Hello esteemed council, this inter-provincial report has been delivered from the friendly confines of Halifax, Nova Scotia, among esteemed student leaders from across the country. Spending just 3 days in the office since the last meeting, and 5 days in Halifax, my past two weeks have been dominated by CASA conference-related activities.
Upcoming Referendum(s)
In light of the passed motions at the previous council surrounding the ‘Fee Replacement Referendum’, myself and Sohail sat down with the CRO and DROs to give them the information about the referendum which they will need to run the impartial information campaign.
As per the Omnibus agreement between BUSU and the University, I also delivered the notice necessary about the referendums which we know will be upcoming for the rest of the year.
I also had a chance to meet briefly with Ken from Brock Outdoors, and we are developing a stronger referendum question and memorandum of understanding before he begins the petition process to have this club funding referendum come forward.
24-hour space
I received official notice from the University that we will have access to the Kenmore Centre to use as 24-hour study space during the upcoming exam period, as a trial run to future 24-hour spaces available on campus. I am continuing to work out the final details with Campus Security, and full information will be posted and advertised shortly. I encourage everyone to ensure that their constituents know about this new option, and that it be used frequently to ensure that this trial period is a success.
Academic Affairs Committee
The Academic Affairs Committee held a Town Hall/Open Forum to discuss any issues of concern that students had about university policy. No previously unknown issues were raised at this meeting, attended by 5 people over an hour and a half. The committee will continue to work and prioritize the previously identified concerns over the rest of the year.
The AAC also met to discuss student-selected Teaching Awards on campus, and we have a framework ready to go that has been approved. The formal drafting and creation of the form is the only step left to go before this initiative begins to be promoted and ready to accept submissions. We will have a submission based teaching award for Lecturers (6 winners – one per faculty including an overall Brock winner), and one individual Teaching Assistant/Lab Assistant.
Senate
One of the Senate committees I sit on, the Undergraduate Student Affairs committee, discussed at the last meeting the ideas surrounding a formal grade for academic dishonesty cases. Some universities have moved to a system where a grade of ‘XD’, ‘XF’ or something similar, are used on transcripts to denote that a student has failed because they have been caught in an academic dishonesty situation. The committee decided at this time not to recommend any action to Senate, that our current procedures at Brock are enough of an education and a deterrent to prevent dishonest behaviour. This issue may be revisited in a few years with more information.
Referendums
There will be a presentation at this meeting to propose a referendum to be held at the same time as the Executive elections in February, to take $5 in existing ancillary fees and redistribute them for next year into a Clubs Levy, Green Levy, and an increase to the BUSU operating budget. There have been two executive meetings exclusively for this topic this past week, and I took the responsibility of writing the first draft of the Memorandum of Understanding.
Canadian Student Survey
The final e-mail about this survey has gone out to students, but the link is still live and active until the end of this week. Over 2000 students at Brock have taken the survey already, second (in numbers) in the country to only University of Alberta, and University of Western Ontario. Percentage-wise of the student body, Brock is heads and shoulders above other schools participation rates, and we should be commended for that. I encourage anyone who has not participated yet to please visit www.canedsurvey.org and take the 15 minutes to share your opinions.
OUSA
I have completed the first drafts of OUSA’s financial policies, and sent them to the rest of the OUSA membership for evaluation. We have also determined the review process for our staff reviews, and I continue to work on the organization’s future insurance needs, and a switch in credit card providers.
CASA
CASA’s Annual General Meeting was held in Halifax last week. As you may or may not know, CASA is overhauling/reviewing/discussing massively significant internal issues this year, including all of the following:
- The constitution
- The governance structure
- The voting structure
- The fee structure
- The long-term plan
This, as a sum, basically constitutes just about everything that CASA does internally. This, in addition to some policy in the week.
The following constitutes an extremely brief overview of the proceedings:
The first day began with reports from the National Director, about the government climate, and updates from the Digital Technology Officer about a recent media strategy involving east coast schools and MuchMusic personality Paul Telner. We received updates from each of the policy committees and presentations about policies ready for adoption in the afternoon, and then held a policy committee meeting to prioritize the tasks remaining for the rest of the year.
