unclear how Obaidullah’s potential reinstatement will affect the results as the results would be tabulated again and votes redistributed to her.
Despite the uncertainty of her victory, Farah remains excited to hold the title of president-elect, claiming the morning of Jan. 26 to be one of stress and hope.
“I knew that I was always going to be perceived differently because I have different [intersecting identities] and they have different intersects. I’m hoping there’s influence in seeing me in the role.”
Ikram Farah
McMaster Students Union
President-elect
Farah received the traditional call from the current MSU president at around 3:40 a.m. while spending time with her friends in the Hedden Hall common room, where she is a community advisor.
“[MSU president Chukky Ibe] called and we put it on speaker. When we heard his voice, we knew but we needed him to say it. When he said congratulations, we all started screaming,” Farah said.
Following the news, Farah immediately called her mother, who had called a little earlier asking why she had not received the results yet.
“She had just woken up for prayer and I didn’t want her to fall too deep of a sleep. So I called her twice and that’s when I started crying. … It took her so long to realize how big this was,” Farah said. “It’s a cultural thing, I think; in her head, I should just be going to grad school. She didn’t understand until the Christmas break that this was a job, that this was something I was invested in,” she added.
Farah is excited to use her various experiences in her role as president.
“I know how to talk to people, I understand in different lenses, I’ve been involved with different groups. I’ve seen how different experiences can manifest and where people go wrong, where people go right with respect for change. I’ve seen it from an MSU perspective, I’ve seen it from a residence life perspective, I’ve seen it from the McMaster perspective,” Farah said.
Farah will begin working on the extended Go bus hours and the international shuttle bus so that they are up and running by Welcome Week to ensure both commuter and international students may attend.
Farah also hopes to begin working on making improvements to the McMaster Student Absence Form and introducing tax-free Tuesdays, and is optimistic that these projects will be achieved by September.
Farah will also be the fifth female MSU president. She hopes her position will only encourage others.
“I knew that I was always going to be perceived differently because I have different [intersecting identities] and they have different intersects. I’m hoping there’s influence in seeing me in the role,” Farah said.
While her victory remains up in the air, Farah remains hopeful that she will get to be the next MSU president and has her eyes set on what she wants achieved.
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The editorial on Jan. 21, 2016 highlighted some of the strongest ideas that the McMaster Students Union has had from winners and losers of previous presidentials. This also noted that this was still the case even if they sometimes take years to come about. Mac Farmstand, the fall break, the Peer Support Line, the MSU emergency bursary and the full-year bus pass are all mentioned as examples.
Light Up the Night, the referendum for vice-presidents at-large that eventually failed by 20 votes, the freedom credit that still shows up as an idea and the need for an interfaith space, which will not be fulfilled until the new Student Activity Building is completed, are all also mentioned.
The editorial on Jan. 19, 2017 stated to be critical of candidates with broad platforms and ambitious goals because of the unfeasibly of some points and how long they would realistically take to implement.
Feb. 2, 2017 in particular is interesting for highlighting the sentiment that, “The president doesn’t do anything anyway”. It goes into detail about the roadblocks the current MSU president, Chukky Ibe, would likely face because of his platform, and states pessimism that his presidency would only add to this narrative that some students have.
It has, unfortunately, though that also is not entirely his fault. A significant portion of his platform has already been implemented or is currently in the works.
The Speculator on Jan. 11 points out the lack of follow-through on the media creator database with Underground, the MSYou voting system, the comprehensive athletics policy, working with the HSR to build new bus shelters on campus, service-club clusters, the MacServe Year of Learning program and the event loan system for clubs and faculty societies.
Admittedly, that selection represents most of the goals that have not had at least some progress, which is impressive considering his “Platform Tracklist” during his campaign had around 25 points total and the burden of helping the Student Activity Building continues.
My main criticism for this year’s presidentials has consistently been that platforms have been far too conservative. This was hinted at in last week’s editorial and the note that platforms lack having one big point.
I am not sure if that is a lack of ambition, a realistic outlook on what the president can achieve in one year or a fear of feeding into the public narrative of how slow progress can be, but it is unfortunate and understandable.
That 2016 editorial mentioned before states, “Although many might seem infeasible, impractical and sometimes stale, they speak to the needs of the McMaster community.” Not every idea has to succeed or end up being feasible, but I would rather have too many ideas and too much to work with than too few and too little.
This may be the first time that the winning candidate, whoever that may end up being, will simply run out of ideas to work on mid-way through the year with the platforms they currently have.
The consolation is that the quantity of candidates and the priority on smaller goals features an incredible amount of viable ideas from literally every candidate. There are a lot of easy ideas that could be started immediately if any sort of effort is given to them, and a lot of little things that could be worked on throughout the campus.
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Frost Weeks in the past have traditionally been about events welcoming students back to the university after a long break, complete with concerts, parties and other social events. Of Gentleman and Cowards, residence parties with unlimited pizzas, outdoor skating, Arkells, Frost Fest and Alessia Cara were just a few examples of what was featured over the years.
