Thursday, Thursday... can't trust that day...

So, it’s Thursday again, which means another issue of the Charlatan. Today, I thought I’d offer my perspective on a couple points raised so that you can draw your own conclusions through balancing the information you gather.
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1. Report versus Review: Okay, let’s start off with the basics. I wrote a report, not a review. As charged by CUSA council, my mandate over the past month has been to compose a report on the Hiring practices employed since the beginning of my term. I was to prepare this document so that council and students could review it when the document was made public. The Charlatan bashed me for not reviewing, just reporting. However, it would be irresponsible if I were the only one reviewing the practices? That’s why we made it a discussion item at council: so it could be reviewed.

2. Recomendations? The Charlatan seemed displeased that I didn’t make any recommendations within the report. Well, to be honest, I didn’t. That’s because I don’t believe that I should sit on making change when change needs to be made. I have been in office since March and I haven’t been sitting on my recommendations for changes in Hiring procedures, I’ve been putting them into action. I made motions in August to amend Bylaw IX to make the Hiring Board composition more accountable to students. I updated deliberation and interview practices of the board to increase consistency and transparency. I have been making these changes all spring and summer, so I’m sorry if I didn’t wait until I was called upon to do so. I’m the kind of person who fixes things as I see them, not wait until it’s politically apt to do so. I think it would have been irresponsible not to make changes as they needed to be made.

3. Past Procedure The Charlatan made a big issue out of the fact that there were no hiring procedures in the past. Well, they’re wrong about this. Firstly, if you see the Hiring Report, I did cite two other written reports on Hiring Practices. Secondly, they were not reported publicly because, quite frankly, no one asked. However, they have been the hiring practices that have been used for the past 7 years that this position has existed. I was more than happy, however, to expand on them as council charged me to do.

4. Self-glorifying? Please.The Charlatan also accused me of “patting [myself] on the back” and “self-glorifying” the report. Well, I take great offence to this. I take my charge from students. What they want me to do, I do. They wanted me to write this report, I did it and was pleased to do so. I did, however, mention that I was proud of and confident in every single one of the coordinators that we have working for CUSA Services. They do fantastic work and they work their tails off for Carleton students. If that is the “patting” on the back they want me to stop, I’m sorry, I’m not going to do that. We have the best staff in CUSA Services and I’m so glad to be able to work with them.

5. Committee? The Charlatan editorial also suggested that a hiring committee be struck to review the report. This, to me, seems a little redundant as the entire council reviewed the report at the last meeting. However, if any student or councillor wants to amend our hiring practices, they can do that any time throughout the year through our Constitution and Policy committee or council.

6. Womyn's Centre Collective Seat The Charlatan article also accused me of removing the seat of a Womyn’s Centre collective member from the hiring board the same year the board selected a non-collective member for a coordinator. Well, this is completely false. The seat was removed due to the preferential hiring treatment it caused in 2002, many years before I was at Carleton and quite before this non-collective member could have applied. This accusation is foolish and misleading.
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But hey, this is just some point of clarification I wanted to make. It’s your right to make up your mind for yourself. I do want to say though that my door is always open. I really mean that. I usually only close my door when I go home at night. I’m literally always at school and I’m always willing to sit down and talk to students. Or, if you prefer, you can also e-mail or call me.

Please, though, don’t hide behind a paper to make criticism. If you are concerned about something, come talk to me. I’m here to represent you. If you want me to do something different, you need to let me know; I can’t change things I don’t know about. I’m really passionate about the work that I do in the service centres and I want you to get passionate about them to.

Thanks for reading, and visit me any time.

Sincerely,
Katy

Read it for yourself:
CUSA VPSS Hiring Report http://www.cusaonline.com/exec.html
(look under my profile)