McMaster’s approximately 30,000 full-time undergraduate students will vote next week to elect their student union president for the 2025/26 academic year.
There are three candidates this year [links to the student newspaper platform summaries]: Simon Mills, Olami Olalere, and Piper Plavins.
The McMaster Students Union website lists candidate social media accounts. There are no websites this year.
Looking at the candidate’s Instagram profiles [the only platform that all three are using], the current cohort of McMaster undergraduates are not concerned with the broader City of Hamilton.
Only one candidate directly mentions municipal issues.
That candidate writes they “will advocate to the municipal government to make the Pilot rental housing licence program permanent” and lobby the City for “more balanced and transparent” parking enforcement in the Westdale / Ainslie Wood community, writing the City is too strictly ticketing illegal parking near the campus.
Students Want to Have Fun Post-COVID
The candidates, all upper-year undergraduates, spent their final years of high school at home during the COVID pandemic – they want to have fun.
All three propose increased spending on expanding existing events, adding new events, improving the student union pub, and providing more MSU services.
The McMaster Students Union is facing a severe fiscal crisis, with a projected deficit between $415-500,000 this year.
[McMaster Students will vote on increasing their student union fee by $20 per year.]
Commuter Student Issues are Big
All three candidates discuss on-campus parking issues, with various pitches to improve the on-campus shuttle service between the campus core and the outer parking lots, “Lot M.”
A Quick Note on the Student Union Pubs
When I covered higher education for Macleans (2007 – 09) and the Globe and Mail (contract 2009 – 11), student unions were grappling with what to do about their on-campus pubs.
A shift occurred in the ’90s and ’00s away from a heavy-drinking student culture: driving by demographics (the elimination of Grade 13 in Ontario meant students arrived on campus below the legal drinking age), student aid cuts and tuition increases combined to decreased disposable incomes, and other there were factors.
During the 1980s, the McMaster Students Union operated two highly profitable pubs. The profits provided over 33 percent of the student union’s revenue.
By the mid-00s, the two pubs had merged into one – and that one pub recorded a $1-million loss in a single year.
Two decades later, the McMaster Students Union continues to operate a pub, and nobody seems to be able to figure out how to return it to profitability.
Student Union Presidential Debate on Tuesday
The MSU presidential debate is on Tuesday, from 2 to 4 p.m. in the student centre.
I plan to observe.
Production Details
v. 1.0.0
Published: January 24, 2025
Last updated: January 24, 2025
Author: Joey Coleman
Update Record
v. 1.0.0 original version
Young people do not go to pubs to drink anymore — it’s waaaay too expensive. One of three things happen now:
– They pregame at home and only drink a bit, mostly going to dance
– They just finish the bottle at home
– They use weed instead
Operating a pub does not seem like a good financial strategy for the student union. Time for some fresh ideas :)