As part of CHMA’s year-in-review week on Tantramar Report, Erica Butler sat down with Mount Allison Students’ Union president Jonathan Ferguson to reflect back on 2020.

Ferguson recaps the university’s COVID response, 2020 tuition hikes, student voter suppression at Sackville’s provincial polling station, the campus wide outcry over sexual assault and how the university responds to it, and the importance of self-care, especially in the time of COVID.

Here’s the conversation:

TRANSCRIPT:

ERICA BUTLER:
Jon Ferguson, thanks for joining me today.

JON FERGUSON:
Thanks for having me.

EB:
I wanted to start off our year in review conversation with asking you a couple questions about yourself, because I’ve interviewed you several times, and I’ve never really found anything out about you as a person. So I’m going to start with the most obvious question. What are you studying at Mount A?

JF:
Yeah. So I’m a fifth year student. I’m studying international relations, doing an honours in international relations, and I’m doing minors in environmental studies and French.

EB:
Wow. And so what possessed you to decide to run for council president?

JF:
That’s a great question. There are a lot of different things. But the biggest thing was just that I really thought that it might be time for a different sort of approach, than one we might have seen happening in prior years. And one that was maybe focused a bit more on what was happening internally at Mount Allison, you know, more kind of local style of leadership. And I thought that, you know, if I was going to be going around and saying that I thought this leadership style was needed, I should, you know, put my name forward to give it a shot. And that’s what I did.

And, incidentally, that was right before the pandemic. And so it turned out to be a year where we needed to focus quite locally anyway. So I’ve been able to put that into practice.

EB:
So, any regrets?

JF:
No, no regrets. Definitely surprises. I mean, nobody knew the pandemic was happening. We were doing the elections and then the hiring process, and we got about halfway through that whole thing, when the pandemic started. And so there’s very few people that joined our team–even many of the higher positions of the MSAU–that did so knowing that there was going to be a pandemic affecting our operations this year. So it’s been a challenge not only for me, and for the higher executive and for the council, but for all of our staff as well.

So I hope, that there haven’t been too many regrets throughout the team, but definitely no regrets on my end. It’s been an interesting year, but I’m very proud of the work we’ve done.

EB:
You mentioned COVID, and I definitely want to talk about that, and all the extra workload that that’s involved. But one of the first things soon after the pandemic struck, students found out there was going to be a fairly substantial tuition hike. So that sort of hit you probably as issue number one for you in 2020. Remind us of what happened there.

JF:
So the tuition hike was one of our first big issues as an executive, as a union. We were disappointed that it happened. Because as I said, you know, at the time, this is something we’re seeing happen throughout Atlantic universities. Even with COVID happening, that was one big argument, this was going to happen regardless. And that’s fair. I mean, that was the plan. But that plan is not one we would have agreed with before the pandemic, and certainly not one we agreed with during a pandemic. Because obviously, the pandemic affected students abilities to work.
Back in March and April, things were so up in the air, so much more volatile than they are even today. And students were losing summer jobs. And so it was a huge concern for us.

But we responded to it, in a way where we really wanted to engage students. We launched that petition. We wanted to make sure that everyone knew was very clear, you know, between the students and those making the decision to increase the hike that this is where students stood, we were not in favour of it. Overwhelmingly not in favour of it.

So yeah, that was definitely one of the first big sort of issues we had to tackle early on in our time as an executive.

EB:
And that tuition hike was like a 4.5%, on average… It’s complicated in New Brunswick, because of various different agreements with the government to guarantee funding. So depending on what year you start at Mount Allison, you could have had closer to 5% hike.

JF:
Yeah.

EB:
I haven’t checked in lately. Do you know, what’s up with the the next MOU negotiations between the provincial government and the
university?

