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a, News, SSMU

SSMU executive mid-term reviews

by The McGill Tribune on

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Kareem Ibrahim—SSMU President

 

Due to the resignation both the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) general manager (GM) and the Daycare director, President Kareem Ibrahim was forced to assume many of both positions’ responsibilities. In acting as a caretaker, he has performed impressively in ensuring that SSMU as a whole has continued to function and provide services to students; however, as a result of the resignations, many of Ibrahim’s original plans and ideas have been derailed. Initiatives such as the completion of a human resources equity policy and the establishment of a consultation listserv, which was a campaign promise to better consult students, have fallen by the wayside. Additionally, efforts to increase outreach and be more visible to students were inadequate in comparison to the primacy they received in his election platform—the Fall General Assembly (GA) failed to reach quorum.

Although he wasn’t visible externally, he was constantly present within SSMU—much of his portfolio includes acting as a support member to other executives or other permanent and part-time staff. He was responsible for student-staff orientation in September, a task normally under the portfolio of the GM, and has also overhauled many internal regulations of the president’s portfolio while also improving the operations of Council.

With the introduction of a new Daycare director, GM, and a vice-president (VP) Internal this semester, a period of relative calm has presented itself in an otherwise tumultuous tenure. Moving forward, Ibrahim will need to return to the tenets of his platform that have been neglected in order to ensure that the somewhat frayed relationship that students have with SSMU is repaired and strengthened.

 

 

 

 

Emily Boytinck—VP External Affairs

 

Since the dissolution of the Fédération Étudiante Universitaire du Québec (FÉUQ), Vice-President (VP) External Affairs Emily Boytinck has actively participated in the formation of two new student associations: The Union Étudiants du Quebec (UÉQ) and the Association pour la Voix Étudiante au Québec (AVÉQ). She has reached out to faculty associations to present information on both organizations, appropriate consultation given the early stages of both organizations.

Most of Boytinck’s political focus last semester concentrated on the Divest McGill and McGill Against Austerity campaigns. Boytinck was active in event planning for both campaigns as well as meeting with administration. She also coordinated with Elections Canada to launch the vote campaign during the federal election.

Boytinck additionally completed extensive work on community affairs, including delivering letters to every house in the Milton Parc neighbourhood during Frosh. Boytinck has put forward new initiatives to improve community relations, including a garbage survey to lobby for new trash cans.

With no VP Internal, Boytinck was delegated the planning of 4Floors, which failed to sell out. Though she was handed the event on short notice, she and the committee should have concentrated more on advertisement of the event, and less on organizing ticket-sales online, which will hopefully be taken into consideration next year.

A consistent problem throughout the semester was low attendance at the events Boytinck organized. This problem may have been exacerbated by a lack of effort to reach out to groups on campus that vocally opposed these causes. In the coming semester, we would like to see more consultation with such groups from Boytinck, which will hopefully increase interest in her educational events.

 

 

 

 

 

Zacheriah Houston—VP Finance and Operations

 

The absence of a GM has greatly affected the position of VP Finance and Operations, with tasks such as the budget revision being completed weeks later than has been typical in the past. However, it is a testament to Zacheriah Houston’s ability that despite this, he has been able to implement significant changes within SSMU. Houston worked to create an online form and streamlining system for club audits, simplifying the process and making it much more easily understood and accessible for SSMU clubs. Additionally, Houston has laid the groundwork for a base-fee increase referendum question, which will be voted on later this month, and has worked towards creating a purchasing database of ethical suppliers for SSMU.

The Student Run Cafe (SRC) is one area that Houston will need to pay more attention to in the upcoming semester. The SRC opened at the beginning of this academic year on the second floor of SSMU, in the space across from The Nest—another student-run initiative. While the idea of renting space to student-run cafés as opposed to commercial tenants is a nice one, neither the SRC nor The Nest, which has been operational for over two years, have yet to break even, let alone turn a profit. The fact is that many students are unaware that the SRC and The Nest even exist, therefore focus needs to shift to outreach, advertising, and communication with all students if the SRC hopes to be a profitable venture for SSMU.

