punditry.ca — uncovering DSU elections

In case you haven’t heard, Kandidate Karaoke is now on the elections schedule: Grad House, Thursday, February 9th @ 9PM).  This event first made a semi-official appearance last year and has already resulted in a few memorable moments.  Campaigning in campus bars is strictly verboten, and although an exception is made for the presidential candidates during the debate in the Grawood, it sounds like no such exception will be made for this event.  This gives candidates a mid-campaign-period break, an opportunity to put down their rhetoric and pick up a microphone.  A chance to swap vague promises for vaguely on tune singing.

In honour of this new event, punditry.ca is pleased to present the Top Five Election Candidate Karaoke Moments From Outside the DSU (The Title Needs Work).

(Inserting a break to keep the embedded Youtube videos off the main page, click Read More to continue.)

Read more…

I’m sure that in Part I I came off as a real stickler for rules and order, and I am, but I do recognize that there are times when rules should be bent to accommodate certain situations. If I didn’t believe that, I would have given up on DSU Council long ago.

As I mentioned previously, I hesitate to speculate on the how and why of this particular situation because it would be just that — speculation — but regardless, I do feel comfortable saying that a rush job of reviewing these questions was not the ideal course of action.

I began this two-part post by explaining why last week’s Council meeting troubled me procedurally. I would like to expand on that by explaining what is meant to be considered by those reviewing the wording of a referendum question. My hope is that this will clarify why more time is needed than was allowed.

How to Review a Referendum Question

There are a lot of things to consider when reviewing a referendum question. For the sake of your attention span, and in the interest of getting to my point, I won’t get into all of them. Key questions to ask include: Read more…

News of Wednesday’s marathon Council meeting didn’t take long in making its way to me in Saskatoon, thanks to Twitter. For obvious reasons, I was not at the meeting, so my remarks on the course of events that took place will be necessarily brief. What follows will be presented in two posts. Part I is a DSU history lesson. Part II is a “how to” guide.

This Week in Council Chambers

In short, the procedures set out in the DSU Constitution for commencing a referendum were not followed. Specifically, the notice period required for these motions is two weeks (not days or hours – weeks, as in a fortnight) and a BONUS POINT* goes to the reader who can name the other flaw in the timing of these motions! By calling emergency meetings of both the Board of Operations and the Elections Committee, Council managed to cram a two-week process into an evening, albeit a rather long one. I will leave it to those who were in the room to elaborate on why this might have happened and move on to why what happened is troubling.

A DSU History Lesson

Cast your minds back to the year 2007, a year many, including myself, joined Facebook and none of us knew who Lady Gaga was. Read more…

There are going to be five referendum questions to be considered this year.

I will post the final approved version of each question and a blurb about each including some background for some of the more contentious ones.

DASSS (Dalhousie Arts and Social Sciences Society): is asking for a $2/semester/student increase to their current levy of $6/semester/student.  This will only be voted on those students that are currently enrolled in an Arts and Social Sciences course.

The question:

Whereas the Dalhousie Arts and Social Sciences Society (DASSS), funded by the Arts Society Levy, represents all undergraduate students in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS), and financially supports all undergraduate FASS societies;

Whereas undergraduate FASS societies aim to build communities of students within a department or a program, and perform functions such as publishing academic journals, hosting social events, and engaging in community initiatives;

Whereas the number of undergraduate FASS societies has grown from 11 to 15 in the past 2 years, and with more currently seeking recognition, the financial state of DASSS is becoming increasingly unsustainable without a corresponding increase in the Arts Society Levy;

Do you support a $2 per semester increase in the Arts Society Levy from $6 per semester to $8 per semester per full-time undergraduate Arts and Social Sciences student?

Yes/No

DUNS (Dalhousie University Nursing Society): is asking for an increase of $10/full time student/year for a total of $40/student/year.  This will only be voted on by DUNS members.

The question:

Whereas Canadian Nursing Students’ Association (CNSA) membership fees are increasing from $5 per full time student per year to $10 per full time student per year.  Failure to pay fees would mean withdrawal from this association which represents nursing students and their interests on a National level;

Whereas Dalhousie University nursing students are putting forward a bid to host the 2013 CNSA National Conference, an event that will draw over 800 nursing students from across the country to Dalhousie University and Halifax.  We must be a member school to host this conference;

Whereas Student involvement in DUNS events has increased, and we hope to sustain current events, create new events, and make events free or tickets low in price to allow access for all nursing students;

Whereas the Dalhousie University School of Nursing has informed us that due to cut backs they will no longer be able to provide the DUNS with the same level of financial support to host student/faculty events (such as the annual Wine and Cheese);

Whereas DUNS would like to offer a greater number of Travel and Study Grants to deserving nursing students to allow them to attend conferences and participate in other enriching learning opportunities and events (currently we offer 5 $100 grants per year);

Whereas Current BScN student fees are $30 ($15 per semester) with $5 funding CNSA membership and $25 funding DUNS operating costs and events.

