Hiya! When it comes to enabling clear communication I would focus on a few mediums to accomplish this, as I am aware that the way people get news and information varies a lot from person to person. I would naturally use social media, such as instagram to compile information into smaller chunks on what is going on within the SRA, and hopefully would get to use the already established artsci social media pages for this as many people already follow those. Furthermore, I love the SASSwatch podcast and would love to engage in something like that or help with that, and also want to make a short document which goes onto Dr. Wilson's weekly announcements as I'm aware many artscis check those. While this sounds like a lot, it is a manageable workload as it only really requires compiling the information once, and then transferring it between different mediums. I hope this answers your question well!

Hey! Thanks for the great questions and apologies for the really really long response!!

Regarding the club ratification process, in the process of ratifying my new club in the MSU, I had many discussions with the Club Administrator about some of the problems in the ratification process (i.e. there are many clubs that have overlapping mandates and many do not function to a level that they claim). I want to work with the Club Administrator and the SRA to create monthly update/accountability forms where clubs have to state exactly what they accomplished each month so that they stay accountable to their mandate and we can see what kinds of clubs we can retract from the MSU, opening up resources for newer clubs of high student interest! For the MSU website, I plan to discuss with the SRA and MSU website team about how to make the website more engaging and easier to navigate! Requiring each club to submit a small engaging video explaining what their club does to post on the website would also be very helpful to first years figuring out what they want to join!

For the student room booking service, I think the main concern is that a lot of Artscis (at least in first year) didn’t really utilize this service because they didn’t know about it or how to actually book a room. Sending regular reminder emails and posts on social media about how to book rooms will help in this! Also, the room bookings only usually run from 7pm-9:30pm and from 8am-10am, which are pretty limited hours. I want to look into extending these hours into the night or potentially finding other rooms available during the day. I think having Artsci specific study rooms would be easier to organize and navigate, rather than trying to include the humanities faculty as well, given the limited hours available to book the rooms.

Finally, for policy amendments, looking at the SRA Policy Paper, there are a variety of key points regarding equity and accessibility that I want to focus on. Having working with youth and adults with special needs over the past four years, accessibility is something that is really important to me, and something I want to work on in the SRA. Firstly, I want to reduce the stigma around SAS (Student Accessibility Services). Oftentimes, students will refrain from requesting an accommodation because they are embarrassed; I want to change this through an SAS awareness campaign whereby the MSU creates engaging posts on social media as well as posters around the university about the kinds of accommodations students can access; we can also showcase some of the benefits of SAS accommodations with student testimonials so students can ultimately perform their best. In addition, many students aren’t able to attend class – especially individuals with physical disabilities who might not be able to travel in bad weather as well as those who have religious holidays – and it is currently not mandatory for professors to post course syllabi and lecture materials online. I would like to advocate and work with the SRA to make it mandatory for profs to post their course materials and slides online (i.e. for INDIGST 1AA3!) Also, disability training and education does not currently exist for professors, and I want to work with faculty in disability education to create some kind of online training session so all faculty can be equipped to accommodate the needs of all students. I am also involved in a menstrual equity project (with Elise and Sharang lol!) to provide free menstrual products in female and gender-neutral bathrooms in MUSC and would like to further advocate for this in the SRA. These are just a few of my ideas to ensure accessibility and equity on campus!

Wow thank you for your detailed response! I have a couple of things I'd recommend checking out:

-https://accessibility.mcmaster.ca/training/accessible-education-training-for-instructional-staff/ - the current online accessibility training for faculty

-https://www.msumcmaster.ca/advocacy/university-affairs SRA standing committee on university affairs you could join as an MSU member, which is in charge of MSU advocacy to the university, as well as writing MSU advocacy policy papers! this committee could be your partner in these advocacy initiatives, but you can also join by sending the AVP university affairs an email! I was a member for two years so if you have any questions I would be more than happy to answer them!

Hey Adeola! Thanks for the amazing question! I believe I'll be able to keep my excitement and motivation up when I’m able to share important and exciting items that are discussed in SRA meetings to those that are directly affected - in this case all of Artsci! To me, keeping the position of SRA observer interesting throughout the year would be through devising engaging and entertaining ways to disseminate pertinent information to Artsci! I would love to do this through an SRA Instagram page, where I’ll be able to create engaging and colourful posts and memes which summarize the key points of the meeting as well as interactive polls on Instagram stories to engage with Artscis on issues that are being discussed in SRA meetings! I also listened to many of the Sasswatch podcasts and although they were SUPER informative and engaging, I want to make them more accessible and interesting to all of Artsci! This could be through doing more interactive interviews with Artscis where they can ask questions in person, as well as introducing an engaging Youtube and/or Tiktok platform where we can create skits and engaging visuals about what’s happening in the SRA! These initiatives would add a fun element to the role of SRA Observer, and I know I would truly enjoy it!

Hiya Adeola! Firstly, after having read through some meeting minutes from past SRA meetings, I feel as though there are some very engaging and interesting elements to them (such the announcer having to tell people to stop rolling their eyes at others). In all seriousness though, I feel like the very act of being engaged in what is going on at McMaster is incredibly engaging and interesting a thing. Although, if it does ever get too tedious, I am going to focus on communicating with the SRA representative so as to stay engaged with what is happening, and of-course also focus even more on the communication aspect so as to at least remain engaged in making sure the information from SRA meetings is communicated to the artsci community.