The second day was a full-day discussion about two very important issues: long-term planning, and governance structure. Through breakouts, day-long discussion (including arguments and bigschoolsmallschoollove), healthy debate, discussion and compromise, the organization received through full input, the direction towards a BHAG (the organization’s main goal), as well as organizational core values, and core purpose. The rest will be hashed out through the rest of the year on a committee that I sit on.
The third day focused more on the governance structure, and the large decisions about which bodies/groups receive which jurisdiction and authorities were sorted out, as well as that a board structure was needed, and the rough edges around how the board composition should look. We also had a lengthy discussion about how the voting structure should look, and a shorter-but-important direction-setting session to let the fee structure review committee know what to proceed with. We also held a formal plenary session to accept Fraser Valley into the membership as a full member, and Kwantlen into CASA as an associate member. Within this session, we also held an in-camera meeting.
The final day was the plenary session, with some actual decisions made, as well as more future direction. We passed the policies on Copyright and around graduate student grants, and for CASA to take out membership in the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies. Some budgetary business was discussed at length, and CASA formally passed/approved funding for the Canadian Student Survey. Other working groups and empowerment was delegated: we will be evaluating formal guidelines for observer schools, we have begun to empower our leadership team to take on the powers of the soon-to-be Board of Directors, to develop a communications strategy and the policy committee was taskedwork on the next 5 CASA policies. The motion to adjust CASA’s voting structure will go to a conference-call vote within the next month.
In addition to the committees and activities that I was already involved with, I will be heading the research and leading the committee on the issue of International Branch Campuses from Canadian institutions.
VPUA Job Tip of the Week
Tip #6 – Documentation
In a short word, keep it. Keep all of it, even the things you believe to be incredibly insignificant, or cumbersome. You, or someone else, will need it later.
BUSU has lost a lot of documentation in its history, we have some dead-zones where we know nothing about some years. Many of these were in the pre-computer days, and now that we have these, it makes the storage and tracking of information so much easier for the future.
Save every single e-mail attachment onto the network, as soon as you receive it. This allows you to delete e-mails which you may not need, while providing a back-up copy of any document you’ve received, for review later when you may or may not be online or offline, or on a different machine.
Save copies of every document you create, in every stage. I’ve begun labelling every file ‘RobsXprojectversion1point1’, and then after anybody else revises it, this becomes 1point2, then 1point3, and so on. The historical progression of a decision may not be readily apparent or necessary for you, but imagine three years from now when you are not around, someone should be able to follow your every thought process.
Create labels, folders, and subfolders as specific as possible to help your future selves find the information, in the years they need to find it. I’ve found it helpful to keep a subdirectory of every past year within quick reach as well.
Never throw out your scrap paper. This becomes where you’ve jotted down phone numbers and notes on the go, names, committees, dates, and anything else. At least once per week I sort and sift through a file in my drawer of old scrap papers, because one of those names or numbers has now become relevant or necessary again.
‘Sent e-mail’ history is just as important to save, track and sort through for this information as well. Ensure that all e-mails are backed up and saved for future reference.
An extra 10 seconds of effort today, believe me when I say this, saves you hours of headache later on. And your successors will thank you for it.
Closing Lyric of the BUSAC
“This is my December
This is my time of year
This is my December
This is all so clear”
- Linkin Park
Monday, November 23, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
OUSA Blog Post
Coasts & Coalitions – By Rob Lanteigne (Nov 16, 2009)
With the power of Blackberry, I write this blog with a toe literally dipped in the Atlantic Ocean (cold in November, fyi). Myself and many of the OUSA folk are in Halifax for the AGM of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations.
I can’t help but marvel, not just at the beautiful country we have, but at the strength of post-secondary advocacy in this country. You know (or I hope you do from the OUSA website) about the strength and influence we have in Ontario. CASA provides the parallel voice federally, with great strength and success.
The value of these Alliances is more than just strength in numbers, and a coordinated voice. It’s also about resource and idea sharing, a way for me to strengthen the impact that BUSU has at Brock by learning about what the students’ unions at Calgary and Dalhousie offer their students. The value is in achieving more together than we would be able to fathom working independently. And that’s why I’m proud and humbled to represent my school and my constituents at these conferences.
