FoMSC Presidential Elections
Hey everyone,
I'd like to announce to everyone that I'm running for FoMSC President for next year. Campaigning is the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and voting will take place on Thursday and Friday at the Porter's Desk.
Please come out and vote, and take a look at my Presidential Platform below. But most importantly, come out and vote!
Greg Wagland
FoMSC 2006 Presidential Platform
My Goals for council: N.E.W.
New Approaches to old problems
There are plenty of ways that we can improve council, and it takes a leader with experience and creativity to make changes to council within their own term. The current council structure is fairly outdated, and I feel that with some tweaks here and there, we can serve the students of the faculty much more effectively.
Exclude Nobody
We're very fortunate in this faculty to have an abundance of competent and willing volunteers who want to be a part of the Student Government. Does it make sense that these people end up being turned away, with the excuse that there's “not room for them on council”?
What I propose is a fairly radical reorganization of council, to greatly emphasize the role of committees on the decision-making and event planning processes. The key to this idea is that ANY Music Student can sit on a FoMSC committee, and thereby have an exactly equal vote in what is being discussed as any of the elected or selected FoMSC members.
There would be three main committees on council: The Social Committee, the Student Issues Committee, and the Internal Affairs Committee. Each would meet regularely, so interested students could choose to sit on a committee that suited their specific interests.
Work Hard, Play Hard
I feel that the most important role of FoMSC is as a group of leaders and active members of the faculty. Council members should be diligent in accomplishing the tasks set for them, but should also be aware that their attitudes have as much impact on their peers as their work habits do.
What do I mean, really? I mean that council members should be leaders in the struggle against student apathy. They should seek to inspire enthusiasm and determination in their peers through deliberate action but also, and more importantly, through their own example.
I also feel that it's especially important for FoMSC, and especially our social events, to cater to the faculty as a whole, and not a small part of it. There's a phenomenal sense of community in the first and second year classes, but the upper-years usually get left out a bit. This can easily be remedied if we put some thought into it.
My role as FoMSC President: A.A.A.
An Active Member of the Faculty
Next year I will be in fifth year. I've been around for a while now. I've been a leader in the faculty for three years, having now been a Soph to over 75% of the undergraduate students here.
There's an advantage to being old. Over the years, You learn stuff, and you get to know people who know stuff. It's a good thing, trust me.
Like so many of us, my life was forever changed when I arrived at the FoM. To a certain extent, I've spent much of my time here trying to pay back the insurmountable debt I owe this place. It's the responsibility of the elder members of the faculty to make their experience useful, and that is what I hope to do as FoMSC President.
An Ambassador for your interests
FoMSC, quite often, doesn't do anything important. We run social events, which is nice, and have a slew of services that we offer which interest small minorities of the population of the faculty. This isn't a bad thing. FoMSC members are students first, and student leaders second, just like most of the students here prioritize their social lives far beneath their studies.
Doesn't it make sense, then, that FoMSC, a group that seeks to improve your student experience, should be interested in representing you academic interests to the faculty administration, as well as providing occasionally welcome distractions?
If you examine my record on this point, you'll notice that I was responsible for the creation and success of the 12:30 Mondays Concert Series, which allowed non-performance majors to retain the option of performing half-recitals in vKH this year. I am very proud of this initiative, because I think it represents very well the way that Students' Council can have a big impact on Students' academic and musical lives.
An Administrative Planner
Simply put, somebody needs to keep everything on council running smoothly, and that somebody is the President. He should chair the FoMSC meetings, as well as sit on as many committees as possible.
The President's pro-active role in administrative work is important over the summer, when he can take the time to assess ways in which FoMSC can be bettered for the coming year.
Under my structure, the president would have less administrative work than in previous formats. Emphasis is put on the VPs as administrators, and with their leadership skills lies the success or failure of council. As President, much of my job would be troubleshooting, wherever and whenever necessary.