VUSAC? more like VUSUCK

Oh VUSAC. I previously made a post about how messed up VUSAC is this year, and honestly, that's not changing, haha. It's always fun to kind of go 'what if?', though, and that's what this post is about. What if I was EVERY commissioner? What would I do differently? How would I do it? What would I change? Well, intrepid readers, read on and find out!

The commissions on VUSAC, by the way, are as follows: President, VPI, VPE, Finance, Clubs, Commuter, E&E, S&G, Productions, Communications, Special Projects and Sustainability.

If I were the VPI...things would be a little different. First of all, Winterfest would have been moved back a week, to give students some time to think. 'Vic Gives Back' week would have way less E&E events, because...well, charity doesn't always mean giving back to the community, and though the VPI is mandated to have a charity event once a semester, this week was a flop, and everyone knows it. It was poorly organized, and could have been handled way better. Secondly, the constitutional amendments. It would have been compiled in January, and have had things discussed on them way before; the holiday break was more than enough time to get those things done. Finally, the CRO hiring. This would have been done IMMEDIATELY once the last CRO resigned, and not left until a few weeks before the next election. I do understand why it was left, because the CRO is only needed for elections, so it was probably not seen as a pressing concern, but still, not very professional. The Secretary hiring would have also been done differently; if someone recants their vote and then suddenly wants to add it back, well....as the Chairperson of the hiring committee, it's up to your discretion, and you can't just let people do that, especially when it changes the results of the vote + adds several hours of meeting time to the discussion.

The VPE, I wouldn't change much, though I'm horribly biased. Still, though, more residence inclusion, and the creation of that residence council (where every floor and building president are on a council, and someone from there is elected to be the head, and that head sits on VUSAC as an assessor member) would definitely have to happen.

The Finance Chair was just way too unorganized this year...although, to be fair, the FC job is a crazy one. I would just change the frequency of cheques getting out to people who request them; two weeks is the time, yes, but having them out sooner is definitely a boon to those who need money. Also, when the time extends into a month...well, that's when you know something's wrong.

Clubs. I wouldn't change much, really...the Associate status was just a little dumb, but in the end, it's probably going to end up being another insignificant little change that no one will use, since that's pretty much what it is. Still, though, the Clubs commissioner is there to relay clubs' needs to VUSAC, and the current commissioner is doing that pretty well (even IF she makes it look like way more work than it is), so I guess I wouldn't change much. If we were talking about the makeup/structure of VUSAC, though, I would definitely merge Clubs into the VPI portfolio, since now the VPI has less to do. The Secretary would also get changed, as that duty would now be expanded to not just minutes, but keeping the office clean and filing all that stuff into people's boxes and what-not. The Secretary honourarium would be upped, and the Chairperson's honourarium lowered, but the discrepancy in what they were doing would be a large one.

I digress, though. E&E. It's all well and good, but I find that every year, only one of the two are focused on, either Education, or Equity. Last year it was Equity, and this year it's Education. You're supposed to do BOTH, not either or. I would honestly just cut the Education part of the commission, and add it to another commission....or, my preference, which includes Sustainability (which, IMO, is a useless commission and is a waste of funds), would be to merge the two. It was proposed this year as a Social Justice commission, where there is just one commissioner who oversees two committees, but those two committees have two other heads (either MALs, which we'll discuss in a bit, or appointed heads), who do the bulk of the work. The commissioner is then left to plan the larger scale events and programming and services that VUSAC is supposed to provide, and it'll work out.

Productions is another useless commission. Honestly, Ultra-Nows and trips to the AGO don't really need a commission. This is definitely something that can be given to VCDS, the Drama Society of the college, and they can just have a new commissioner who deals with all that stuff, rather than have someone on VUSAC do it. Regardless, though, I would have changed the sheer amt of trips that happened this year; no wonder half of them were underattended, since there were so many of them. Which student can afford going to three or four trips to plays in one year? I can barely afford ONE, much less four. Anyway, now the commission is called the 'Arts and Culture' commissioner, and they have more programming duties such as International Week and Charity Week, which is cool, because maybe that means that they'll plan less trips, and do more programming that is actually useful.

Special Projects is being phased out of VUSAC, which is what I want, so...no need to talk about that!

S&G, the party planners, that would have also changed. Because of the weirdness of Reading Week this year, it is unwise to have a party the week before Reading Week....and then have the largest ticketed event of the year in Highball the week AFTER Reading Week. I would have simply removed the reading week party, and also have shifted the first party of the year back a week, or at least advertised it wayyyy more during Orientation Week. I think the S&G commission simply got caught up in trying to do too much this year, and then suffered as a result when Highball suddenly needed to be planned, and everything went crazy. Also, not foreseeing any revenue from Highball when budgeting is ridiculous, since it is an event that costs several THOUSAND dollars, which greatly screwed with the budgeting process. My goodness.

Communications. Meh, they're doing their job. The Publicity Committee was probably the most useless thing ever, so...yeah, that's one strike against that. The scrollboard wasn't put up, which was supposed to have been done months ago...and posters take forever to get made. Granted, posters aren't the only thing that the commission does, but still, they're a pretty large component. Anyway, they're still pretty competent, though I'd just like to see the commission do MORE.

What would I change about the President? I mean, this year, it's not as if he's not doing his JOB. He's just an annoying douche sometimes. I mean, the major problem is that he has crazy fits of anger, has ridiculous double standards, and just does not like to not get his own way, in ANYthing. How can I change that? It's a personal thing; he's doing his JOB, which is essential, so...I mean, I guess other than waving a magic wand to change his personality, I can't really change anything, because every problem this year has come from his ridiculous mood/personality, and not from things like not paying attention, etc., because he DOES do that....he's just crazy.

I would also lessen the amount of MALs we have, if only because so many of them are so useless. I wouldn't even assign them to anyone, just have them mill about, because assigning them to commissions are usually do-or-die, since so many people have problems with either not delegating, or delegating too much. I'd cut down MALs to about 5 members, 2 of which are first years.

If I could change VUSAC, though, the structure of the council would change so drastically. It'd be like this:

Judiciary:

President

VPI (has Clubs folded into it, has office cleaning/filing duties taken away except for office hours schedule making)

VPE

Commissions:

Commuter

Social Justice (E&E + Sustainability)

A&C (who now has less trips to plan and more things with the two weeks under his/her purview)

S&G (who also has less club nights to plan and maybe more collaboration with residences)

Communications

MALs:

MALx5

Non-voting members:

Finance Chair

Chairperson (who just chairs meetings, doesn't even make the agenda)

Secretary (now makes the agenda, cleans up office, files documents, and takes minutes for VUSAC + related committees)

Assessor members (heads of levies [which also now includes Special Projects as a levy], UTSU reps, Residence council head, VOCA co-chair, etc.)

This structure of VUSAC brings the membership down to 16, from the 21 it is now. It's a little less bloated, sure, and if I could go even farther, the A&C commission would not exist, being a part of VCDS, and Communications would be folded into VPE...or at least would be given some more duties, such as the list-serv or caucus meetings. Anyway, I digress. Time to go eat some food; VUSAC critcism always gets my appetite going!