JF:
That’s a great question. I don’t know any specifics, right now. There’s been discussion about whether there will be discussion sort of thing. But it’s definitely preliminary stuff. Obviously, it goes without saying that we’re in favour of reduced tuition wherever possible. And so that includes obviously New Brunswick students. And so we hope that there’s going to be some progress with that coming forward. Y

EB:
So COVID was complicated for so many reasons, but, you know, one of the big things was students coming back to campus and what a big deal that was. When you look back on that, and we’re sort of staring down the barrel of it happening all over again now, although, for some reason everyone seems so much more relaxed about at this time, I don’t know if that’s true when you’re on the inside as you are, but at least the anxiety levels outside don’t seem so high. What did you folks learn from September, stuff that you will apply to January?

JF:
Well, that’s a great question. I want to start by just addressing the lack of urgency you mentioned there. That’s a really interesting kind of phenomenon that we’ve been noticing happening everywhere. And I actually think Maclean’s had an article about that the other day that I was sharing on social media. It seems that there’s just a huge lack of urgency kind of everywhere. And that’s… it’s really a fascinating thing to see how people are kind of, I guess, adapting to the slower pace of responding to things and preparing overall. Not just, on campus, but you know, throughout the country. And I think that that’s something we might be seeing here.

But also, partly, there is a lack of urgency because of how well things went the first time. I think that, through careful planning, through widespread student buy-in for the programs that were being put forward for self-isolation, we know that it went well. In August, it went as well as anyone could have hoped, for a huge experiment that had never been attempted before. And I think that we are now saying, in the winter it’s hopefully going to go equally well.

The MASU executive is not directly involved in the self-isolation planning as we were in August. We were involved in that in August, but going into the winter, it’s going to be the orientation chair and the other orientation chairs.

So, you know, we look forward to seeing what happens. I believe that outdoor time is going to be a thing again. It’s going to be obviously chillier than it was in August. But that’s a key thing. That’s something that we made clear to Mount Allison, we wanted to see happen. At one point there was discussion about whether it might be temporarily suspended. And we were saying no, it can’t be. Students are saying this is what is making this possible. This is what’s making it, I don’t want to say bearable. But I mean, you know, for some students, it’s tough to be inside the their rooms for two weeks.

For others, it was actually quite straightforward. I know there’s some students that were just finishing up summer courses or online work. And they were saying actually was great for me, I could focus, finally, because there’s no distractions. But I mean, it’s different for everybody. And that’s what we want to always drive home as everyone responds to all of the changes… whether it’s self isolation planning, or course delivery, everyone responds to those differently.

EB:
And for this upcoming self isolation period, students will be starting their courses in week two of their isolation. Am I right there?

JF:
That’s correct. Yeah. That first week of courses is the second week of their isolation.

EB:
Which does make sense. Like, if you ever had a time to be able to concentrate, that would be it.

Now, as we move on into the fall, we had a provincial election, one that got called on 28 days notice. And it was a bit of a shitshow, for lack of a better term.

JF:
That’s a good term.

EB:
Tell us what happened.

JF:
So obviously, I can speak to what happened in our constituency. So what we saw was voter suppression, student voter suppression, short and simple. It was shocking. And it was completely unacceptable.

And I think the entire community agreed with that, you know, that this could this could not happen. The Chief Electoral Officer of Elections New Brunswick ended up listening to our requests to have some sort of investigation conducted because what we were seeing at the polls, was students being turned away. At the beginning, students were being asked before they even stepped foot into the building, whether they were students, which is a very strange question. And also a completely inappropriate question. You don’t ask someone what their profession or vocation is, before they’re going into vote. You ask things like, are you a resident of New Brunswick, right?

We saw certain students, basically BIPOC students, being asked if they were Canadian. You know, really awful stuff. And so it was truly reprehensible behaviour.

It was an indication that people had no idea what they were doing, that there was a clear miscommunication during training. And that, for one reason or another, those inappropriate questions were being asked to students and apparently nobody else.