The beautiful east coast scenery is just a side benefit.
-Rob Lanteigne
With the power of Blackberry, I write this blog with a toe literally dipped in the Atlantic Ocean (cold in November, fyi). Myself and many of the OUSA folk are in Halifax for the AGM of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations.
I can’t help but marvel, not just at the beautiful country we have, but at the strength of post-secondary advocacy in this country. You know (or I hope you do from the OUSA website) about the strength and influence we have in Ontario. CASA provides the parallel voice federally, with great strength and success.
The value of these Alliances is more than just strength in numbers, and a coordinated voice. It’s also about resource and idea sharing, a way for me to strengthen the impact that BUSU has at Brock by learning about what the students’ unions at Calgary and Dalhousie offer their students. The value is in achieving more together than we would be able to fathom working independently. And that’s why I’m proud and humbled to represent my school and my constituents at these conferences.
The beautiful east coast scenery is just a side benefit.
-Rob Lanteigne
Thursday, November 12, 2009
A well-reasoned report by Ontario students
The following editorial appeared online at the University Affairs magazine website, November 12, 2009, written by deputy editor Leo Charbonneau
http://www.universityaffairs.ca/margin-notes/a-well-reasoned-report-by-ontario-students
You can find the PDF version of the OUSA submission at http://www.ousa.ca/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/OUSA-RH2-Submission3-31.pdf
I was impressed by the submission presented by the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance to the provincial government this week (see the press release here, and the full submission in PDF format here).
The 40-page document contains three main priorities: student financial aid, student success (quality), and tuition. I think the report is eminently reasonable, especially some of the recommendations on quality and access. It also lacks some of the needlessly confrontational language I sometimes see with student advocacy.
Many of the recommendations are obviously Ontario-specific, but there are others that I think would resonate Canada-wide.
http://www.universityaffairs.ca/margin-notes/a-well-reasoned-report-by-ontario-students
You can find the PDF version of the OUSA submission at http://www.ousa.ca/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/OUSA-RH2-Submission3-31.pdf
I was impressed by the submission presented by the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance to the provincial government this week (see the press release here, and the full submission in PDF format here).
The 40-page document contains three main priorities: student financial aid, student success (quality), and tuition. I think the report is eminently reasonable, especially some of the recommendations on quality and access. It also lacks some of the needlessly confrontational language I sometimes see with student advocacy.
Many of the recommendations are obviously Ontario-specific, but there are others that I think would resonate Canada-wide.
Here are their recommendations in terms of student financial assistance:
- Raise the living allowance to at least the poverty line and ensure geographic differences in cost of living are taken into account;
- Raise the in-study income exemption to $100/week, and tie it to future increases in the minimum wage;
- Immediately raise the OSAP maximum to $175 per week with a proportional increase from the federal government
- Fulfill its promise to provide students with an interest-free year before they must begin repaying their student loans; and,
- Maintain the Ontario Student Opportunity Grant at its current level, and finding the funding through the redirection of the tuition and education tax-credits.
Student success:
- The provincial government mandate institutions to develop early warning systems to 5 proactively identify and assist those students who may need greater support, especially in their first year;
- The provincial government create envelopes within the funding formula that designate specific amounts per FTE for student support services;
- Funding be designated by the provincial government to found and maintain instructional support programs that encourage innovation in teaching and provide ongoing professional development for Ontario’s post-secondary educators;
- The provincial government develop incentives for all new PhD students to be given formal instruction in teaching methods and practices;
- The provincial government designate targeted funding to support the development of new teaching and learning pedagogy at all institutions and across all disciplines; and,
- Quality teaching be weighted equally with research performance for all decisions relating to hiring, promotion and tenure. A panel consisting of students, government, university and faculty representatives must be established to explore how this standard can be better maintained.
And tuition:
- The provincial government regulate all tuition, including that of international students;
- The Ontario government progress toward restoring a 2:1 cost-sharing model where tuition makes up no more than a third of university operating budgets;
- At minimum, the provincial government must increase university operating grants to the per student national average.
- If tuition increases must occur, then they should go up no more than that of yearly inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index.