Do you support a $10 increase, from $30 per year to $40 per year, for the BScN student auxiliary fee?  Of which $5 would be used to pay for your Canadian Nursing Students’ Association (CNSA) membership fee and $5 would be used to fund Dalhousie University Nursing Society operating costs and student events.

Yes/No?

DWC (Dalhousie Women’s Centre): is asking for a $0.79 increase that matches inflation since the student levy was introduced.  All Dal students are able to vote on this referendum question.  The DWC told Council they were running a parallel referendum question at King’s as King’s students also contribute to the DWC.

The DWC has had some issues since losing their long-term director Liz a few years ago.  They have now hired two employees and a significant portion of their budget goes to their salaries (I’ve been told it’s something in the realm of 90%).

The question:

Whereas: The Dalhousie Women’s Centre has represented students who experience gender discrimination since opening in 1993;

Whereas: The Dalhousie Women’s Centre provides services to the Dalhousie community including, but not limited to: affordable childcare, support for low income families, sexual assault support and response, education programming and training for a variety of student union staff, students, and professors, and a supportive environment in a non-judgmental, positive space;

Whereas: The Dalhousie Women’s Centre has operated from a student levy established at $2.00 per full-time student in 1993 and increased to $2.35 per full-time student in 1998;

Do you support the direct levy to the Dalhousie Women’s Centre be increased by $0.79 per student to a total of $3.14 per year?

Yes/No

NSPIRG (Nova Scotia Public Interest Research Group): is asking for an additional $1/semester/full-time student increase of their current levy of $2/semester/full-time student.  This referendum question would also introduce a new levy of $1/semester/part-time student.  So full-time students will pay $3/semester and part-time students will pay $1/semester if this question is approved.  All Dal students are able to vote on this referendum question.

An issue with this referendum question is that proper procedure was not followed.  Council needs two weeks notice before considering the referendum question.  Then Council sends the proposed question to both the Board of Operations and the Elections Committee to review the proposed question.  These two bodies then report back to Council.  Council can then approve the referendum question by a 2/3 majority.  The problem here is that no notice was given and last night’s meeting was the last opportunity to have Council give final approval to a referendum question before the election.  Quick thinking meant that enough Board of Operations members and Elections Committee members were called in for an emergency meeting.  The two bodies did reach quorum (7 at Board of Ops, 3 at Elections Committee) and returned the question to Council.  Council then acquiesced and allowed the NSPIRG question to be considered (it required unanimous consent and there were a number of abstentions but no opposition).  The councillors that abstained gave reasons that while they were against the running roughshod over procedure, it would be disrespectful of the Board of Ops and Elections Committee members that came in at 10pm.  So, after ignoring procedure, Council voted to allow the NSPIRG referendum question to go to ballot.

The previous discussion does not comment on the merits of the referendum question.  I assume that will occur in the comments or future Punditry posts.  However, I do find it interesting that two societies have brought levy increase amounts tied to inflation but have come up with different amounts based on similar previous levies.  I’m not terribly familiar with calculating inflation, but that might be something to look into.  Also, on all of the other society questions, Evan Price (VP Finance & Operations) commented on the state of the societies’ books for informational value; I don’t believe he made a comment about NSPIRG’s books last night.

The question:

Whereas: The Nova Scotia Public Interest Research Group (NSPIRG-Dal) has worked for environmental and social justice on campus and in the community since opening in 1990.

Whereas: NSPIRG-Dal provides services to the Dalhousie community including, but not limited to: alternative resource library, Seymour Green urban garden and workshops, grassroots project funding and support, human rights advocacy, public lectures and seminars on environmental and social issues, original research and publications, training for a variety of students and professors, and a supportive environment in a non-judgmental, positive space.

Whereas: NSPIRG-Dal has operated from a student levy established in 1990 at $2.00 per full time student per semester and has not increased to account for inflation. The inflation on this amount since 1990 is calculated to be $1.00.

Do you support the direct levy to the Nova Scotia Public Interest Research Group (NSPIRG-Dal) be increased by $1.00 per part time student to a total of $1.00 per semester and $1.00 per full time student to a total of $3.00 per semester?