I mean, obviously, we only speak to students, but from what we can tell these sorts of questions were not being directed at people who appear to be residents. I mean, this wasn’t something that was just for out of province students. This was something that was happening to New Brunswick residents, to people as locally as students from Moncton who moved to Sackville, who were being treated this way. And students from all over the Maritimes but within New Brunswick.

So it was really, really strange. I study international relations and political science and I’ve never heard of anything like this happening in Canada to the best of my knowledge. And this is something that I think a lot of people are still asking questions about. So the investigation was conducted. We were closely involved with that investigation. I think it was about 20 students in total were interviewed.

So we are reasonably pleased with the results of it. It’s clear that Elections New Brunswick took note of this, realized it was more serious than I think they initially realized, undertook an investigation, and basically concluded that there was a huge mistake that happened in this particular constituency. And we didn’t hear it happening pretty much anywhere else in New Brunswick during that election. And that training needed to be improved. And so we’re really glad that has been publicly stated and shared, and it’s going in, you know, for the next time the election is called, which is supposed to be 2024. And I hope that everyone reads that report and pays careful attention to this when we go forward, when Elections New Brunswick goes forward and does training in 2024.

EB:
Yeah, that’s the question that still hangs in the air for me about this whole thing. Elections New Brunswick has said they’re going to do training. It actually seemed… you know, I was there on the day, hearing some of the election poll workers talking and it really seemed as if they were trained in the opposite direction. And it took repeating and repeating and repeating throughout the day, but the same people continued to insist that the 40 day residency rule worked differently than it did.

But anyway, I guess the question that looms for me about this is, why did it happen in Sackville and not anywhere else?

JF:
That’s a great question.

EB:
There is an attitude. It seemed that, as you say, people were being questioned when they walked in if they didn’t look like, you know, a typical Sackville resident, whatever that looks like. But being questioned about who they were, inappropriate questioning. It’s interesting, and that’s one thing, I think, the town will have to think about a lot.

JF:
If I can comment on that… I think that is a great question. When you say typical Sackville resident, I think that a lot of Sackville residents look at a particular age range and think oh, someone of this age is likely here for a certain time of the year, and not for the whole year, and have other questions about whether or not they’re truly members of the community. And that’s something that’s quite stressful for students. It’s something that students are very aware of.

Students come to Mount Allison for the community. And many of these students, you know, in their first year or so, they’re trying to figure out what campus life is like, but then after that, they really branch out and they want to be a bigger part of Sackville in their second, third, and fourth and fifth year. And I have so many colleagues and friends that have stayed here year round to work and to be part of the community. They’ve volunteered. There’s some great examples of the work that’s been done with seniors during the very difficult months of self-isolation back in March and April, May, when it was kind of impossible to see anybody, really.

And so I would definitely reiterate that students are part of this community, too. And moments like these sour the town and gown relationship, and I think it’s important that we’re really cautious and cognizant of that, because, you know, students want to be part of this community, to continue to be active members of this community, and some alumni, especially this year, even stayed in this community to work online, and to stay in Sackville.

So yeah, I definitely would drive that home and say that, you know, that’s kind of what that was getting at, too. It was just another incident of this sort of tension that’s there, that I think is improving. And it’s definitely not to say that it’s a tension that all students have with everyone in the town, or anything like that. But there’s just definitely that kind of underlying tension that came out, potentially, in that incident. And that’s one thing that students took away from it.

So again, very happy that Elections NB concluded that there was an issue and said so publicly, and that we’re working towards making sure that we’re seeing widespread respect and support for everyone who’s part of our community.

EB:
Right. And hopefully, on-campus polling stations next election.

JF:
Totally. Logistically that makes things quite easier.

EB:
In addition to COVID, and the election, there has been another massive issue rear its head on the Mount A campus this year: sexual assault. And it seemingly came out of nowhere. We had a graduating student who thought she needed to leave her truth behind and let people know what her experience was dealing with the systems that are in place here at the university to deal with reports of sexual assault.