Did you catch that very last one? I got a bit of flack last week for saying that calls by student groups to cut tuition are dubious, but I notice this group is not advocating that.
I’m not up on the intricacies of university student politics, but my understanding is this group is aligned with the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, which I gather is viewed as more “conservative” or, if you wish, less “ideological” than the rival Canadian Federation of Students.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
VPUA Report November 10, 2009
Good evening all, apologies for being sick during the last meeting and unable to attend to answer questions. The illness kept me away from the office for much of the week, coming in only for specific meetings and then leaving again. I can respond to questions about this report or the last one during this meeting.
OUSA
I spent some time these past two weeks working on two very important initiatives for OUSA. Alexi and I have been going over quotes and types of insurance that might be necessary for the organization, and this has come with some time spent on education for myself as well as a deeper understanding of the insurance that BUSU carries for various reasons. The second project is financial policies – I have completed the first draft of a brand new set of procedures for the organization, and this will bounce back and forth a few times over the next few months before being finalized and adopted.
The OUSA website should now be back up and running as of when you read this. Check out the new www.ousa.ca and check out some of the new content, including the revamped OUSA blog which I contributed to last Monday.
On Friday, I attended workshop hosted by the Council of Ontario Universities, which was dedicated to lobby training and public policy. This report was written before that date, so I can update BUSAC verbally about how this went, if the question is asked.
CASA
I held a conference call with the rest of the Strategic Planning Committee two weeks ago to go over the timelines and deadlines for that initiative.
The pre-conference materials for next week’s AGM have been sent out, so I have spent time reviewing these, and discussing the conference with my counterparts at other institutions. Discussions will include very major issues of policy, strategic plan, governance review, voting structure, and fee structure.
Niagara Prosperity Advisory Committee
The NPAC hosted a Community Conversation last week on Tuesday on campus. Lianne and I both attended to learn more about their committee, and bring back some ideas of how we might be able to increase our service offerings. One particular initiative, a “Good Food Bag” filled with healthy local fruits and vegetables, is one service that we may be able to add on to our existing food voucher and ESLP initiatives to help students in need.
BUSAC Committees
I am the chair of two committees: External Affairs and Academic Affairs. Both attempted to meet for the first time two weeks ago. Unfortunately, only three people including myself were in attendance at External Affairs, but we still were able to go over an outline of the year, and discuss some CASA-related initiatives.
The Academic Affairs met however, and I’m proud to say that it reached quorum for the first time ever! The committee will be hosting an open town hall this week, Thursday at 3:30 in AS 215 to gather student concerns about academic matters within Brock. We also have a list of about a dozen issues to tackle this year, beginning with the creation of a student-driven Teaching Award here at Brock.
Referendums
There will be a presentation at this meeting to propose a referendum to be held at the same time as the Executive elections in February, to take $5 in existing ancillary fees and redistribute them for next year into a Clubs Levy, Green Levy, and an increase to the BUSU operating budget. There have been two executive meetings exclusively for this topic this past week, and I took the responsibility of writing the first draft of the Memorandum of Understanding.
Presidents’ Ball
I also spent a bit of time running around the Region to collect some Presidents’ Ball prizes from various local politicians – Chairman Peter Partington, Mayor Damian Goulbourne, Mayor Ted Salci, MP Rob Nicholson, and MPP Jim Bradley.
Canadian Student Survey
Monday, you hopefully (will) receive(d) an e-mail within your Badger account about the National Student Survey. This is a HUGE deal with major implications and buy-in from across the country. This is the first time that students in Canada have produced a full-scale national survey where the data is created and owned by the students, providing cross-sections on a national, provincial and institutional scale.
As many of you might know, the non-renewal of the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation is creating a huge data void within postsecondary education. With the limited research of Statistics Canada excepted (and that is based mostly on census data only), there is no public data and research on education anymore. The only surveys, the only research, the only data, is being collected and held by the groups that commission the research. All too often, this is private companies, groups and think tanks which have a certain agenda and purpose to their data collection. Information and statistics are only released when favourable and when necessary. Statistics that do not support their mission are never released. Those who hold the data hold the control.
