What have you accomplished this summer?
My main goal over the summer was to create new relationships, meeting with a lot of different people around campus. In terms of SSMU, we have a bunch of new policies; for example, a new communications policy that deals with social media. I’m also really excited about our new “SSMU explains” videos. They should be an interactive way to get people to understand who we are in two minutes, so students don’t have to read through the whole website. Another project is going to be an interactive map of the campus, which will have key information that students might need to know about.
What are your long-term goals for the year?
My main goal is addressing McGill equity. McGill doesn’t have an equity policy, and one of our equity commissioners told us that having one is not feasible. So we suggested that we create a McGill statement regarding this value. If we espouse it as a community, as something that we all believe is important, then we should make a statement to that effect. So it’s very possible that this year we’re going to have a change to the mission statement of the university that would include something about equity. There are also going to be a lot of academic issues this year because there wasn’t a lot of time last year to cover them. For example, we have a lot of support from professors for the creation of a Native Studies program.
Last semester you talked to the Tribune a lot about safe space. What are your plans regarding that topic?
One of the big things for this year is reconciling the student body. One of the research projects I’m going to use to help rebuild that kind of safe area is called McGill 101, which will be a public lecture series about the history of McGill, in the context of Montreal and Canada and on its own, the history of activism, and a bit about governance. But safe space is also between McGill [administration] and students. The events of last year have really given the ear of McGill to us, and [the administration has] come to us a lot more than they did in the past. I’ve been trying to encourage admin to get on the ground a little more— even just having lunch at McConnell. Furthermore, last year, a lot of admin felt personally vilified. We need to foster constructive dialogue. I definitely want to make sure that everyone is fairly represented and that everyone’s voice is heard.
