What Happened to SMUSA's VP of Student Affairs?
Written by: Asia Outten
@asiaoutten
Photo by: Smusa.ca
Asha Graham is a dedicated Political Science Major at Saint Mary’s University currently doing her Honours Thesis. She is also a former Resident Assistant (RA) and a former president and treasurer of the SMU Halo Society. She is a hard-working, passionate and ambitious individual and by these merits, was chosen as the new SMUSA’s VP of Student Affairs in May 2019.
Asha shared with me that she was initially happy when she first started the job despite the demanding job description—some duties of the VP of Student Affairs include planning Welcome Week and other events for hundreds of new students, all of SMUSA’s events in partnership with the University, planning intramurals, trivia events, answering hundreds of emails a day from societies, bank letters, hiring pack leaders and planning pack leader camp, and more. Although not everything went perfectly, Asha enjoyed being able to see new students make friends to help with their transition into University life. So then, what led to her early resignation?
Asha admitted that as time went on in her position, things began to get difficult. Despite SMUSA’s open door policy for students and workers alike, as well as an all-hands on deck approach for workers, Asha reported feeling poorly supported, not included, stressed, overwhelmed, and constantly anxious. She was also never assigned an Event Coordinator, despite past VP’s of Student Affairs having one to assist with the role. Asha felt that she was rarely, if ever congratulated, but instead told about things she could have done better; nevertheless, she worked harder at her job, even sacrificing class attendance to put in the extra hours. Asha admitted that ironically, the harder she worked, the critiques on her job performance became worse.
Eventually, the role of SMUSA’s VP of Student Affairs, along with pursuing an Honours thesis, became too overwhelming; and in her last performance review meeting, Asha made the decision to resign.
What’s Next?
The president of SMUSA, Mary Navas informed the SMU Journal that losing Asha as SMUSA’s VP of Student Affairs was indeed considered a loss as she is a passionate, ambitious and amazing individual, and that SMUSA will continue to support her professionally, academically and as a person. However, Mary has made the decision to not rehire a SMUSA VP of Student Affairs. Instead, two SMUSA coordinators were chosen to take over the big portfolio associated with the position for upcoming events in this semester. The decision was made considering that there is only a short period of time left in the current SMUSA presidency, and the new SMUSA president, elected in April 2020, will hire their own VP of Student Affairs and other relevant members.