The Board of Directors report card: President Justin Monaco-Barnes

Justin Monaco-Barnes has had an exciting first semester as acting president and Chief Executive Officer of the McMaster Students’ Union. Acting as an advocate for McMaster’s student body, Monaco-Barnes’ presidential platform revolves around sustainability, service enhancement and the expansion of student space on campus. To date, he and the board of directors have been successful in breaking ground for short-term goals and paving the way towards long-term goals.

A major point throughout Monaco-Barnes’ campaign was environmental sustainability. Although his original plans of expanding the teaching and community garden and installing solar panels haven’t come to fruition yet, there have been several other successes towards a greener campus so far.

Through lobbying towards the federal government with sustainability in mind, McMaster was able to secure nearly $43 million in both federal and provincial funding in order to repair and improve the Arthur Bourns Science Building and create systems to enhance ongoing energy conservation efforts on campus.

On a smaller scale, Monaco-Barnes has been working with Union Market to reduce single-use plastic water bottle waste by eliminating the product entirely from the store and replacing it with boxed water packages, which are more sustainable in packaging and transportation.

One of Monaco-Barnes’ biggest successes this year was the proposal of a much-needed Pulse expansion. In early November, Monaco Barnes and vice president (Finance), Ryan MacDonald, presented a $60 million proposal that sees a 60,000 square foot athletics and recreation expansion. One part of the plan includes an entirely separate building dedicated to entirely unprogrammed student space, tying in with his platform point concerning student space on campus. The plan is currently in referendum and students will be able to vote upon the outcome in January during the 2017 presidential election.

“It’s been a success in my eyes already because we literally turned nothing into something,” said Monaco-Barnes, regarding the Pulse expansion proposal.

“We were able to turn this idea of a Pulse expansion, and make it into something pretty fantastic that addresses a lot of issues on campus.”

Other successes throughout Monaco-Barnes time in office so far include doubling the amount of "MSU Dollars" available for student clubs*, improving training for mental health services on campus, and improving hiring strategies that allow the hiring practices within MSU services to be more inclusive.

While Monaco-Barnes claims to have helped implement the university’s new sexual assault policy, his work on the initiative has coincided with action the university was already taking.

Overall, Monaco-Barnes has been working diligently to advocate for and improve student life at McMaster. In achieving short-term goals within his presidency, he is able to build and develop long-term strategies to ensure McMaster is the best it can be.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article and our print product says that MSU Clubs' budget was doubled. In fact, it was the amount of MSU Dollars for each club to spend was doubled. The Silhouette regrets the error. If there are other errors, please email thesil@thesil.ca with the correction.