This survey, owned by “the partnership” including CASA and OUSA, will allow students access to the data that we can’t get otherwise. It also delves far beyond that, asking students for the first time about many public policy preferences relating to PSE which will help inform future organizational direction. It tests knowledge to indicate whether current government programs are known and are being utilized. And it asks some questions that no other research has been asking because they don’t serve students as members.
I beg of you that you do not ignore this survey. We as Vice Presidents, Presidents, we can only do so much with the experiences we have and the friends that we know. The data of thousands of students is so much stronger than our “belief that this is the case” in our universities. Please take the fifteen minutes to fill it out, and encourage your friends to do the same. BUSU, OUSA, CASA, we can only serve your interests if we know what your interests are, and for the first time we have a large-scale mechanism to evaluate it.
Other Meetings
BUSU Exec meetings – at least 2x per week
Appeals meeting – I am on the appeals board for one of the University services which shall remain nameless. We had a meeting to discuss 9 appeal situations.
Educational Technology Advisory Group
Senate Governance Committee
VPUA Job Tip of the Week
Tip #5 – Meet Your Deadlines
This tip may sound simple, it may sound logical, it may sound like downright common sense. But all too often in this job and student union politics in general, people are not able to meet the commitments that they make. When you get a series of busy people together, whether they are students, reporters, politicians, and a date or time gets agreed upon for a meeting, work to be completed, or a follow up, there is somebody counting on you to hold up your end of the bargain. The most frustrating thing is when busy people get together, and the time is wasted when the preliminary information has not been done.
I hesitate to point out any names of people who do not meet this standard, but there are many people that I have encountered over the past two years. One of the reasons that BUSU has one of the highest meeting rates and influence with our local politicians is based on our prompt use of meeting debrief forms and follow-ups on requests for information. The reason that we are among the most prepared at OUSA and CASA meetings is that material is reviewed and commented on during the preliminary stages based on the deadlines, which gives us greater influence into the initial documents and more knowledge about the process, adding greater weight to the outcomes.
I’m proud to say that no newspaper story of mine has ever appeared with a “Rob/BUSU was unavailable for comment at press time”, and that timely information has led to the retraction of various inaccuracies. We’ve never cancelled, or even delayed, an event that I have been responsible for due to lack of preparation or forward thinking. Being prepared for a meeting when others aren’t immediately increases your credibility in the eyes of everyone else watching, and in this business, if you don’t have credibility, then you don’t have anything.
How does this get done? Get yourself into a routine of writing things down. Blackberries and electronic calendars are technologically cool and can give you a handy beep 15 minutes before you need to be somewhere. But a physical calendar allows you to scan weeks at a glance. I place “internal reminders” throughout my calendar hours or days in advance of the actual deadline, just to remind myself to work on them. I scan at least two weeks ahead in my calendar, every day, to make sure I’m leaving time for something that needs to be done. I may be VP Travel and Tourism, but I’ve never missed a BUSAC report deadline in two years. It’s time prioritization.
I hesitate to even include this as a “job tip” because I wish it was just common sense, but it jumps all the way up my list to number 5 because it’s such a basic function that takes just a few minutes of organization. You’re going to be doing the work, the readings, the reports, the planning, the thinking, and the follow-ups anyway. Do them early before you get caught on the treadmill of being late for everything, and your access and influence increases exponentially.
Closing Lyric of the BUSAC
“It’s the perfect time of day
To throw all your cares away
Put a sprinkler on the lawn
And run through with my gym shorts on”
- Barenaked Ladies
OUSA
I spent some time these past two weeks working on two very important initiatives for OUSA. Alexi and I have been going over quotes and types of insurance that might be necessary for the organization, and this has come with some time spent on education for myself as well as a deeper understanding of the insurance that BUSU carries for various reasons. The second project is financial policies – I have completed the first draft of a brand new set of procedures for the organization, and this will bounce back and forth a few times over the next few months before being finalized and adopted.
The OUSA website should now be back up and running as of when you read this. Check out the new www.ousa.ca and check out some of the new content, including the revamped OUSA blog which I contributed to last Monday.
On Friday, I attended workshop hosted by the Council of Ontario Universities, which was dedicated to lobby training and public policy. This report was written before that date, so I can update BUSAC verbally about how this went, if the question is asked.
