Josh Abaki is nothing if not zealous.  Sometimes, that translates into good results:  Abaki followed through on his campaign promise to keep campus libraries open 24 hours a day for most of each semester. He was a committed defender of the student cause during the fallout of the Architecture Café’s closure.  He is a man of principle.

But it’s his unwillingness to budge, which has occassionally been the problem.  For instance, in November, he insisted that McGill semesters are too long, and tried to advocate for shorter ones. His motivations were partly noble; our terms are longer than those at other Canadian universities, and international students could use some extra time to travel in December.  But Abaki wasn’t seeing the whole picture: McGill semesters are actually shorter than they are in the U.S., faculties which have required curricula would have to compress their material, and the exam period would be condensed. Abaki’s term has been characterized by these sorts of advocacies, which seem good for students at first but aren’t necessarily in their best interests.

Abaki has also taken a stubborn position on the Jobbook debacle.  Abaki has held President Newburgh to his own impossibly rigorous moral standards. On February 7, he told the Chronicle of Higher Education that Newburgh had “lost the moral authority” to lead the Students’ Society—a clear breach of the Executive Committee’s trust. The Tribune does not know all of the details of the case, because SSMU Council’s main deliberations on it took place in confidential session, so there might be better reasons for Abaki’s fury than are immediately evident. But Council has made its decision, and it’s time to move on.