FROSH
Being the first event at McGill for incoming students, frosh is extremely impactful in setting up the mentality of a science community. This event allows students to meet many others in the faculty and be introduced to McGill. I would want to expand the Montreal Crawl to focus more on introducing students to the Montreal/McGill community by including additional stops that are not drinking/food-related. This would also provide the opportunity for clubs and organizations to run stops without a sponsorship fee. Additionally, I would work with the other internals across faculties to create and promote “chill” night events for each night (expanding on the laser tag currently available). By including and promoting these “chill” events, the incoming students can meet people with similar interests to them, and they become aware that non-intense event options exist at McGill.
SCIENCE INTERNAL COMMITTEE
The Science Internal Committee is valuable in creating a science identity. This committee has the opportunity to plan a wide variety of events appealing to many different interests of science students. By focusing on providing a diversity of events for students, it allows them to engage within the faculty. I will work on creating more events such as an Art and Wine night or exam tea and coffee breaks, and bring back Kill the Keg. In addition, these events can be better promoted and organized via collaboration with different departments and portfolios within SUS. For example, collaborating with the VP Sustainability to create Make Your Own Hummus or Beeswax, or with the department of Chemistry to create a Cool Experiment Night.
SCIENCE GAMES
As Science Games is the second-largest event under this portfolio, it is important in creating a sense of community for the 800+ participants. This year, I will include more non-drinking games and celiac options to increase inclusivity. Additionally, I will add more activities during night events to increase participation. Finally, I will ensure that beaker orders are put in earlier so that they arrive BEFORE science games, thus promoting sustainability and giving everyone a unique take home. Distantly related, I believe in reducing the VIP culture that exists during Science Games and ensuring that all committee members and participants are feeling included.
AUS X SUS GRAD BALL
Given this event is the final hurrah at McGill for most people, I want to ensure as many people get the opportunity to partake in Grad Ball. I will do this by looking into new ticketing websites to replace Tickettailor which consistently crashes, removing the tier system so that everyone has equal opportunity and reducing confusion about ticket availabilities, and exploring new venue options that allow for a higher capacity. Additionally, as these tickets are very expensive, I would want to include non-drinking tickets for those who wish to attend the event as dry participants, and create alternative payment methods/bursaries so that tickets are more accessible.
ACCESSABILITY
With every event, anyone, regardless of barriers, should be able to attend.This year, I will ensure that a focus is placed on considering this while planning these events. With regards to physical accessibility, I will provide layouts for each event, and ensure that venues are picked with accessibility in mind, including wheelchair ramps, gender-less washrooms, and information on light and sound intensities. Regarding financial accessibility, I will work with the VP Finance to discuss bursaries or alternative payment methods which make the steep prices of events such as frosh, science games, and grad ball difficult to attend. Finally, I will ensure that resources are clearly communicated to participants before events. These include resources available outside of events such as for physical and mental health and sexual violence, and those available at the event such as Red Frogs, Walksafe, and MSERT.
I also think it is imperative that the process of the Involvement Restriction Policy is made clear to participants beforehand. This ensures that if the situation arises there is a clear understanding of how to begin the IRP process and what it entails.
SUSTAINABILITY
In the past year, environmental sustainability has taken a new focus at McGill and I believe it is important to reflect these values in many of the events. During frosh, we will no longer print the pamphlet as it is accessible online and on an app. Additionally, at Frosh and Science Games, a greater push will be made to include frosh mugs/beakers at events instead of the plastic single-use cups. The carbon footprint that these large scale events create cannot be ignored. As such, we will include a carbon offset cost within the tickets for Frosh, Science Games, and Grad Ball. The carbon offset gets donated to the Carbonfund.org Foundation which works to directly offset the carbon footprint. With every event in this portfolio, taking steps towards making them more sustainable is an important part of my platform.
Additional Notes:
I also encourage you to check out the platform of the other candidate running for this position, Jared Warden-Joseph.
No questions yet!
Question #1
Hi Kobi! Hope your campaign period hasn't been too stressful; I've read through your platform and I'm happy to see how excited you are for the position. I do have some questions for you:
a. In your platform, you talked about reworking the Montreal Crawl. As you know, this year our Amazing Race was not successful and in previous years, it has been criticized along with our Montreal Crawl as been inaccessible. From your perspective, in what ways do you think it's inaccessible and how do you plan to change that?
b. I love your idea for more chill events. Specifically for Frosh, how would you work to include chill events like Laser Tag into your programming? Historically SSMU has been in charge of these events. They have never been part of the Frosh programming and this year, we've worked through problems with such events run by a non-Frosh organization. What do you think some of these problems are and how would you have worked through them differently? Logistically, if our Student Associations were to have these chill events, how would you go about it?
c. You talked a little about VIP culture; could you expand on what you view as VIP culture? Based on your definition, how do you plan to change this portfolio (and potentially help change others) in order to dissolve VIP culture?
d. There was a small part about the IRP. What is your opinion of the IRP and how do you think we can do better? What kind of problems do you foresee arising with the IRP and your portfolio keeping in mind the constraints we have had to work through in the previous years?
Thanks for reading and I can't wait to see your responses ! ( :
Answer #1
Hi Wendy thank you so much for these questions! Please find my answers below :)
A.The Amazing Race and Montreal Crawl pose physical barriers given the movement required to go between stations. With respect to the Amazing Race, ensuring that the stations are in a circular rotation to minimize the walking distance to a couple meters should help in minimizing the barrier. In addition, giving the teams transition times where they can both move to the next station and do tasks for the scavenger hunt will contribute to reducing the physical barrier. For the Montreal Crawl, there is both the distance barrier as well as stairs/washrooms at the locations. With regards to distance, a portion of the budget can be set aside to reimburse a taxi system so that frosh participants with physical barriers can easily move between locations. With respect to stairs, washrooms, and unforeseen barriers at venues, these, as with any barrier, must be addressed through prior communication with participants about how they would like the barriers removed.
B. I believe the main issue with SSMU being in charge of these frosh events are the lack of communication about responsibilities and safety at these events. This year we would still have SSMU involved in the chill events, but I believe if we can work with them to plan the events then we can feel safe advertising them. The responsibility to plan chill events for frosh participants falls on all of the faculties. Logistically, similar to IFC events, we would need to coordinate each faculty sending a coord to the various chill events to help run them.
C.VIP culture is the image of people who run the event focusing more on the perks of being an organizer instead of actually running the event. For example, if all the coords are on stage at an event instead of supervising and doing harm reduction, it puts a distrust in the coords to run the event safely and well. In order to dissolve VIP culture from this portfolio (and potentially others), I think the number one goal is to ensure committees are aware of VIP culture so that they can actively work towards not falling into the trap of focusing on perks. If issues persist, I will be vigilant about reminding committee members of their responsibilities and taking action if they are neglected.
D.I think the IRP is essential for the safety of all participants. However, despite being so vital, it is unclear how to begin and the steps required in the IRP process. Given how important it is for the safety of students at these events, we must take steps to clarify the process for all participants, and what it entails. One of the main problems we will face, while the IRP is still new, is the action to be taken on complaints made about events occurring before the IRP was implemented. Since the IRP does not cover times before its implementation, it creates a set of limitations on how to protect the complainants. I believe though that ultimately, whether an incident is covered by the IRP or not, the safety of participants takes priority over all else and steps must always be taken towards that goal.
Let me know if there are any other questions you have!
