A Strong Voice

Western has another President of the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA). On Wednesday the USC’s VP UA Alysha Li was elected to be the President of OUSA for the 2012/13 year. Alysha’s Presidency will provide OUSA with a passionate leader with a vision for stable, consistent and effective advocacy efforts. Alysha’s belief in the importance of post-secondary education and her belief in the student population of Ontario will serve her well as OUSA President. Western and the USC will also greatly benefit from Alysha’s term as President. The USC will have a strong voice at the table to discuss the priorities of Western students. Myself and the entire USC Executive are incredibly proud of Alysha for showing such a strong commitment to representing Western and Ontario students. I can’t wait for the rest of the province to see the Alysha that all of us believe in. We have every confidence in her and know that her role at OUSA will give us an even stronger presence in the post-secondary community. Congratulations Alysha, you make us proud!

Showtime.

How a group of people reacts under pressure says a lot about its collective character, motivation and spirit. If you want to see the true colours of each team in the USC election I challenge you to examine each one’s reaction to the news of the election invalidation. After dealing with the initial annoyance of discovering that the initial vote had been compromised I couldn’t help but smile about the absolute absurdity of the entire situation. What else could any of us do other than throw up our hands and laugh a little bit. The USC did everything that it could to make sure that all of us were kept in the loop about the situation and ultimately they weren’t any happier than all of the candidates were.

When I first heard the news my mind went immediately to the people who I would tell first about the vote hack. The reactions that I imagined were not ones of immense grief or of vicious anger, they were reactions that would altogether capture the absurdity of the circumstances. My Dad provided me with the first of these reactions, via speaker phone, in his car, on his way in from Orillia for the results show. His loud sigh and wry chuckle just about summed up my own reaction and set the stage for how I knew the rest of my team would react to the news. No one was going to cry, no one was going to break down and no one was going to go on an angry tirade because, surprise, USC Presidential elections should not and do not define people as individuals. I knew that I wasn’t going to lose their support because of a re-vote. I knew that they believed in the ideas that we collectively stood for and that they would be just as ready to go, after Reading Week, as they were before. That’s the beauty of building a campaign based on something more than just a cult of personality. Yes, electing a USC President is about choosing an individual to lead a student organization, but it is also about looking inside yourself and deciding what it is that you want to stand for. I knew that our campaign would last through Reading Week and beyond because it was based in something far more profound than platform points and catchy slogans. We have not and will never be willing to win at all costs. If we lose this election because we stopped short of creating a cult, stopped short of name calling and refused to resort to personal attacks then that’s okay by me and I know that it’s okay by all of our supporters. When you base your identity in something more than the title of USC President you realize that there are beliefs that you just can’t compromise and ideals that you just can’t sacrifice for electoral gain. If there is one thing that I ask you to consider as we enter the re-vote phase of the 2012 USC Elections, it is whether you are voting for a candidate who believes in something more than just becoming President. Ask yourself whether you are voting for a candidate that attacks issues, not personalities and ask yourself if you think that the President you are planning to elect will let you stand for the things that you believe in.

Let’s prove to anyone who doubts us, that Western students are willing to comeback stronger than before and let’s elect a USC President that isn’t afraid to admit that its about more than just getting elected.

Thanks for the Dress Rehearsal. Get Ready for Showtime.

For those of you who don’t know, the University’s elections infrastructure was hacked on Tuesday night. It could not be confirmed that vote counts were not tampered with so the University made the decision to invalidate the election.

Aside from the fact that I’m sure we’d like this to be over now, I think this is a great chance for us to pull together one more time. The depth of support that we received across campus yesterday and today was incredible and the work that you have all done to push out the vote has been truly amazing. Let’s think of these last two days as a dress rehearsal. We know how to do this and we can do it again. I think that we can do it better. We proved that you can run a campaign the right way and still make a huge impact on the Western community. People pulled together and stood up for a better Western. Thank you for being the incredible supporters that you are and I know that we can do this again.

The following process will be followed for a re-vote.

