Letter of the Week: An open letter from Shawn Hunsdale
Shawn Hunsdale, president Simon Fraser Student Society
Dear members,
I ran for president last spring with very clear goals. I wanted to bring common sense to the decision-making of your Student Society and put an end to the petty personal politics that led past Boards to fight internally. I wanted to take the energy that had gone into petty politics and put it to productive action on issues like tuition fees, underfunding, and better services for SFU students. And, I wanted to bring undergraduate students an extended benefit plan.
This summer, I led the Board to a number of very important but difficult decisions. To this day, I believe that we made the right decisions. Unfortunately, in doing so, we made a number of errors that would cost me, and many of my colleagues, the confidence of a significant number of students. Some would seize on those errors to bring petty politics back with a vengeance. Could I go back and do it differently, I would have:
* immediately and clearly communicated to all members the reasons for significant management decisions that I continue to believe the Board had a duty to make
* communicated clearly to staff the reasons for the thoroughness of the investigation I led
* acted to give members full confidence that at no time was their personal information compromised
* taken greater care to include graduate students in decisions that affect them Because of my actions, a group of students led by candidates from the previous election — the same candidates responsible for the petty politics that I campaigned against — were able to mobilise the support of hundreds of students against me and some of my colleagues.
On Wednesday, they held a meeting to allegedly impeach me and some other Board members. I believe that the meeting was not legitimate and that a court will uphold that view. Having said that, I respect that there is a significant will for change and for responsibility to be taken for the past three months.
I accept that responsibility and, with great sadness, I offer my resignation.
I do not offer my resignation as a concession of defeat to the self-interested politics of those who took a legitimate labour management issue and, in using it for their own advancement, made it impossible for the Student Society to function as it should.
I offer my resignation in the hopes that SFU students can have the Board that they deserve and that I promised: a Board that is not tied up in petty politics, but that is focused on the needs of SFU students.
The six other directors allegedly impeached last week did not and do not deserve impeachment. They are good people doing their best to do what is right for SFU students, and I believe that they still have the support of a large silent majority on campus.
As new directors, they have been unfairly and viciously vilified by seasoned political operatives. They will suffer for it for many years to come. I ask you to put yourself in their shoes and be forgiving. Like you, they are students and they are learning. Did they make mistakes? Yes, but we all do when we are learning.
I have also learned a lot from the past three months. Mostly, I learned that perception is everything and that, in student politics, perception is shaped all too quickly and is difficult to challenge once formed.
And so I resign, in the hopes that the Society can get on with its job. In my resignation, I ask the leaders of SDU to call a truce. There have been enough stones thrown.
I know the Society can deliver the services its members want and deserve. I know that we can run campaigns for increased funding, lower tuition fees, and better student aid. I know that we can have the best week of action in many years. But we must stop fighting each other.
So I end my presidency by thanking the hundreds of students who quietly encouraged me in the face of this controversy, the many thousands of SFU students who supported me in prior elections, and all students at SFU who, together, have made this a great activist campus.
Shawn Hunsdale, president
Simon Fraser Student Society
Canadian Federation of Students,
local 23, pres(at)sfss.ca