CASA
I held a conference call with the rest of the Strategic Planning Committee two weeks ago to go over the timelines and deadlines for that initiative.
The pre-conference materials for next week’s AGM have been sent out, so I have spent time reviewing these, and discussing the conference with my counterparts at other institutions. Discussions will include very major issues of policy, strategic plan, governance review, voting structure, and fee structure.
Niagara Prosperity Advisory Committee
The NPAC hosted a Community Conversation last week on Tuesday on campus. Lianne and I both attended to learn more about their committee, and bring back some ideas of how we might be able to increase our service offerings. One particular initiative, a “Good Food Bag” filled with healthy local fruits and vegetables, is one service that we may be able to add on to our existing food voucher and ESLP initiatives to help students in need.
BUSAC Committees
I am the chair of two committees: External Affairs and Academic Affairs. Both attempted to meet for the first time two weeks ago. Unfortunately, only three people including myself were in attendance at External Affairs, but we still were able to go over an outline of the year, and discuss some CASA-related initiatives.
The Academic Affairs met however, and I’m proud to say that it reached quorum for the first time ever! The committee will be hosting an open town hall this week, Thursday at 3:30 in AS 215 to gather student concerns about academic matters within Brock. We also have a list of about a dozen issues to tackle this year, beginning with the creation of a student-driven Teaching Award here at Brock.
Referendums
There will be a presentation at this meeting to propose a referendum to be held at the same time as the Executive elections in February, to take $5 in existing ancillary fees and redistribute them for next year into a Clubs Levy, Green Levy, and an increase to the BUSU operating budget. There have been two executive meetings exclusively for this topic this past week, and I took the responsibility of writing the first draft of the Memorandum of Understanding.
Presidents’ Ball
I also spent a bit of time running around the Region to collect some Presidents’ Ball prizes from various local politicians – Chairman Peter Partington, Mayor Damian Goulbourne, Mayor Ted Salci, MP Rob Nicholson, and MPP Jim Bradley.
Canadian Student Survey
Monday, you hopefully (will) receive(d) an e-mail within your Badger account about the National Student Survey. This is a HUGE deal with major implications and buy-in from across the country. This is the first time that students in Canada have produced a full-scale national survey where the data is created and owned by the students, providing cross-sections on a national, provincial and institutional scale.
As many of you might know, the non-renewal of the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation is creating a huge data void within postsecondary education. With the limited research of Statistics Canada excepted (and that is based mostly on census data only), there is no public data and research on education anymore. The only surveys, the only research, the only data, is being collected and held by the groups that commission the research. All too often, this is private companies, groups and think tanks which have a certain agenda and purpose to their data collection. Information and statistics are only released when favourable and when necessary. Statistics that do not support their mission are never released. Those who hold the data hold the control.
This survey, owned by “the partnership” including CASA and OUSA, will allow students access to the data that we can’t get otherwise. It also delves far beyond that, asking students for the first time about many public policy preferences relating to PSE which will help inform future organizational direction. It tests knowledge to indicate whether current government programs are known and are being utilized. And it asks some questions that no other research has been asking because they don’t serve students as members.
I beg of you that you do not ignore this survey. We as Vice Presidents, Presidents, we can only do so much with the experiences we have and the friends that we know. The data of thousands of students is so much stronger than our “belief that this is the case” in our universities. Please take the fifteen minutes to fill it out, and encourage your friends to do the same. BUSU, OUSA, CASA, we can only serve your interests if we know what your interests are, and for the first time we have a large-scale mechanism to evaluate it.
Other Meetings
BUSU Exec meetings – at least 2x per week
Appeals meeting – I am on the appeals board for one of the University services which shall remain nameless. We had a meeting to discuss 9 appeal situations.
Educational Technology Advisory Group
Senate Governance Committee
VPUA Job Tip of the Week
Tip #5 – Meet Your Deadlines
This tip may sound simple, it may sound logical, it may sound like downright common sense. But all too often in this job and student union politics in general, people are not able to meet the commitments that they make. When you get a series of busy people together, whether they are students, reporters, politicians, and a date or time gets agreed upon for a meeting, work to be completed, or a follow up, there is somebody counting on you to hold up your end of the bargain. The most frustrating thing is when busy people get together, and the time is wasted when the preliminary information has not been done.