I guess I’ll just let you speak to that issue a bit. How do you feel going forward with what’s afoot now?

JF:
I’ll start off by saying that this is something that, as you said, predates this year. It’s something that the MASU has been working on throughout the last couple years, addressing this issue through the rape culture working group that we had, and that we continue to have. So that’s something that we have been trying to raise to the community, that has been an issue.

But to be completely fair, as you pointed out, it did sort of seem to come out of nowhere. It seemed to be quite a big thing very suddenly. And I think that is… Something we all share there is that while everyone, I think, sort of knew that there was issues going on, nobody really understood the extent or the scale of how much of a problem this was, until Michelle started with her posts on social media which began this snowball effect of people coming forward and sharing their stories. It was a very difficult process for a lot of students. That week was, you know, incredibly emotional for a lot of people.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, I think Michelle was incredibly brave and wise to do what she did. And it’s resulted in some some pretty impressive change.

So far, I think the biggest thing we’re seeing is the creation of this working group, which you’re probably already aware of, which is going to be led by Michelle and by a faculty member, as the co-chairs. Last I heard, over 50% of the members of this group are going to be students. And that working group is going to be leading the response, while there’s also going to be, the University said, a third party coming in and basically, going through everything to understand exactly what happens.

To the best of my understanding this group will be giving their recommendations, while the working group is also considering these recommendations and recommending to the administration paths forward.

I just highlight that for those that don’t know, because I think that’s a really impressive response from the administration. To be totally honest, we were skeptical of what the response was going to be, but this is one that we can support.

The MSAU has its own ad hoc committee that’s been formed with a lot of–well, only–student members, and we’re going to be working with one of our liaisons as well to support the working group.

There’s a lot of work ahead, for sure. But this is one of the best first steps we could have hoped for. And so we’re gonna continue to work with students, with faculty and administration, everyone in the community, to make sure that students have the supports they need, because it’s very clear that they don’t.

EB:
I gotta say, having heard from the President of the University on this, that the call is for whatever comes out of this process to be sort of the gold standard for Canadian universities–which is badly needed in all Canadian universities.

JF:
Exactly, and that’s a great point. This is not something that, tragically, is unique to Mount Allison. It’s clearly a problem here. But we’ve seen this started, at least locally in the Maritimes, similar movements on other campuses. And we’re seeing that this is a problem throughout all Canadian institutions, to varying degrees. And so I think this is an opportunity for Mount Allison to lead the charge in fixing this once and for all, not only for our campus, but as a model for other campuses.

And in the meantime, I think one of the good short term steps that has been taken has been the involvement of Crossroads. You’ve probably heard about that, but Crossroads will be opening up an office here for the second semester, as a short term solution to the concerns raised by students. And then moving forward based on the results of what the working group discusses, other changes will come forward for the fall. But that’s again, another great first step that’s been taken, that’s going to address the issues that students are facing today.

EB:
Right, so they’ll have that third party, that will be the service that’s replacing what SHARE had been previously doing.

JF:
That’s how I understood it, too, yeah.

EB:
It’s going to be a difficult process, but that’ll be something to look forward to in 2021.

Before I let you go, I want to ask what what other things has MAU been up to. I feel like there has been a lot of really big issues come up, and I’m sure there’s also kind of just more run of the mill stuff that you are working on. So what else has happened with MASU in 2020?

JF:
Thank you for asking that, because there’s a lot of stuff that’s been going on behind the scenes that we’re excited to share.

One is, I guess, an announcement I can make here. Our new website is going live this week. So a completely redesigned website. In fact, we’re actually launching two websites. We’re separating the housing directory on its own website. It’s going to be called masuhousing.ca. Meanwhile, masu.ca will be a completely redesigned interface, much more user friendly.

And you know, we did this because we realized that, this year with COVID, people are spending more time online. They’re looking for our resources more on our website than they would in a typical year, where they’d come into our office a little bit more frequently than they’re able to this year, especially with so many online students.