 

 

 

 

 

Chloe Rourke—VP University Affairs

 

Compared to the roles of the other executives, the role of the VP University Affairs has been the least affected by the vacancies at SSMU. Rourke has continued to working to implement initiatives geared at improving students’ mental health and well-being, including planning the second Mental Health and Awareness Week at McGill, as well as instating Happy Lights, a program which allows students to rent lamps used to treat seasonal affective disorder from SSMU.

Rourke has also worked on broader academic initiatives, such as liaising with McGill administration and faculty regarding a proposed Fall Reading Week. Along with the VP Finance and Operations, Rourke has begun discussing SSMU’s Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with McGill.

Rourke has continued her efforts to bring a new sexual assault policy to the McGill Senate. While drafts of the new policy existed before her term in office, it is commendable that Rourke is working on supplementary initiatives, such as a protocol outlining support measures for persons who have experienced sexual assault. Creating university-wide policies is a bureaucratic process, and while Rourke’s efforts are admirable, the consequences of the bureaucratic gridlock mean that initiatives that were started before Rourke’s term, and that Rourke herself worked on, may not be enacted until after her term.

 

 

 

 

 

Kimber Bialik—VP Clubs and Services

 

Kimber Bialik’s focus on institutional reorganization in areas of her portfolio over the past semester has brought an increased efficiency to the way both SSMU Clubs and Services are run. Additionally, her ongoing efforts to increase general promotion of both clubs and services, and improving general resources for each, have brought about visible changes.

Moving Fall Activities Night outdoors to reduce the wait time in line, allowing clubs to sell event tickets at the front desk of SSMU, and ramping up social media presence were small initiatives that allowed for students to have more access to information about clubs and involvement.

Bialik additionally completed an overhaul of club space by getting rid of club offices on the fourth floor of the SSMU Building, creating common areas, bookable rooms for meetings, and installing lockers.

Bialik has not only been working to maintain the four committees under her purview—Services Review Committee, Club Committee, Space Committee, Building Committee—but she has also facilitated the creation of a new club consultative committee. The Building Committee, responsible for allocating funds to improve the SSMU Building, received little to no student consultation in the past, because it is comprised primarily of permanent staff members; this past semester, Bialik froze part of these funds and allowed students to come forward with proposals on how to spend $20,000, ultimately resulting in the purchase of new carpet and furniture for the SSMU Student Lounge.

Her biggest undertaking was completion of SSMU’s service reviews, a behind-the-scenes, administrative effort. Although service reviews are supposed to be completed each year, they have been neglected since 2011, with some services having no record of ever being reviewed. On average, past SSMU Clubs and Services executives have completed five service reviews per semester; Bialik ensured that all 20 were reviewed and brought up-to-date last semester alone.

 

 

 

 

 

Perhaps most impactfully, Coughlin not only expected but earned the respect of all his players. He involved himself in their personal lives, visited them at their homes, and met their families and made them into not just better football players, but also better husbands, better fathers, and better men. He spent generous amounts of time in the locker room talking to his players and broke up his work day to eat lunch with them in the team cafeteria downstairs.

“He was like a father to me and a lot of other guys.” said Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz in a series of player tributes to Coughlin in The Player’s Tribune. “He’s always been there for me, whether I was going through something and needed someone to talk to, or whether I was struggling on the field and just needed to vent. His door was always open, and it was open to everyone, whether you were an undrafted rookie or a team captain.

Both of Coughlin’s Super Bowl wins will never be forgotten for how truly unexpected they were. Both came after seasons with poor starts and a struggle to find team cohesion until the second half of the season—just in time for the Giants to earn a wild card spot in the playoffs. In New York, a city blessed with wealthy franchises and the ability to attract talented players based on location and market size alone, rooting for the underdog is a rare phenomenon. The Yankees, the Rangers, and the Giants have been perceived more as Goliath than David for the majority of their appearances in their respective post-seasons, but Coughlin’s two runs to the Super Bowl—during which the Giants played only one total home playoff game—to face the mighty Patriots were an undoubted reversal of roles for the New York fans. Playing David gave them something new and exciting to cheer about.

