This past Friday, a SSMU meeting designed to foster communication and openness among university groups became the latest display of student-administration tension.
The meeting was the first in a series of “Strategic Summits” planned by SSMU president Maggie Knight, which are designed to foster discussion on solving concrete problems related to SSMU and McGill. This summit focused on improving communication between SSMU and students as well as between students and the administration. Nearly 50 students participated over the course of the afternoon.
Knight began by discussing steps to facilitate campus dialogue.
“One of the big things we talked about was the need to engage people who aren’t already engaged,” Knight said. She hoped the meeting would serve to ease communication and increase involvement at McGill.
“Something we suggested earlier was having a CaPS/myFuture basis for volunteer opportunities, committee positions,” explained Kady Patterson, U3 Education Representative to SSMU.
The meeting was designed to be an open forum.
“I think it is a really exciting initiative that the president is bringing forward … this level of discussion doesn’t usually go on for SSMU,” Jaimie Burnett, U2 Arts Representative, said.
However, the discussion eventually grew heated between students and the administration.
Burnett said during the summit that he felt frustration that the administration didn’t share students’ views on issues important to students.
“If we really are in a situation where our administration doesn’t see that [the students] are concerned [about] having an accessible university, then maybe we should be talking about how [to] get administrators who will be concerned about those issues,” Burnett said.
Another summit participant called for democratic elections of administration, which caused several students to snap their fingers as a form of applause.
Representing McGill’s administration was Morton Mendelson, Deputy Provost for Student Life and Learning.
“I’m going to hold up a mirror just to show that this moves in two directions,” Mendelson said, in response to criticism of the administration’s unwillingness to compromise on issues such as the MUNACA strike and tuition fees. He pointed out that once SSMU has taken a stance, it is equally inflexible, and that the administration and students will not always see eye-to-eye. Nevertheless, Mendelson was enthusiastic about the meeting.
“I think [the summit] went well,” Mendelson said. “I think it is addressing a concern for students and for the administration. The format was inviting and open, which was useful for a lot of the students represented. I was really pleased to be invited to it, to be able to hear what people had to say firsthand, and to be able to express my opinion.”
Other students were not so enthusiastic about the administration.
“I think it’s kind of the same old … the administration has their stance and it’s very obvious that they don’t care what we have to say,” Patterson said.
