We're the enema that this university so desperately needs.

We would like to ask one simple question: Do you feel that the hallways of this, our beloved institution, are crowded with fetid waste matter? Are there too many dark, pulpy blockages in the bowels of UMSU's bureaucracy? Does this student union need an enema? Well that's three questions, but that's beside the point. We are the enema that UMSU so desperately needs. A vote for Gordon (Knuckles) Reid and Shawn Kehoe will put that cleansing closer and closer to becoming a reality. Let us enter the coming year with a feeling of freshness and relief. Vote Reid/Kehoe. UMSU's colon will thank you for it.

As for the platform, here are a few main points:

GSA Autonomy -- In keeping with practice at universities across Canada, and coinciding with the wishes of a vocal portion of the GSA, we fully endorse the GSA's wish to declare autonomy from UMSU. It is evident that, on the whole, graduate students have needs and concerns very different from undergraduate students -- including funding, student services and employment, to name a few. Thus, providing that a significant majority of the GSA's members indicate they desire autonomy in a plebiscite (66 2/3% of ballots cast, with at least 25% of members voting), then we will do everything in our powers -- including joint lobbying to the university's administration and revising the UMSU By-laws -- to ensure this is done...assuming we're elected, of course.

Fiscal Responsibility -- This year has seen gross mismanagement of UMSU's programming budget. If elected Shawn and I will require monthly budgetary reviews from our directors, and will pass the findings of these reports onto the student body through UMSU meetings, annual general meetings and publicization through the student media.

Exploitation of UMSU Real Estate -- A great many opportunities exist to fully exploit the unused space that UMSU has available in University Centre. Among the items we are researching are: leasing space to the Manitoba Liquor Commission for a Liquor Store, renting the meeting rooms on the 5th floor for overnight lodgings for suspected criminals when the Reman Centre is full, renting the MPR to adult film companies to use as temporary studios when filming.

Financial Accessibility -- With tuition hikes spinning out of control, more and more students cannot afford to attend the U of M and more student are sinking themselves deeper into credit card and student loan debt. In order to ensure that a university education is affordable for as many students as possible, we will do the following after being elected:

Use the Board of Governors positions granted to the President and Vice-president of UMSU to ensure that the university's policy makers are doing as much as possible to reduce unnecessary expenditures and limit the need to raise tuition fees. This will include in-depth examination of the university's budget, pushing for alternate means of funding and making sure the voice of common sense is heard at the meeting table.
Lobby the federal government for student loan reform, increases to funds allocated to grants and permanent scholarships, restoration of the education transfer payments made to the provinces and greater tax credits for students and their parents (and for loosening on the tax penalties for students who receive scholarships and bursaries).
Lobby the provincial government for common sense solutions to halt the escalation of tuition fees. This will include increasing the transfer payments made to post secondary institutions and further tax breaks for students and their families. This will also include the request for members of COPSE (the Council On Post Secondary Education) to meet with students on campus at least twice a year in "town hall" style meetings.
Lobby the civil government for the reduction or elimination of property taxes paid by the university, and to assist in constructing a bicycle path leading from Bishop Grandin and King's Park onto campus.

Social Accessibility -- This campus is a social wasteland compared to similar-sized campuses elsewhere in North America. We will make sure that the average student will have a voice in guiding the Director of Programming when drafting the schedules for Orientation Week and Celebration. In addition to this, we will institute "Clothing Optional Thursdays" in UMSU-run buildings, and we will lobby the administration to institute this weekly event across campus.

Lobbying-- In order to achieve many of the goals we have set, we would like to form a CASA media barnstorming tour. The aim? To raise the concerns of students nationwide of the problems faced by university students. Each CASA-member school would send two delegates to Victoria, where a bus would be chartered. The junket would progress from city-to-city with CASA institutions, meeting with the press, university administrators and policy makers, municipal governments, MLA's and MP's to ram home our point. This tour would take place over the summer months when the roads are good and school's out. To reduce costs, delegates would be billeted by friends and families of student union governments across the country, making the only appreciable costs the bus rental and airfare (to Victoria and from St. John's).

Daredevil Stunts -- If you elect the Reid/Kehoe slate, Gord (Knuckles) Reid will jump three U of M security vehicles on a borrowed motorcycle at next year's Orientation Week. Huzzah!

...on a cold February night -- blandscotsman@hotmail.com