Yes/No

ANSSA (Alliance of Nova Scotia Students Associations): is asking for a ‘top up’ of $3/full-time student and $2/part-time student.  This levy will be added to the fee the DSU already pays to ANSSA but that currently comes out of the DSU’s operating budget.  The current ANSSA fee has never been raised as a levy.  All Dal students are able to vote on this referendum question.

ANSSA is hoping to expand its operations through the increase in fees.  This includes hiring more staff (up to three staff members with the proposed positions being an Executive Director, a PR/Communications person, and a Researcher/Admin person.  There is also discussion about expanding ANSSA’s mandate to include various things such as leadership outside the PSE setting while building on current leadership initiatives (such as working with student Board of Governors’ members).

What should stand out in this referendum question are the final five words in the question – “subject to ratification by council”.  This was presented as a way for Council to ensure that certain changes were made that ANSSA has promised will be explored.  Due to the new timing of the DSU elections, concrete changes have not been developed by ANSSA yet.  There is a planning retreat scheduled for early March.  This clause allows DSU Council to have similar powers that other member schools of ANSSA have over raising fees (Dal and SMU are the only two members that need to take the fee rise to their members via referendum; the rest are doing it through their councils) if what has been discussed does not come to fruition.  What has been discussed includes professionalizing the Board in such a way that it will be efficient as well as creating some sort of body that will enable certain constituencies that are not always well heard at the ANSSA table to have more direct input (such as professional students, international students, graduate students – or the groups that did not get adequate protection under the new Memorandum of Understanding).

The question:

Whereas, the provincial government is cutting funding to universities with expectations of tuition increases;

Whereas, the Alliance of Nova Scotia Student Associations (ANSSA) presents thoughtful solutions to make Nova Scotia’s university system accessible, affordable and of the highest quality;

Whereas, existing fee levels of $2.65 for full time students and $1.58 for part time students are insufficient to meet the member demands for an organization with increased capacity to deliver additional projects and campaigns, including expansion of services and outreach;

Do you support a Dalhousie Student Union fee increase of an additional $3.00 for full-time students and an additional $2.00 for part-time students per academic year, for membership fee increases to the Alliance of Nova Scotia Student Associations (ANSSA), the Dalhousie Student Union’s provincial lobby organization, subject to ratification by council?

Yes/No

“So what do you actually DO as DSU President?”

That isn’t the question I should have been asked. That’s the question I’m always asked. I’ve had to answer that question countless times over the past two years. For the first six months this question was terrifying. What do I do? I would grasp at answers, stumbling and stuttering through enough of my calendar for the week until it seemed like I had answered well enough.

Having been doing this for the past year and a half the answer now comes easily. I do three things. I spend half of my time working on external advocacy – the government, public, and other stakeholders on postsecondary education issues through our membership in ANSSA and CASA. I spend half of my time working on internal advocacy – helping the Dalhousie Administration to enrich the experience of students through committees, Senate and Board of Governors. I spend the other half of my time being CEO of the DSU – managing my team of Vice Presidents and giving strategic direction to the organization. Before anyone thinks to point it out, those numbers do add up correctly.

That’s not interesting.

What I should have been talking about all along is what I’m not doing. There are a lot of responsibilities that just come with the title. I sit on five Boards (4 of them ex-officio), Senate (along with 3 sub-committees), and countless University steering committees, working groups, taskforces and party planning committees. This isn’t different than any other DSU Executive – I believe at last count the DSU VPI sits on 13 DSU Committees. It can be incredibly hard to add new commitments and initiatives to your schedule as they typically have to push out an old one. Next year’s Executive need to spend time talking about the things they are not doing, but wish they could. Then they need to decide to do some of those projects and throw away the old ones. What you are not doing is often more important than the day-to-day that you end up trapped in.

These are just 5 of the things that I should have been doing all along but I haven’t.

Municipal Lobbying

Halifax is great.

A few years ago fellow pundit and former President, Mike Tipping, successfully started a Municipal Lobbying group for Halifax. This was a very good idea. Unfortunately by the time I had made it to student politics the Halifax Student Alliance (HSA) had closed its doors due to one of the founding members pulling funding.

For a variety of reasons (that don’t matter) I don’t think we should restart the HSA as a funded municipal lobbying group with staff and all the inherent headaches. I however do find it incredible that student unions in the city don’t spend any time lobbying on municipal issues. While the funding from Universities does come from the provincial and federal levels, students are obviously affected by issues in the city in which they live.