It’s why, after missing the playoffs since winning the Super Bowl in 2011 and going 19-29 in his last three seasons, all 83,00 fans in MetLife Stadium nevertheless thunderously cheered Coughlin off the field after his last game. This was in spite of the Giants falling to division-rival Philadelphia Eagles in a disappointing end to a 6-10 record season. It’s why, along with his never-give-up-no-matter-what attitude, Coughlin will always be remembered as a hero and icon of New York sports after a never-boring, often erratic and always entertaining tenure as coach in the Meadowlands.

a, Music

Trib Mix: Comeback / Clapback

by William Burgess, Hayley Lim & Matt Smith on

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January doesn't have to be all about New Year's Resolutions and turning yourself into a perfect being of health, holiness, and forgiveness. If anything, it's the perfect month for rising from the ashes and taking charge of everyone and everything around you. This month, the editors at the McGill Tribune have compiled their best triumphant comeback tracks and their most biting clapback tracks, all aimed at taking down the competition and rising to the top. Scroll down to hear the full playlist on YouTube.

"FACTS" – Kanye West

"Yeezy Yeezy Yeezy just jumped over Jumpman." While far from his best work, Kanye West's “FACTS” is both a diss track against Nike, and represents the return of G.O.O.D. Fridays, as Kanye prepares to release his next album, SWISH.

“FACTS” opens with a classic Kanye-style sample of doo-wop group Father's Children, but quickly ditches the a capella soul, in favour of a Metro Boomin-produced minimal beat, over which he raps the song’s hook, "Yeezy Yeezy Yeezy just jumped over Jumpman," to the tune of Drake and Future's track, "Jumpman.” The track revolves around Kanye's dissatisfaction with Nike—Air Jordan sneakers in particular—in favour of his partner, the brand with the three stripes, Adidas. Kanye had previously said that he and Don C. were the reason why Jordan's are popular at all. Clearly, since partnering with Adidas, Kanye feels differently, having traded in his Jordan's for a pair of Yeezy boosts. Kanye calls Nike out for treating employees like slaves (which maybe Adidas doesn't?), and paying LeBron a billion dollars for his lifetime contract.

The song's hook refers to the fact that while Jordan's still are top sellers, they sit on shelves, while you can't find a pair of Yeezy's anywhere due to their batch-limited release, as well as the massive amount of hype surrounding the sneakers. “FACTS” is, at the end of the day, a song about just that. Almost everything in the song is, a collection of (almost) facts about Kanye's successful foray into shoes, and his surpassing of Jordan's as the ultimate hype items.

"Obsessed (Remix)" – Mariah Carey ft. Gucci Mane

Many vindictive R&B songs are written from the perspective of a scorned lover about the object of the artist’s affections. On this 2009 single, however, Mariah Carey flips the script to call out her obsessive stalker. Carey’s cheeky, flippant lyrics laid over a club beat make for a horn-and-handclap-filled clapback, a beat that plays well to Atlanta-based rapper Gucci Mane’s hype man role on this remix. The subject of her humiliation? Presumably Detroit rapper Eminem, who previously dissed Carey on tracks such as “Superman” (“What you trying be? My new wife? / What, you Mariah? Fly through twice").

A true banger that is both funny and relatable, “Obsessed” makes rejection fun again. Its accompanying music video (which in this cut is interlaid with clips of Gucci Mane mugging for the camera and pointing suggestively at Carey’s recumbent figure) gives a not-so-subtle glimpse at who this diss is directed at. If the context and lyrics weren’t enough of a hint, Carey herself dresses up in Eminem’s signature oversized hoodie, staring longingly at her glamorous counterpart. That is, until he gets hit by a bus while trying to take a fan photo. Oops!