And that’s one exciting thing we’ve been doing. We’ve been re-organizing a lot of our operating procedures. That’s, you know, to students that are not involved in the MSAU, that’s really boring, and most students aren’t going to care about that. But I mean, our operations committees are working hard.

Our committees overall this year, have had a huge, huge turnout. We almost had too many applications to let people on committees. We reached capacity in over a dozen committees. So that would have been eight or 10 members or so per committee. Some committees have fewer, some have, like 15 or so members. I have a big list in my office that I look at frequently.

This is just another indication of the really high student engagement we’re seeing this year, like with the survey that I sent out regarding pass fail. That’s another thing that we just finished. With pass/fail, we led the charge on that. Initially, there was a lot of skepticism about whether now was the time and place to do this. I want to thank the senators that had that discussion and got into the details and the nitty gritty and said, no, this is what we got to do.

You know, we’re really happy that our recommendation that students can see their letter grades, and then decide whether they opt into pass/fail… we’re really happy that recommendation was adopted. And that’s how it’s working this semester.

But you know, student engagement overall has just been astonishingly high. When I sent that survey out on email last week, asking for feedback about pass/fail. I sent the survey and I went and I poured a glass of water, and I came back and hit refresh. And within six minutes, I think there was 200 responses. So 10% of the school in six minutes. You know, we’re seeing really high engagement, and it’s really heartwarming to see how much students are wanting to get involved with their own union this year. And that’s not something that a lot of schools necessarily see happen, right.

And so I think that we’re taking advantage of, or making the most out of the fact that we are a small, tight-knit community. And we’re bringing that feeling online.

And so those are just a few of the things we’re doing. I guess another way of putting it is we’re doing a lot of behind the scenes work to make sure that we’re structured online and adaptable. So that if we go back into the orange or red, you know, we’re going to be able to work fully from home online.

In March and April and May, some of our documents were in the office, we couldn’t get in. You know, things like that. We have been working to make sure that we’re a resilient organization behind the scenes, so that whatever happens for the rest of this year, and next, we’re going to be operating at 100% capacity, no matter the circumstances.

Again, not necessarily the most fun and engaging thing, but I bring this up, because I think it’s important for students to know that behind the scenes, we’re doing everything we can to make sure that we’re operating well. So that next year, and maybe even next semester, there can be more of a focus on the fun events and more in-person things, as we start to kind of ‘renormalize’ a little bit, as vaccines start to be administered. Which is also very exciting.

EB:
Yeah, that will be an exciting thing. I knock on wood every day several times right now, just because I don’t want to count the chickens before they’re hatched, sort of thing, but yeah, we’re all super hopeful for the vaccines.

I want to end this on a personal note. Looking forward to 2021, do you have a new year’s resolution that you’ve been working on?

JF:
I mean, there’s lots of little trivial things, like going to the gym or trying to take care of myself. If we’re talking personally, the big thing would just be, you know, self-care.

I think that’s something that everybody is learning a lot more about this year. You think that staying at home and relaxing, that is self care. But when we’re this far into the pandemic, and all of our lives are taking place in our residence rooms, or in our off campus rooms, whatever, it’s important to be aware of one’s own physical and mental health.

I think that I personally faced burnout quite a bit this year. And I need to be careful of that. And I think that, you know, the whole team, everybody in the community, and that includes students with their full course loads, and faculty and admin, everyone’s been facing burnout.

And so I think that if there’s ever going to be a year where we all have the same New Year’s resolution, I think it might be this year, and I think it’s going to be self care.

And so I really hope that I’m not the only one thinking this way and that everyone else is considering this a lot going into the New Year, as we’re kind of on the homestretch getting out of this pandemic.

EB:
All right, Jonathan Ferguson, thank you so much for joining us today.

JF:
Thank you, Erica.