This year’s UTSU Annual General Meeting, held Thursday, boasted one of the largest student turnouts in recent years. The ongoing controversy over what opponents call the UTSU’s lack of transparency came to a head at one of the most contentious AGMs to date.
From the beginning, both sides behaved in such a way that any positive or productive conclusion to the meeting seemed impossible. The conversation between union executives and the union’s opponents was not a professional discourse, as both sides’ behavior contributed to the downward spiral of the event.
Following several preliminary speeches, which all seemed preemptively aggressive, discussing how the students in attendance ought to ‘behave’ and be polite, UTSU president Shaun Shepherd took the microphone to make his president’s address. This included showing a self-aggrandizing video promoting the union’s successes this year, which, given that the event was hours behind schedule, probably could have been skipped.
Throughout his speech, students held up signs saying, “online voting now” — to which Shepherd responded, “Really, guys?” in a tone that suggestion he had no intention of addressing the actual message of the signs. After countless interruptions, impolite shouts and general heckling, Shepherd became visibly emotional. He dropped his notes, removed his glasses, and — in what I’m sure seemed like an act of bravery at the time — informed the attendees that he is “suffering from depression” and has experienced severe stress resulting from the online ‘bullying ’ his executive has been facing.
Following Shepherd’s speech, the meeting was called to order and then quickly came to an end as the first motion, to approve the agenda, failed. So it turns out that all the abuse, online bantering, and stress leading up to the AGM was a waste of time and of every student’s dollars. Neither party seemed willing to engage in a professional political discourse, which brought the meeting to a close before it could conduct business and before any real issues could be formally discussed. Given the child-like behavior of many present, even the very few issues raised could not be taken seriously. For this event, or any event like it, to be a success those who disagree must respect each other. At the AGM neither party was willing to do so, and this made Thursday’s meeting unproductive, which is ultimately detrimental to everyone.
Unfortunately, Mr. Shepherd portrayed himself as a victim, and some of his critics will surely see this as weakness. I would like to be perfectly clear that I am not claiming that Mr. Shepherd’s actions were unjustified, nor do I diminish the significance of his public announcement. He had every right to become emotional over some of the truly hurtful things about his staff and himself that have been thrown around on the Internet; they could certainly lead to significant psychological distress. However, as a politician and as the leader of one of the largest student unions in Canada, he did not maintain his professionalism. Prior to his outburst, Shepherd was on ethically higher ground than his mouthy opposition. Yet by addressing, engaging, and reacting to their behaviour, he gave power to his hecklers — who didn’t deserve it — and diminished his own position. In that moment of apparent emotional honesty, in an attempt to explain himself on a very human level, he lacked the foresight to understand that as a leader, his role is to always be stoic, calm, and not allow to the opposition to see him sweat. Regrettably his actions will probably lead to more of this negative behavior — it worked this time, and will almost certainly work again.
The conduct at the AGM represents nothing less than a failure of student leadership at this university. Both parties behaved in a way that diminished themselves, disrespected their opponents, distracted from the issues at hand, and quite frankly, embarrassed the student body in a public forum. Questions of professionalism aside, if progress is the main goal, these strong voices and personality, on both sides, must stop polarizing themselves into opposing camps that cause unnecessary conflict and stress, and as the AGM proved, are ultimately counter-productive.
Previously: Reforms absent from AGM agenda