Released amidst a burgeoning beef, this track takes the rap diss formula and makes it less threatening and more, well, amusing. Mariah truly has no chill in this teardown of Eminem, and yet, unlike him, seems on the whole unperturbed by their former “relationship.” A perfect illustration of a clapback, it’s only appropriate that this scornful anthem sets off this month’s Trib playlist.

"White Boy" – Bikini Kill

This blunt chorus, courtesy of genius lead singer Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill, is the core of the song “White Boy.” The song begins with an audio recording of a discussion between Hanna and an anonymous white boy. He so graciously explains to Hanna how most girls “ask for it,” by being “slut rocker bitches walking down the street,” essentially victim-blaming women for just existing. Hanna starts her rebuttal by poignantly shouting, “I’m so sorry if I’m alienating some of you / Your whole fucking culture alienates me.”

“White Boy" was released on Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah (1993), the split album by Bikini Kill and Huggy Bear released by the label Kill Rock Stars. Staying true to Bikini Kill’s feminist lyrics and aggressive, unrelenting guitar lines, “White Boy” is the ultimate diss track aimed at the patriarchy and ignorant white boys of the ’90s who prevented girls from participating in punk rock music through their aggressive moshing and unwelcoming audience presence. Prior to the Riot Grrrl movement, girls at rock shows were considered girlfriends and punk rock girls were considered sluts and bitches; overall, they had very little representation in the underground culture. “White Boy" is just one of the many songs Bikini Kill made that stabs at the obtuse arguments made by many men and subsequently carves a place for women to be treated as equal members of the punk rock scene.

According to Urban Dictionary, a clapback means “to return fire” and Hanna certainly does that by condemning the party in question to simply “just die.” Some may say this isn’t a clapback but citing a real recording of a person and then proceeding to burn him and his whole faction is an ultimate diss to me.

a, Arts & Entertainment, Theatre

Anonymous Monsters: Players’ Theatre examines the legacy of evil in East of Berlin

by Christopher Lutes on

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Part of growing up is coming to the realization that your parents aren’t exactly who you thought they were when you were a child. They lived for a relatively long time before your birth, had their own careers, loves, and transgressions. Though that specific version of them is lost forever by virtue of having children, the shadows of the past still play an active role in the psychology of the present. This is the ostensible theme of Players’ Theatre’s first production of the Winter season, East of Berlin, which unfortunately fails to delve much deeper than that.

Written by Canadian playwright Hannah Moscovitch and directed by McGill’s Anna Fitz, the play follows Rudi (Francesca Scotti-Goetz), the son of one of the infamous ‘Nazi doctors’ of the holocaust who has to come to terms with his father’s evil. Born in Germany at the end of the war, but whisked away to South America to avoid capture, Rudi meets the son of a Polish officer (Guy Ettlin) who informs him of Germany’s actions. After finding out the true nature of his father’s transgressions, Rudi travels back to Germany and meets a daughter of concentration camp survivors (Sophia Metcalf). The play unfolds in an alternating series of monologues given by Rudi and more traditional dialogues.

While the transitions between the monologues and scenes are fantastic in their fluidity, the script suffers from a lack of subtext or restraint, spending too much of the monologues with exposition that could have been delivered in a less obvious way. The play seems to use its subject matter as an easy shortcut to provoke an emotional response, rather than letting it flow naturally from the characters. The production also seems to be trying its darndest to be edgy, as evidenced by a scene of homosexual fellatio next to a picture of Hitler, or another where one character proposes to another in the parking lot of Auschwitz. The production seems content to coast on the symbolic weight that such images bring without the specificity needed to warrant their inclusion.

Since the material is so overwrought and intense, all of the emotional heavy lifting of the play falls on the actors. Ultimately, this is too big a burden for the cast to bear, and the acting mostly oscillates between too much and too little. Generally, the performances are delivered in a distractingly mannered cadence, though each actor gets at least one scene where they knock it out of the park. Scotti-Goetz is at her best when she lets small parts of the character’s vulnerability slip through, but largely neglects to believably sell her character’s inner turmoil or anger at his father. Metcalf is the clear standout of the production—she brings a nervous physicality to the role that makes her character almost instantly sympathetic, and delivers her lines with the gravitas needed to fully express her character’s conflicting feelings.