I hesitate to point out any names of people who do not meet this standard, but there are many people that I have encountered over the past two years. One of the reasons that BUSU has one of the highest meeting rates and influence with our local politicians is based on our prompt use of meeting debrief forms and follow-ups on requests for information. The reason that we are among the most prepared at OUSA and CASA meetings is that material is reviewed and commented on during the preliminary stages based on the deadlines, which gives us greater influence into the initial documents and more knowledge about the process, adding greater weight to the outcomes.
I’m proud to say that no newspaper story of mine has ever appeared with a “Rob/BUSU was unavailable for comment at press time”, and that timely information has led to the retraction of various inaccuracies. We’ve never cancelled, or even delayed, an event that I have been responsible for due to lack of preparation or forward thinking. Being prepared for a meeting when others aren’t immediately increases your credibility in the eyes of everyone else watching, and in this business, if you don’t have credibility, then you don’t have anything.
How does this get done? Get yourself into a routine of writing things down. Blackberries and electronic calendars are technologically cool and can give you a handy beep 15 minutes before you need to be somewhere. But a physical calendar allows you to scan weeks at a glance. I place “internal reminders” throughout my calendar hours or days in advance of the actual deadline, just to remind myself to work on them. I scan at least two weeks ahead in my calendar, every day, to make sure I’m leaving time for something that needs to be done. I may be VP Travel and Tourism, but I’ve never missed a BUSAC report deadline in two years. It’s time prioritization.
I hesitate to even include this as a “job tip” because I wish it was just common sense, but it jumps all the way up my list to number 5 because it’s such a basic function that takes just a few minutes of organization. You’re going to be doing the work, the readings, the reports, the planning, the thinking, and the follow-ups anyway. Do them early before you get caught on the treadmill of being late for everything, and your access and influence increases exponentially.
Closing Lyric of the BUSAC
“It’s the perfect time of day
To throw all your cares away
Put a sprinkler on the lawn
And run through with my gym shorts on”
- Barenaked Ladies
Monday, November 2, 2009
Universities: an essential service?
Universities: an essential service? – by Rob Lanteigne (Nov 2, 2009)
(the following blog entry was written for the soon to be redesigned OUSA website, currently available as a mirror at http://dev.theblogstudio.com/ousa/)
Welcome back to the OUSA website after our lengthy delay, hope you enjoy the new navigation, and will become a regular reader of our OUSA Blog.
I wanted to start with a timely piece: as of this morning, the union representing Teaching Assistants and Research Assistants at McMaster is on strike. As of yet, classes are still on, but many lectures and labs will be affected. Strikes are becoming commonplace in higher education – immediately last year’s strike at York comes to mind, which cancelled classes for three months and led exams into June. In 2008, the part-time academic faculty at Laurier were on strike for two weeks. The year before that, I helped coordinate a student sit-in at Brock University when a looming faculty strike was set to cancel December exams. In 2006, a province-wide college strike shut down classes for three weeks.
The key similarity in all of these situations, and most certainly for all future labour disputes, is that students are left powerless, and out of the bargaining boardrooms. Certainly there are a few upper-year students who may be members of a bargaining unit, but the majority of the undergraduate and college students in the province are completely at the mercy of the union and the institution. While both sides always claim to have the student interest at heart, how are students expected to cope with squeezed academic semesters, shortened summers, and uncertain timelines?
Students pay thousands of dollars each year for an education, not just for a grade. A strike may or may not cancel classes outright, but every single one harms interaction, learning methods, and the chance to pick the brains of other thought leaders in their field. The number I receive at the end of the course means much less to me than the time spent with professors, the learning skills taught by TAs, and the cumulative knowledge absorbed through the entire process. Every single strike harms that learning environment.