1/ Communication between campaign teams may continue until Saturday, February 18th at 12:01am for the purposes of establishing next steps.

2/ Campaign blackout from 12:01am Saturday, February 18th until Sunday, February 26th at 11:59pm

3/ Campaign teams may communicate and plans can be made on Monday, February 27th

4/ Campaigning begins online on Tuesday February 28th at 12:01am

5/ Voting takes place from Wednesday, February 29th at 12:01am to Thursday, March 1st at 8pm

More information can be found here: http://westernusc.ca/blog/2012/02/15/elections-2012-updated-rules-regulations/

Engagement: More Than a Buzz Word

Okay, so last issue I got the formal welcome thing out of the way. From now on I’m not going to give you some sort of generic Students’ Council missive. In fact, what I want to do is give you a window into some of the things that I’m passionate about. Ultimately, you probably don’t really want to hear about every one of the issues that I stand for, but I think that I can communicate many of them within a Huron context.

One thing that I’ve been thinking a lot about lately is the idea of political engagement. WAIT! Don’t just turn the page because of that horrendously boring catch phrase. The word ‘engagement’ is, without a doubt, one of the most overused words in today’s political discourse. Unfortunately, it has been tossed around so much that it doesn’t really mean anything anymore. I myself have been guilty of using the word as a crutch to explain the concerning level of apathy towards all levels of politics.

But seriously, what does it even mean to be engaged? I mean, aren’t we all to some extent engaged in politics, just by virtue of living our lives? Does engagement really mean that we have to religiously follow the news or subscribe to the latest updates from CPAC (that random channel that broadcasts the House of Commons debates)? Is it possible that being politically engaged is actually just observing the problems that face our friends, our families and us? Instead of putting politics on a pedestal I think that it might be valuable for us to realize that at a basic level, politics are merely the representation of the natural challenges of our lives.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting that we should absolve ourselves of our civic responsibility just because we experience politics everyday. In fact, what I’m saying is the opposite. Shouldn’t political engagement, or whatever you want to call it, be intuitive and the easiest thing that you’ve ever done?

Think of it this way. When you were in kindergarten, to whom did you go when your friends were being mean to you? Well, unless you were one of those kids who took justice into your own hands, you probably ran to your teacher. You knew that she or he was going to be your best support and best help for solving the problem at hand. In a rudimentary sense, this expression of concern was your first foray into the political process. You had a problem, you recognized it, and then you asked someone to fix it. Shouldn’t this be the way that we look at politics in the broader sense?

Follow me for about three more paragraphs…

The way I see it, our role, as the Huron University College Students’ Council, is to somehow make you believe in us enough to trust that we are your best support; or at least one of many good supports that can help you when you need to solve a problem in your life. Obviously, it would be ridiculous for me to suggest that we can solve every problem that you encounter during your time at Huron, but I will say with absolute confidence that we care too much to let any problem go unaddressed. Just the other day, someone mentioned to me that there really needed to be a Canadian flag flown outside of the College. In this case, an individual stepped up and spoke to me because they knew that I might have a decent chance of solving their problem. I have since contacted the College administration, which has begun to explore the possibility of having a Canadian flag flown.

This one little example isn’t meant to act as a self-inflicted pat on the back, it’s designed to illustrate just how easy political engagement can be. All it takes to be engaged is an expression of concern to the right person about something that bothers you. Somehow we have to get people to start doing this at Huron. If you have a problem, don’t just sit on it. Come and talk to us. Knock on my door until I can’t ignore you any longer or get in touch with me in anyway you can, because we do have the ability to help you reach your goals and solve your problems.

Okay, well, there you have it. I don’t know whether I’ve been interesting or thought provoking, but at least I’ve given you something other than the generic babble that comes out of most Students’ Council messages. I don’t deny I’ve babbled, but to be honest, I don’t think that it has been generic. Anyway, if you’ve read this far in the article, thank you. I’m very grateful for your dedication to reading, however, I am only going to be truly proud of you if I see you in my office or read an email about something that you are passionate about.

Talk to you soon!

 

Adam