U of T has carved itself into Paul Bretscher’s face. Though only 23, wrinkles are beginning to form around his mouth.
Perhaps it’s from having been president of the Arts and Science Students Union in 2004-05, and then of the Students’ Administrative Council (SAC) last year.
Or maybe it’s due to a number of family tragedies this summer, including the disappearance of his little cousin, Robert Barrington Leigh-a U of T math prodigy whose body was recovered from the North Saskatchewan River after a nine-day search.
The tragedy caused him to resign as SAC’s vice-president (VP) external last month.
Or maybe it’s the smoking habit. Bretscher puffed two cigarettes over the course of a 90-minute interview on Friday, when he caught up with The Varsity to speak about his time at SAC and share some insider’s insights into campus issues and the post-secondary education system.
How did SAC run a “clean ship” last year?
When I came in in 2005, all SAC had been was scandals. So when [the Progress ticket] decided to run in 2005, we tried to build a team of people that had similar goals and sets of priorities they wanted to accomplish.
Frankly, people were working like hell and they were too tired to fight about the little things. It certainly helped, sweeping the elections, and it was certainly helpful to know where everyone else was.
Was it a concern for you this spring when so few people stepped forward to run for SAC?
I found it surprising. When we ran, there were five tickets against us, the highest turn out in almost two decades. I assumed that was going to lead more people wanting to run and get involved. What I learned was that more people wanted to get involved, but fewer people wanted to run.
Did you increase pay for SAC executives last year, as critics charge?
Sure we did-there was a pay increase for the executive. There was a vote, and all of the executive committee members abstained. We set the rate of pay at $25,000 a year.
[Former SAC VP Sam Rahimi] was saying that we gave ourselves a raise, which we didn’t do-the board did.
What are the prospects for a St. George campus student centre?
The way we’re approaching it now-with a real blueprint that can be put forward to students-I think the probability of it being successful increases. In January we’ll have a pretty good idea of what things are going to look like. That should be able to lead toward a [levy] referendum, probably at the beginning of 2007.
What else should the administration do?
The library system at U of T-one of the best in North America-is statistically terrific, but there isn’t enough space for people to study. I think if U of T had the resources right now they would make Gerstein Library 24 hours tomorrow. That’s something that I would hope will happen, someday soon.
What do you see as the big trends in post-secondary education?
Until a few years ago, we didn’t have MaRS on our campus. We’re seeing a huge effort right now among the big research-intensive institutions to build big research parks to fuse business enterprise with the academy. I think we get some real ethical questions here.
And the move towards part-time instructors scares me. U of T is probably the best in the country at providing full-time lecturers, who are quality staff paid a good salary, who are there primarily in a teaching role. But throughout the system we’re starting to see people who teach a whole course for $6,000. That’s education on the cheap, and it’s starting to destroy the system.
What’s the best thing about being a student again?
Two favourite things. The Blackberry doesn’t go off anymore, number one, and number two, I get to cook for myself again. It’s so nice to take an hour to cook for yourself.
