Imprint Online - It's also midterm time for the Feds' executive

It's also midterm time for the Feds' executive

Ashley Csanady
news editorTim Alamenciak
editor-in-chief

Since the beginning of their tenure, the Federation of Students executives have dealt with a plethora of controversial, pertinent and complex issues. From the Fed Bus service being cancelled to the Tim Hortons in the SLC no longer having 24 hour service for the summer term to the backlash from the services review administered by the previous executive, the current Feds' executive has dealt with their fair share of controversy " - and they're only half-way through. Imprint recently sat down with the executive to discuss their performance thus far and their future hopes.

President Michelle Zakrison

Feds president Michelle Zakrison has led the executives through an astonishing torrent of controversy over the past few months. Her arrival as president was marked by Fed Bus trials, followed shortly thereafter by Food Services' decision to alter Tim Hortons hours and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam arrests. These challenges have put the pressure on Zakrison to establish an effective team to lead the student government while ensuring the day-to-day interests of students are met.

"Creating a team that works well together has been a challenge because we came from three different tickets. Having our executive retreat in spring and again in fall has helped greatly. When we came back in fall we really focused on being a team and working together," said Zakrison.

"I deal mostly with Michelle [Zakrison] and [vice president administration and finance] Renjie [Butalid]. They appear to be a cohesive and congenial team but I can't comment overall on how well the four are integrated," said associate provost human resources and student services Catharine Scott.

Scott has an element of continuity within Feds; working with the executives year after year.

"I still think our communications can improve exposure to societies, the media display board and SLC TV display case. That's a project that can always be improved with what we put on there," said Zakrison. Communication with societies and both the display case and SLC TV fall under the vice-president internal portfolio.

According to Zakrison, she takes care of everything behind the scenes. Lo is responsible for "liasing with marketing to put information up [in the display case and on the TV]."

"I feel Michelle occasionally micromanages some of the executives, or she takes on their responsibilities," said Feds councilor Jeffrey Aho.

When asked about her greatest weakness, Zakrison mentioned time management. "As president I have meetings all day. I also have my personal life, studying for the LSAT, and my social life."

Zakrison highlighted the success of recent town hall meetings as an indicator of her performance in the role of president. There have been two meetings so far. The first dealt with dental and health plan issues and the new Bombshelter. The second, this past Tuesday, brought forth the prospect of a universal bus pass and the upcoming municipal elections.

Zakrison's presence on campus has been very noticeable. She participated heavily in Frosh week activities, helping out on Monte Carlo night and cruising around in a golf cart to see as many frosh as possible.

Election promises rank high on Zakrison's score card. She is certainly visible and communication with students is being attempted through monthly meetings and the SLC TV and display case projects. The internal governance review has been planned out and progress has even been made on the age-old universal bus pass discussion. The governance review that was brought up during the election has been acted upon. The first meeting of the committee led to the development of terms of reference.

The door is always open for suggestions, particularly at the town hall meetings. Zakrison recounted the details of a student asking questions about parking " - she didn't know the answer, but she found it. "Even though I might not have the answer, I know where to go to get it."

Zakrison is currently working on the above mentioned ongoing communications projects and something more behind the scenes: textbook freezes. She is working with professors to strike deals with textbook companies ensuring editions don't change for several years, allowing students to save by buying used books.

Vice-president education Jeff Henry

A previous VPED in 2004-2005, Henry is the oldest and the most experienced of all the executives.

Although some of the big-ticket issues didn't fall under his portfolio, Henry still dealt with many large issues. The vice-president of education is in charge of assisting students with academic and co-op issues. Some of the larger issues he has dealt with thus far are the J1 Visa debacle, marks now being released to potential co-op employers and the academic integrity survey, which is ongoing.

With the academic integrity survey underway, at its outset Henry quelled student fears by saying, "It's not about figuring out if the results reflect positively or negatively as it is about discovering how to foster a better culture here for students and faculty." Federal and provincial lobby groups such as OUSA and CASA that argue for lower tuition rates and other issues pertinent to students also fall under Henry's portfolio.

Henry commented his position as "a challenge to try [and] deal with a position where a lot of the results you could ever hope to achieve take a lot of effort over a long time."

With the candidates having come from three different tickets, when they first elected there was a concern that cohesiveness would be a potential problem. When asked about the state of their relationship now, Henry said, "with any team you could always find improvements. When you have people from different areas that came with different ideas, it's never easy to mesh that into cohesiveness. We've been working hard [-] at the end of the day, students are seeing some good results."

Henry described his strengths as his "ability to analyze and break down complex issues." He pinpoints his own weaknesses as "not [being] the world's greatest event manager and volunteer co-ordinator."

Halfway through his term, Henry says his biggest challenges for the future are "a federal government what just doesn't seem to care about education and knowing the government will fall. All the things they've said [about] education probably won't come to a whole lot whether their in the budget or not. There's a challenge to put that there-there really is a ticking time bomb on student aid funds."

