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University Students’ Council Report Card Tuesday, April 9, 2013
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>> Council’s grade*
>> Council’s comments
>> Gazette’s grade
ADAM FEARNALL President
TONY AYALA Vice-president finance
MYURI KOMARAGIRI Vice-president campus issues
ALYSHA LI Vice-president university affairs
JEREMY SANTUCCI Vice-president communications
ERIN UBERIG Vice-president student events
B+ B+ AB B B-
“The most visible vice-president. Transparent to council. Full of heart and passion.” “Out of my four years at Western, Tony was by far one of the most transparent executive members, his door was always open, and if he wasn’t in his office, he was most likely at one of the operations trying to see how we can better serve students.” “She’s extremely passionate about the campus issues portfolio. Her passion is extremely apparent when she speaks about the services under her portfolio.” “She gives her coordinators freedom to run their own services and does whatever she can do to help implement their visions. She separates her personal feelings and professional life very well.” “An expert in her portfolio, she’s refined and full of knowledge and compassion.” “Frankly, it has been yet another year where the UA is not present in the USC office, or at Western for that matter. Most of the time her door is closed and she is off at […] meetings. She is very approachable when she is around and is always willing to talk to you.” “Jeremy has done a lot of foundational work in the portfolio in terms of setting strategic plans for the future.” “Did not provide council with any notice before large decisions, resulting in an inability for councillors to address their constituents with major concerns.”
“The least visible vice-president by far. Doesn’t let students or councillors into the process.” “Props to Uberig for putting her foot down and making the necessary changes, even when they may seem unpopular. She could have worked on supporting her coordinators a bit better, but all events seemed to go off really well this year.”
>> Gazette’s comments
B-
Fearnall had big ideas this year, but it’s disconcerting almost all of them were a complete surprise. He challenged the administration in Western Untold, revamped USC elections and separated the board of directors from the executive council. His legacy is safe in the USC revamp, but the multi-faith move and allegations of elections committee bias leave a stain not easily forgotten.
A
Ayala impressed the Editorial Board this year with a clear focus on transparency and accountability during his term. Ayala took his responsibility to perform due diligence extremely seriously, and had no problems addressing the USC’s issues. Most importantly, his budget took heavy fire, but ultimately stood unaltered after hours of council debate.
“A leader, humble, quiet, but strong in his convictions.” “Although Adam may have accomplished parts of his platform, he was not transparent and did not seem as though he even cared about accomplishing what he was elected to do. It seemed as though this year was focused on one thing – changing the structure of the board and elections.”
Volume 106, Issue 97
B B B B+
Komaragiri’s passion for her portfolio was obvious to anyone who cared to look, and made her extremely well-liked by council. Further, she gave solid support to her stakeholders. However, the miscommunication that led to the defunding of Holy Book Day and her failure to adequately consult the faith groups during the proposed multi-faith move were errors in judgment that should not have occurred. Li spent much of her time away from Western in her role as Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance president. This left the UA portfolio feeling neglected this year. However, OUSA accomplished a lot, such as a lower Ontario tuition cap and a number of policy papers that were passed into legislation. These accomplishments will hopefully benefit all students in the province, making Li’s term worthwhile. While Santucci did a very good job pursuing various avenues to keep students informed, some of the USC’s biggest issues this year can be traced to poor communication. From the sophing selection issue, to the multi-faith debacle, to the USC website’s lack of transparent navigation, a distinct lack of communication played a key role in many of the USC’s failings.
Uberig brought home the goods this year. Charity Ball tripled last year’s donations and events seemed to run like clockwork under her guidance—at the very least, there were fewer complaints this year. She took substantial criticism for her part in changing the soph selection process, and while it could have been handled better, the need to deal with rampant nepotism was a crucial one.
*Calculations were based upon feedback received from 54 members of council. Councillors, senators and governance members were asked to grade each executive member, while coordinators and commissioners graded solely the president and the executive member who oversaw their position. The letter grades were converted to scaled numbers and the average for each position was calculated.
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