I should have spent time talking to the other student unions/associations in the city creating a collective vision for how the city should look and work. We should be meeting regularly with our councillors, the mayor, and city staff. With an election quickly approaching municipal politics are more important than ever. Student issues should be election issues.

Weekly column in the Gazette

I know a lot of things.

Not because I’m smarter than you are (I’m not). It just happens to be my job to know things.  I also only know so many things because of the million committees I sit on. I should be doing a much better job of passing this relevant information on to students.

I’m an Engineer – I do like to think I hide it fairly well. Still, writing (like this) is typically an anxiety inducing, time consuming, activity for me. I should have sucked it up and just written as much as possible until it became comfortable to meet a weekly deadline.

I have no idea if the Gazette would publish a weekly column from a President. What I do know is that I would be able to say something interesting and relevant to students every week. At the least I should be making a better effort to share information so that more students have a chance to act on it.       

Voter Funded Media

Punditry is one of the best things to ever happen to the DSU Elections.

Voter Funded Media is a great way to encourage punditry style ‘media coverage’ year round. As Peter Kelly would say, this will help throw the windows open for our democracy. For a much better explanation of voter funded media than I would give go here.

We would have to create a model that works for Dalhousie but we have a lot going for us. We have 17 000 students who could all contribute. We also have a school full of aspiring journalists right beside us who could be encouraged to cover the DSU with the carrot of some extra beer money. Halifax is a creative city full of engaged people – we should be attracting some of that energy.

Engage Council

I spent two years on council before I was an Executive. An engaged council can be a very good thing (or a very bad thing) for an Executive team.

My first term I tried really hard to engage council. I really did. I organized an orientation in the Sumer. I made an awesome agenda. It was going to be great. Only two people came. That was pretty defeating and I didn’t try any more large scale events outside of regularly scheduled council meetings. I also created a group mailing list. I’m pretty sure my welcome message was the only message that was sent.

This is a shame because the best work of council happens outside of council chambers. When we can discuss ideas outside of the language of motions, solutions outside of minuted conversations, a lot more is accomplished. I have regular conversations with a few councillors, but not enough. I also don’t think enough councillors talk to each other outside of meetings, and I should be doing my best to facilitate that. I should be working to empower Councillors to be effective, giving them the knowledge and skills required to act with intention.

Tell people no

There is always more to do as a DSU Executive.

These are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to issues that I wish I could work on or address directly. It’s also extremely easy to get lost simply going from meeting to meeting and putting out the small fires that crop up all over campus.

It’s really important to schedule blocks of time to work on the big things. That draft strategic plan. That year long project you campaigned on. That letter you should write your Grandmother. Those are the important things that keep on getting pushed off to next week until it’s the end of April and there are no more weeks left.

Executive members need to know how to say no. We all want to do the best job possible and help everyone but at the end of the day it is just not practical. This is something I’ve struggled with for the past two years. It may seem like a great idea to cut out exercise, watching TV, spending time with friends and other things you enjoy in order to have more time to work. You will end up working longer hours, but I can personally guarantee that you will be less productive and get less done. You will also be miserable while you’re at it.

So say no. Make time for what is important to you. A well balanced life is a productive life.

Next December don’t make the mistake of asking the Executive what they are doing. Ask them what they wish they could be doing if they had more time. The answers will be far more interesting. And make sure they are scheduling in downtime for themselves – they will be much happier and the DSU will be more effective.

Chris is currently looking for a nice beach to sit on and sip drinks with those little umbrellas. You will be able to find him there after May 1^st. There are only three months left in his term as President and he’s already overcommitted as is. He won’t be doing any of the things referenced in this post (other than a bit of municipal work and a smattering of saying no).

A lip dub popped up on my Facebook newsfeed today from one of the slates vying for President and VP at ST FX which got me thinking: what might we see this year during the DSU elections?

Of course each candidate must know what is in the portfolio of the position s/he is running for.  Each needs some good ideas about how to approach the issues identified.  Every candidate will have the usual poster, Facebook group, possible website, and will most likely attend debates.  But having some creative bits to a campaign will rarely do a candidate wrong.

Remember Saulnier’s no ‘I’ in President (maybe not so much creative but spin).  But there is an ‘I’ in Bieber and Saulnier did take to his shower to sing one of his songs.

Rosalie Hanlon rewrote Barrett’s Privateers – I can still remember the first verse – and  was known as the singing candidate for the rest of the campaign period.

