By Allan Woods
The student representative who compiled a scathing report of RyeSAC last year wants to make it an annual evaluation.
Darren Cooney, RyeSAC’s v.p. student life and events, said Tuesday that he wants to continue with a series of controversial forums where students can voice the criticisms of the student government.
Last year, Cooney and Judy Okten, a third-year business student, talked to 49 Ryerson students and published their findings in a draft report which was presented to the RyeSAC executive in April.
Conney said he and Okten intended to carry on with the project but ran out of time.
“Ideally, we would have gone on to formulate a survey,” Cooney said, adding they would have also sought feedback from more students.
Cooney said he would like to see a member of RyeSAC’s board of directors – perhaps the course union and and student groups commissioner – take on the project.
The draft report, which was obtained by The Eyeopener last week, called for more involvement with corporate sponsors so students can meet potential employers.
It referred to student leaders as “freedom fighters” and to RyeSAC as a “guarded” organization.
Cooney also said in an interview Tuesday he hopes to be able to amend RyeSAC’s constitution to make the survey and forums an annual event.
Right now, Cooney said, student leaders are welcome to adopt the suggestions published in the report but have no obligation to do so.
“Part of the way we got approval to go ahead with it [last year] was to say that [the survey] was not perfect and non-binding,” he said.
RyeSAC President Odelia Bay said surveys can be valuable for judging student opinions but stressed that it is important to use proper methodology.
“You want to make sure you get a broad range of views and opinions from every program at Ryerson,” Bay said.
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