Letter of the week: Hattie Atkin a loss to SFSS and SFU
Ryan Weal
As a former SFU student, student-union organiser, and SFSS Board member, I am dismayed with the recent firing of the SFSS staff. These are the people who change the lives of students every day. They routinely create positive change, even when the Board is busy with administrative duties. Their knowledge and experience has helped every SFU student, as their services cover so many aspects of your university career.
In the time I have been away from the university, I have yet to encounter so many encouraging personalities in one place as I did when interacting with the SFSS staff members.
One person I will never forget is Hattie Atkin. Through her kind and focused approach, she was able to help us create the Communication Student Union out of thin air, host a number of successful events which united the students and faculty, and coordinate cross-departmental relationships with other student groups to improve campus life at SFU. To make a cliché of it, she was everything to us.
In those days, the SFSS Board was in shambles. The electorate was disenfranchised and a bunch ideological zealots were ruining the credibility of the organisation. The staff carried on. Some of the people were preaching hate and all that other bad stuff. Yet the staff were so positive and captivated by their work — making real change — that they were never phased by it. Working with Hattie and the rest of the SFSS staff was a breath of fresh air through it all.
Seeing this great work inspired us to gather our resources and take on the Board in the next SFSS election. We collectively turned things in the organisation around. Our Board worked to empower the staff to do great things. If there is anything I have learned in the business world it is that only positive change is truly helpful. We tried our best.
As for the current Board, I will shed no tears when your electorate rightfully throws you out for blatantly wasting SFSS time and money, compromising confidential data, and destroying the confidence of people who are by any measure the most inspiring people at SFU.
And lastly, to Mr. Hunsdale: you are now in my books next to that “other” president we all love to hate. You know the one.