The stage is surprisingly bare, with an aesthetic that could charitably be called minimalist, perhaps by necessity because it has to serve as the setting for three or four different countries. It serves its purpose for the most part. The same goes for any sound design–with one notable exception, it’s entirely absent, and when it is does play a role, it sounds like it was played from a sound effects board.

The lighting is the most consistently impressive element of the production, greatly aiding the transitions from monologue to dialogue. The monologues are cast in yellow-blue pall, giving Rudi’s confessions a tone of eerie reflection. The dialogues are more versatile, with orange glowing representing the sunniness of Paraguay, and a breathtaking scene later on, where two characters share an intimate moment under a soft yellow light.

Overall, East of Berlin has some cogent points to make about legacy and how it can be corrupted and influenced by evil; however, those are mostly overshadowed by the play’s attempt to tease a narrative out of what should have been more meditative reflection. Adapting such poor source material would be difficult for even the most experienced theatre troupe, so it’s understandable that this production wasn’t able to overcome it, despite having a few elements that made it worthwhile.

East of Berlin runs from Jan. 20 to 23, 8 p.m. every night at Players’ Theatre (3480 Rue McTavish). Tickets are $6 for students, $10 general admission. Email [email protected] for reservations.

a, News, SSMU

SSMU appoints a new general manager

by Jenna Stanwood on

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On Jan. 10 the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) announced that Ryan Hughes had been appointed the new general manager (GM). The announcement was released in a written statement from Vice-President (VP) Clubs and Services Kimber Bialik. The GM position had been vacant since August, when the previous manager resigned citing personal reasons after only six months. Hughes’ predecessor had been hired in a rushed process, without the standard consultation of an outside hiring firm. According to Bialik, the GM is an important part of SSMU and is a source of institutional memory. 

“The General Manager role is integral to the smooth operations of the SSMU, working closely with both the permanent staff and the Executive team,” wrote Bialik in the press release. “The General Manager is responsible for ensuring the financial stability of the SSMU in collaboration with the Vice-President (Finance and Operations), managing the Society’s human resources in collaboration with the President, and managing the University Centre in collaboration with the Vice-President (Clubs and Services), while acting as the hub for institutional memory within the Society and facilitating the governance of the Society.” 

Hughes previously served as SSMU’s building director until going on parental leave in October. 

“Prior to his hiring for the General Manager position, Ryan Hughes held a variety of positions at the SSMU, including the Archivist and Communications and IT Director roles,” wrote Bialik. “As the building director of the SSMU, [Hughes handled] building administration and the implementation of projects.”

Hughes was selected through an extensive process that involved the hiring of an outside firm to aid in the selection of a capable candidate. 

“We placed extra emphasis this year on ensuring that the process was thorough and involved as many stakeholders as possible because the last process was not successful,” said Kareem Ibrahim, SSMU president. “We therefore hired an external recruitment firm [….] It cost $18,000 overall which is very expensive for us obviously […] but we really [thought] that this was not something that we were willing to risk whatsoever [….] The failed recruitments can have very drastic impacts on the society financially […that] severely outweigh the money we [paid] them so we were definitely not hesitant to […] invest a lot of money into ensuring this process was thorough.”

The GM’s contract began on Dec. 21, although the appointment was not announced until Jan. 9. Hughes plans stay in the position for a significant time in order to ensure the quality of SSMU’s services. 

“I’ve enjoyed my time at the SSMU thus far and I am rather excited for the challenges and opportunities ahead,” Hughes wrote in an email to the Tribune. “I have no desire to leave anytime soon [….] My first priority is to engage with the executives and staff members, to listen and to take their information, ideas and insight and create a stronger organization.” 

Bialik had assumed the responsibilities of the building manager while Hughes was on paternity leave. SSMU will now move forward with seeking new candidates after revising the job description for the position.

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