Vice-president administration and finance Renjie Butalid

Butalid began his term of office with a plethora of campaign promises including a proposed silk-screening business, improving the revenues of Aussies and Fed Hall. Since then, he's had several large issues to deal with including the Tim Hortons closure and the Fed Bus hearing with Greyhound.

With regards to Fed bus issue, Butalid emphasized that "the Feds are here to fight for you guys, but we can't do it without student support." In the end, Feds fought for students and the Fed Bus was allowed to continue service after being granted a scheduled service licence from the Ontario Highway Transport Board in coalition with Student Transport Canada.

"I would like to think that students who go home every week and who use the Fed Bus are able to do so as a direct result of the effort myself, Michelle and the rest of the executive made," he explained.

Aussies will no longer be "down under" as it's moving to a more central location across from the Tim Hortons in the SLC. Butalid stated the benefits of the shift earlier this term, "McMaster operated a convenience store that was in a similar financial situation to ours [...] they relocated their convenience store to a much higher traffic area, and within a couple of years, they were able to increase their sales levels by more than 100 per cent."

Fed Hall is still struggling to find its place. Low turnout for World Cup events held there over the summer forced the screenings to be moved to the SLC Great Hall, and bar nights this term have not had even a fraction of the turnout typical for a Bomber Wednesday. The new businesses review committee can potentially help Fed Hall reach its full potential, according to Butalid.

This past summer, Butalid was a key figure during the investigation of the Waterloo Tamil Students Association (WATSA) following the arrest of three of its former members. The group's finances are currently undergoing a forensic audit. When the story broke and the news of the audit announced, Butalid explained the Feds' role as "assisting the university." He added, "Feds will still maintain its autonomy for sure, because we not only represent WATSA, but undergraduate students across the board."

As for his accomplishments thus far, Butalid said, "I think I've achieved a lot of the things [that] I said I would do when I campaigned. In the summer months there were a lot of things that came up that were unforeseen."

He cited the unexpected workload of setting up the new health and dental plan offices located in the SLC. He added the benefits of the office as students now have a central location where they can go for all their queries.

There are downsides to his job, however, as he stated, "I think, as with any job, there are a lot of things that frustrated me- there are certain administrators that won't budge on their position given several issues that have come up in the past."

Butalid presented the annual Feds budget to council before the Fed Bus ruling, so the profits from the service aren't included. He explained the reason for this omission was because "it was August when the ruling came out, if we did the budget in September various [aspects of Feds]- would be working in a budget that would not be clearly defined," for the beginning of fall term.

Vice-president internal Sai Kit Lo

An independent candidate, Lo surprised a few people by his election and angered some others. Zakrison, stated in an interview with Imprint soon after the elections, "I really wanted to see Sabrina Bowman elected. I felt she was the most qualified for the position and I'm very upset that she only lost by a few votes."

More recently, Zakrison clarified her feelings, "A strong admiration for Ms. Bowman is by no means a reflection of my feelings for the current Feds VPI."

Since then, Lo has avoided controversy. Throughout the WATSA situation, Zakrison and Butalid did most of the talking, although Lo said he was involved. He explained, "Feds handled it as a team." He elaborated saying that he met with the executive of WATSA to show Feds support.

His campaign promises included continuing the services review and helping Fraternity and Sorority Awareness (FSA) to be allowed to run events on campus. The one issue Lo has openly addressed since his election is the backlash from the services review performed by his predecessor, VPI Lawrence Lam.

In an interview with Imprint after the services review was revised, he said, "I'm quite happy with the recommendations that did pass and for those that didn't, I don't think they were that important anyways."

As for his current plans for the services review, Sai kit said, "We'll do it as strategic planning with the co-ordinators. I think the volunteer organizations - the services - have some difficulty dealing with continuity and volunteer [co-ordination]. Strategic planning would be trying to come up with long-term planning, come up with solutions to solve our continuity [issues]." He continued, "We'll do it in this way instead of repeating what Lawrence did. It is a waste of human resources to do it exactly the same way so soon. I plan to do it differently."

Earlier this term, there was confusion among services and societies on campus as the scheduling for the Services and Societies days was wrong.

Lo explained the mix-up, "The Turnkey [desk] had Tuesday and Wednesday on the system, but it is my understanding that we booked it Monday and Tuesday. By the time the groups got there, they were informed that it was Tuesday and Wednesday. There was a confusion. I feel extremely bad for not being there to solve the misunderstanding. Afterward I sent a letter to clarify the situation and extend the services day to Wednesday as well to compensate."

Lo has tried to increase awareness on campus about available funding for student groups through a poster campaign. The posters feature pictures of him as the "$90,000 man."

Of the initiative Lo said, "Students [were] generally unaware of the funding before. People keep coming in and asking questions about the funds, people are now aware of the funds."

According to Lo, his biggest strength is, that "I have no enemies - I always have win-win discussions with people."

Due to the time-consuming nature of his position Lo said, "I wish I could have more energy to do extensive readings and writing instead of just focusing on the putting on red tape here and there. Just sit down and have some quiet time to read more and think more about something relevant to my work."

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