2017’s Frost Week had a notable change in priority. Shaarujaa Nadarajah, vice-president (Administration) at the time, noted, “We will fill the week with a variety of events so there is something for every type of student to enjoy”. Frost Fest and outdoor skating continued. Events like Faculty Nights, RepFest, the Student Wellness Centre and the McMaster Student Leadership Conference were given increased priority.
This year’s complete rebrand to Life After Mac is self-explanatory as it focuses on students thinking about life after McMaster. A toast to your final semester at McMaster, a showcase of the Student Success Centre and information about grad school, the Mac Alumni services and career opportunities are all part of the events and programs.
While the focus on an underrepresented section of students is appreciated, especially given Welcome Week’s focus on new students and the introduction of Light Up the Night in 2015 as a social event later in the year, a few things should be tuned up for next time.
This pivot to graduating students has left a large number of clubs and services in an odd position with the lack of ClubsFest II that typically takes place during the week. An opportunity to engage the student body, show off what people are doing around campus and get interest for new volunteers during the second semester is gone.
While its removal makes sense with the focus of the week, ClubsFest II does not necessarily need to be during Frost Week. The scheduling in 2013 put Frost Week from Jan. 9 to Jan. 13 and ClubsFest II on Jan. 28, though this had some interference with the McMaster Students Union presidential election that ended on Jan. 31. At the time of writing, it is currently not scheduled to take place at all this year.
The absence of events for a significant portion of the student population leaves a similar issue that some of the previous years had. Life After Mac itself caters to a very narrow audience.
There is little provided for students who are not yet thinking about their lives after McMaster, students who simply are not interested in social events or comedy by Hasan Minhaj and students who have already considered their lives after McMaster. Being so relatively late in the year also means that a good portion of students who are graduating simply will not find the resources useful as they have likely thought extensively about their lives after McMaster already.
That being said, other events running independently of this such as Diversity Week and the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance’s #TextbookBroke campaign do not appear to be splitting the focus of the McMaster Students Union enough to detract from each. Both are good causes, and both would likely be less effective if done during presidentials.
The Life After Mac rebrand is a good idea given how few events are given nearly as much emphasis for graduating students. It is questionable to do this late in the year and as a niche replacement to the old Frost Week that catered to more of the student body. It is a good first step that needs a bit of adjusting to actually be effective.
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On Jan. 7, the Student Representative Assembly and Board of Directors convened in Gilmour Hall for the first SRA meeting of 2018.
A large portion of the meeting was allotted to opening and closing seats on a number of committees, including opening and closing nominations for SRA and McMaster Students Union members to join awards committees, such as the MSU Merit Scholarship and the MSU Spirit award.
Another topic of discussion concerned the future of Homecoming.
“There are a significant amount of students who do not attend homecoming for a myriad of reasons. From midterms to commuter reasons, faith restrictions and just lack of interest,” wrote MSU president Chukky Ibe in a memo to the SRA on Dec. 21, 2017.
“We also have concerns about the responsibility of students and student leaders, concerns of the community,” he added.
In the memo, Ibe also highlighted the issue of gender-based violence and behaviour from both performers and community members. He also highlighted issues of alumni not returning for Homecoming, explaining that while axing Homecoming is not up for discussion, the future of Homecoming remains uncertain.
At the meeting, members of the SRA proposed a number of ways that the MSU could make Homecoming more worthwhile for alumni and students, particularly commuter students, in the future.
“There are a significant amount of students who do not attend homecoming for a myriad of reasons. From midterms to commuter reasons, faith restrictions and just lack of interest.”
Chukky Ibe
MSU President
In particular, Sunny Yun, caucus leader (Arts & Science), suggested that Homecoming include alumni-specific programming.
Ibe proposed cohort-specific programming, such as a reunion for SRA alumni.
Sabra Salim, caucus leader (Science), argued that alumni may be more incentivized by specific types of programming, such as performances from big name artists.
Sabrin Salim noted that it may be more fruitful for the MSU to target multiple audiences, featuring unique types of performances, as achieved with Lil Yachty and The Strumbellas.
Another recommendation entailed increasing the amount of activity on campus, particularly by expanding Homecoming Expo to make it more akin to Light Up The Night.
When asked how Homecoming can be made friendlier to commuter students, SRA members echoed the sentiment that there should be more activity on campus during Homecoming.
“We should have programming for people who maybe the partying frequency [is not something] they go towards,” said Sabra Salim.
The board of directors will be taking the Assembly’s suggestions into consideration.
Currently, the MSU is part of a working group, which includes student unions from Queen’s University, the University of Waterloo, Western University and Wilfrid Laurier University, where it will continue to discuss these issues.
The next SRA meeting will be held in room 111 of Gilmour Hall at 6 p.m. on Jan. 21, 2018.
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