With the constant barrage of headlines and bumbling public interviews with top administration, it would be easy to think Queen’s is careening to the bottom of rankings because of its budget crisis.
Despite this embarrassing trip through the news cycle, the Queen’s name isn’t at risk because of the financial deficit. Our university at risk because its students are disengaged.
All ASUS, ComSoc, and CESA executive positions ran uncontested this election season, along with PHEKSA president, SGPS president, and EngSoc vice-president (operations).
Before the “brotherhood” that was Team JNN collapsed, the AMS executive election to determine the leaders of student government at Queen’s was also uncontested. More disturbing, five out of six ASUS seats on University Senate will sit empty next year since no students ran.
This election season has failed to weed out resume-motivated student leaders, as many candidates basically just had to sign up to be elected. Despite the marketing circus that was the Rector election, at least students actually voted Niki Boytchuk-Hale in.
Without a competent and dedicated student government, students are quickly losing their voice, as faculty and administration make choices that matter.
This includes making choices that might not represent us.
Even more frustrating, the Queen’s student body isn’t disengaged. We’re just not engaging in the right way. Instead of being led by a competent student government, our campus is run by an Instagram account, “Queen’s Student vs Cuts.”
Make no mistake, the power of social media activism has its limits. Despite boasting almost 2,000 followers, the engagement hasn’t translated into tangible student activism. When given the opportunity to ask Provost Matthew Evans questions about the budget crisis, only 13 students showed up to an Arts and Science Town Hall.
It’s time to stop villainizing Matthew Evans—as easy as it is—and start showing up.
Queen’s runs on its governance structure, and though Queen’s versus Cuts has possibly been effective in its advocacy, Instagram posts don’t replace competent students showing up to old fashioned meetings.
Yes, the budget cuts and everything they bring are a disaster. Since my very first year at Queen’s our ranking has steadily dropped from a top tier university to somewhere seriously mediocre. The budget crisis is a real threat, and without students advocating for themselves in a serious way, it’s impacts will go completely unchecked.
Without student leaders voting in places like Senate, we lose our power to control how the budget crisis plays out. Faculty and administration will continue to make decisions that benefit themselves if we don’t have adequate representation in the meetings that matter.
If Queen’s students keep refusing to step up, Queen’s will continue to fall in the rankings. No black, white, and red Instagram post can make up for that. It’s time students engage in the ways that matter: vote, run, and pay attention.
On Feb. 13 three people will be appointed the leaders of our undergraduate student government, without students even voting—for the second time in six years.
Don’t let this happen again.
Mikella is a fourth-year life sciences student and one of The Journal’s Assistant News Editors.
Tags
AMS, Elections, Student, student politics
All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s)-in-Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to journal_editors@ams.queensu.ca.
Samantha Maki
Way to shift the focus into students who are actually the most impacted by the decisions being made by the provost, principal, and all of those around them. Students are not engaged because we are exhausted and working 80 weeks. Between classes, student loans, low paying jobs, expensive rent, and grocery prices through the roof, we don’t have the capacity to engage. Even if we did have the capacity, the university’s admin has shown time and time again that they don’t care for their students – why would student engage with an institution that doesn’t engage with them and doesn’t actually care if they are struggling. Yet, you take your time to shift blame for the issues that the admin have created to the students; shame on you. You say that students do not engage, but you comment on an organization OF STUDENTS that is doing so much work to engage with those making decisions on campus. They also constantly put their valuable time into engaging with students as a means of increasing knowledge translation. Where admin are failing to be transparent and engage with students in meaningful ways QSVC is informing students and having very transparent dialogues. Shame on you for trying to shift the narrative by blaming students who are struggling just to get by day to day while they pay a soulless institution to provide them with increasingly mediocre opportunities.