Courtney Larkin promised to streak across campus if her Facebook group reached a certain number of supporters (something like 3000 which was a safe enough number that the streaking would never have actually happened).

While having a serious approach to the campaign is a bit of a must unless candidates want to be purely punditry fodder, including something creative will at the very least make a candidate memorable.  Having a creative angle will definitely earn bonus points in my books and may well tip a candidate over to getting my vote especially if the candidates are basically the same.

So invite me to your galas, make me laugh, even make me dance.  I welcome any attempts at making campaigns less run of the mill and more creative.  I can’t wait to see who will ante up and in what ways.

Elections happen every year at the DSU. Each year there are winners and losers. With this frequency, and the number of candidates in the running, there is no shortage of opinion on how to run an effective campaign and how to win.

Having been successful in two elections, working on the elections committee, and watching far too many races to still be in my undergrad, I have some thoughts to share on how to stroll to electoral victory.

If there is one undeniable fact about elections at the DSU it is this:

The candidates who are most likely to win are already in the best position to do so well before the campaign has begun.

We know that incumbency has traditionally been an irrevocable ticket back to Council Chambers. After all, the campaign period is only one week.
If you run for the same position, and you’ve managed not to get impeached, the sage voters take that as a sure sign you’re the proper person for the job. If you work for a year on the executive and manage not to throw anyone under the bus, spew diatribes in or at council, or resort to slander on page four of the Gazette, I’d say chances are they’re right.

Viewing this objectively, and with more than a modicum of personal experience, there are a few things incumbents possess that easily explain this phenomenon.

First, incumbents have been through an election before. What’s more, they’ve been successful. They know the rigours of preparing posters and other campaign materials, and how to perform well in a debate (I say this because nobody ever says anything substantive enough to win; they just manage to look and sound better than their opponent on a given subject). Incumbents understand what makes for an effective class talk and which classes are most important to speak in. The rules laid out in candidates’ café are a refresher course for them. A functional knowledge is necessary but it is probably the most accessible component to putting together a win at the polls for any candidate, incumbent or otherwise.

Second, and more importantly, incumbents have had a year to prove to people that they can do the job. They have the DSU council experience that is essential. The personal relationships formed in a year on council are what drive the insider vote, which I think I’ve managed to convince almost everyone is the only reliable predictor of waltzing past the post first (I understand that the DSU uses preferential ballot, but that was more eloquent).

Working with societies and involved volunteers, taking part in Orientation Week with the rapt attention of thousands of freshmen, and being profiled in campus news outlets and other local media all work in favour of those who have cut their teeth in Room 222 of the SUB. Outsider candidates can only reasonably expect to bring a few insiders to their side, if they can sway any, once the official candidate list is made known.

Finally, these races are about policies and positions for the interested few. In each race when it comes to capturing the attention of Joe and Jane Undeclared, no matter the position, it is about who you know and not what you know. I’ve worked at polling stations and can confidently say most people who don’t vote in the first 24 hours of balloting have no idea who you are or what you stand for. Some will take the time to do their research online once they’ve heard about the campaign and a volunteer has urged them to vote. Far more will vote for a couple of the positions where they recognize the photo of the candidate or have been told “(s)he’s a good dude(tte)” by a friend. None have openly admitted to voting purely based on looks.

You may be wondering: what does this mean for me if I’m not an incumbent?

First it means I hope you’re not running against one. Secondly it means there are candidates in the race who probably have all the same qualities, and they’re already beating you.

There are candidates each year who have aspired to a position on the DSU executive and worked toward that goal every day since they set foot on campus. If they are a decent person and a hard worker, chances are they have cultivated a public image on campus in any combination of roles. I call these people incumbent lites.

I would never argue that these candidates are owed anything, but with less than a month to go before the next executive team is chosen anyone else has a lot of catching up to do.

The best prepared candidates have the same relationships, the same exposure, and been part of the same culture as any incumbent can claim for at least the last year. If they are anything like me they probably wrote their campaign speech over Christmas vacation. They’ve talked to influential peers and have tested their theories on what issues students care about most. They know who their supporters will be, and they know what issues are their strengths.

Unrefined public opinion gathering is one of the most astute tactics of campaign organizing and it’s perfectly acceptable for it to occur before 8:00am on the Monday of campaign week.

Incumbents and incumbent lites have a distinct advantage in the coming weeks. It hasn’t been official, but they’ve been campaigning all along.

Just for fun: voter turnout will be 16.3%

Rob LeForte is a former two-term DSU Executive. He wrote this on a Friday night.