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SSMU Reviews: Rebecca Dooley

VP University Affairs

Turn ons:
Rebecca Dooley was instrumental in creating the Sustainable Projects Fund, which passed in referendum by a wide margin. She kept up demands for student interests at the Senate, lobbying hard for greater transparency when McGill’s research policy came up for discussion. She has also worked hard to get a task force going that will increase institutional cooperation between SSMU and faculty associations, seeking to represent their interests as well. Dooley joked in September that she was “VP H1N1,” and that flu planning has taken up a lot of her time. She succeeded in lobbying for greater illness-related flexibility – an effort that led to the famous “red button” option for students, and more trust in dealings between students and the University.

Turn offs:
The way Dooley handled revisions to the University’s sexual harassment policy, bringing together SACOMSS and the Senate, should be a model for future endeavours. As a leader she should look for more University policies to get students excited about, like intellectual property or French on campus.

Desperately seeking:
While Dooley insists that she is constantly pushing for student interests at committee levels, and has tried to construct some institutional apparatus for listening to student initiatives and concerns, she could do more to lead the way. Dooley insists that she will only press for things that the student body has asked her to, but at the same time she needs to acknowledge her role as a student leader. Dooley has also been hamstrung by the difficulty of finding interested students to fill committee positions.