Students are a captive and powerless consumer. Once I have been accepted to my school, I’m paying for whatever comes out the other side. I pay the same amount to be taught by a full professor or a sessional lecturer. I pay the same amount in a 400-seat lecture hall in a class with 20 TAs as I do in a fifteen-person class. And I’ve already paid that money by the time “strike season” comes along. I don’t get the chance at a refund, the chance to switch to a new school (until the year is over), and most importantly, I don’t have any sway with the two groups that are holding my education hostage.
I don’t intend to take sides, administration vs. union. I judge every situation based on its own circumstances. But I disagree with the notion that students as consumers must be the losers in every labour dispute in the higher education system. We have the right to an education that begins and ends on schedule, with the promised interaction levels throughout, with no worry, uncertainty or threat of cancelled classes. With no ability to hop institutions, especially not mid-semester, one of the few ways to guarantee this right is through declaring education an essential service.
Essential service declaration would not mean that the bargaining process dies. What it would mean, however, is healthy discussion that does not use “the student interest” as a pawn in the media to gather sympathy for either side. It would mean that students carry out their studies in labour peace, and do not have the threat of late transcripts, missed professional exams, or shorter employment summers hanging over their university careers. And it would mean that, when I’m advising my sister which school to attend for next year, that I’m not using collective bargaining contracts, history and assumptions to tell her which places to avoid.
Thoughts?
-Rob Lanteigne
(the following blog entry was written for the soon to be redesigned OUSA website, currently available as a mirror at http://dev.theblogstudio.com/ousa/)
Welcome back to the OUSA website after our lengthy delay, hope you enjoy the new navigation, and will become a regular reader of our OUSA Blog.
I wanted to start with a timely piece: as of this morning, the union representing Teaching Assistants and Research Assistants at McMaster is on strike. As of yet, classes are still on, but many lectures and labs will be affected. Strikes are becoming commonplace in higher education – immediately last year’s strike at York comes to mind, which cancelled classes for three months and led exams into June. In 2008, the part-time academic faculty at Laurier were on strike for two weeks. The year before that, I helped coordinate a student sit-in at Brock University when a looming faculty strike was set to cancel December exams. In 2006, a province-wide college strike shut down classes for three weeks.
The key similarity in all of these situations, and most certainly for all future labour disputes, is that students are left powerless, and out of the bargaining boardrooms. Certainly there are a few upper-year students who may be members of a bargaining unit, but the majority of the undergraduate and college students in the province are completely at the mercy of the union and the institution. While both sides always claim to have the student interest at heart, how are students expected to cope with squeezed academic semesters, shortened summers, and uncertain timelines?
Students pay thousands of dollars each year for an education, not just for a grade. A strike may or may not cancel classes outright, but every single one harms interaction, learning methods, and the chance to pick the brains of other thought leaders in their field. The number I receive at the end of the course means much less to me than the time spent with professors, the learning skills taught by TAs, and the cumulative knowledge absorbed through the entire process. Every single strike harms that learning environment.
Students are a captive and powerless consumer. Once I have been accepted to my school, I’m paying for whatever comes out the other side. I pay the same amount to be taught by a full professor or a sessional lecturer. I pay the same amount in a 400-seat lecture hall in a class with 20 TAs as I do in a fifteen-person class. And I’ve already paid that money by the time “strike season” comes along. I don’t get the chance at a refund, the chance to switch to a new school (until the year is over), and most importantly, I don’t have any sway with the two groups that are holding my education hostage.
I don’t intend to take sides, administration vs. union. I judge every situation based on its own circumstances. But I disagree with the notion that students as consumers must be the losers in every labour dispute in the higher education system. We have the right to an education that begins and ends on schedule, with the promised interaction levels throughout, with no worry, uncertainty or threat of cancelled classes. With no ability to hop institutions, especially not mid-semester, one of the few ways to guarantee this right is through declaring education an essential service.
Essential service declaration would not mean that the bargaining process dies. What it would mean, however, is healthy discussion that does not use “the student interest” as a pawn in the media to gather sympathy for either side. It would mean that students carry out their studies in labour peace, and do not have the threat of late transcripts, missed professional exams, or shorter employment summers hanging over their university careers. And it would mean that, when I’m advising my sister which school to attend for next year, that I’m not using collective bargaining contracts, history and assumptions to tell her which places to avoid.
Thoughts?
-Rob Lanteigne
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)