McGill TribuneI’m certain most of you have recently heard rumblings about a certain “Jobbook-gate,” which has been tearing SSMU internal relations asunder. I would like to express my ardent support for Zach Newburgh. I believe that the calls for his resignation are completely unwarranted and overdramatic. It seems as if the crux of the matter is a perceived conflict of interest between Newburgh’s role as SSMU president and his role as a spokesperson for Jobbook.com. I fail to see the reasoning behind this claim, and would instead argue that Newburgh took particular care to avoid any conflict of interest.
A conflict of interest, as I understand it, is when a person’s involvement in one endeavour could compromise motivations or decisions in another. In the context of this specific issue, the supposed conflict is that Newburgh’s role with Jobbook would supposedly interfere with his responsibility as SSMU president to protect the integrity of SSMU. As the story goes, the alleged conflict arose when Newburgh travelled to other universities in North America and England seemingly representing SSMU to other student unions.
From what I have grasped, Newburgh made every effort to clearly distinguish between his comments as a Jobbook spokesperson and his comments as SSMU president. As Newburgh stated in an interview with the Daily, he “was not representing the SSMU in an official capacity [during these meetings]. And that should have been clear. And was made clear.” He appears to have sincerely attempted to make this distinction. Unfortunately, Newburgh cannot control the perceptions that other universities had of him. He is not to blame because they misinterpreted his intentions; that isn’t a fair burden to place on anyone. In fact, we are lucky enough to have a SSMU president who was astute enough to recognize the potential for a conflict of interest, and adjust the circumstances accordingly. Newburgh did this in two ways. First, he negotiated a potential deal that would actually align the interests of SSMU and Jobbook. Second, he abstained from any Executive Committee votes on the matter.
As part of Newburgh’s involvement with Jobbook, he negotiated with Jean de Brabant, the site’s founder, a potential deal whereby SSMU, should it choose to partner with Jobbook, would be entitled to one share for every McGill student that registered. To me, this seems as if he used his role as spokesperson for Jobbook to benefit SSMU, not the other way around, as certain pundits would have you believe. Therefore, any decision Newburgh made to benefit Jobbook would benefit SSMU as well. As far as I am concerned, that doesn’t qualify as a conflict of interest. But to even further safeguard the interests of SSMU, and remove any airs of impropriety, Newburgh abstained from all Executive Committee votes related to Jobbook. In fact, Newburgh told the Prince Arthur Herald that he “abstained from voting, disclosed [his] potential conflict to the chair, and deferred to an alternate chair” during the Executive Committee meeting where the matter was eventually disclosed. For the above reasons, I commend Newburgh for having taken every possible action to remove potential conflicts of interest.
I won’t argue that Newburgh handled the Jobbook situation perfectly, and I think he would agree. He has himself admitted that it was a lapse in judgment to sign the confidentiality agreement with de Brabant before consulting with the Executive Committee, and I’d be inclined to agree. However, there’s no use in lamenting what could or should have been done. To me, the most important indicator of Newburgh’s maturity in this matter will be how he handles this delicate and exasperating situation. He did his utmost to prevent any conflict of interest, and worked to turn the situation to the benefit of SSMU. To me, that’s called making the best of a complex situation. He’s done wonderful things for McGill undergraduate students, and we should let him continue to do so.
I’ll end this opinion piece by clearly stating that this is my personal opinion, not that of the Management Undergraduate Society. Judging by the backlash against Newburgh for his involvement with Jobbook, it seems some students have difficulty with the distinction between an invidual and his official capacity. And unfortunately for Newburgh and us, it has resulted in gross overreactions against a well-intentioned and incredibly accomplished SSMU president. It is time to move on.
Mike Conrad is a U4 student in Finance and Engineering and is VP-Academic of the MUS. He can be reached at [email protected].
