President Shoukri offers one student the chance to trade places
Melissa Sundardas
Staff Writer
@excalweb
York University’s president says he will be dressed down, sporting a backpack, and ready to fully experience the life and activities of a student February 28.
“If you ignore my grey hair, I hope that I can really look like a student,” says Mamdouh Shoukri, York’s president and vice-chancellor.
York is holding a contest—which could be the first of its kind in Canada—where one undergraduate student will win the opportunity to switch places with the president of York for one day so they can learn about the other’s roles.
Students who submit a 500-word written or video essay submission answering what their top three priorities would be if they were York’s president will be considered for the role. The winner will be announced February 17.
Shoukri says the idea for this contest came from the staff within his office.
“I think it’s a very useful exercise, but also I think there’s an element of fun involved and I’d like to engage in it,” he says. “Once you become a vice-president or president, you are kind of separated from the people that you are there to serve and I think this is the thing that I’m trying to overcome at York.”
Whether the winning student is a biochemistry major, theatre major, or an athlete, Shoukri says he is open to any activity the student has to be engaged in—including classroom assignments and extracurricular activities—and he will do his best to fit in as an undergraduate student who is over 60 years old.
“I will do my best; I hope I can handle the assignments. We’ll see how it goes,” he says. “I’m really genuinely trying to live the life of a student for a day […] I know the student life day is 24 hours and believe me, the president life day is 24 hours as well.”
This role swap will give a student the opportunity to learn firsthand that the president doesn’t have a magic tool to make decisions, says Shoukri.
“I think the most important thing is to understand university governance and understand the checks and balances on everybody and understand that there’s no absolute power in anybody’s hands,” he says. “The president can take a lot of initiatives and can influence things, but the president does not have a magic wand or a pen by which he or she can sign and things get done.”
When it comes to handing over his role to a student, Shoukri says he’s not worried at all about any crazy actions or decisions that could be made on this day.
“I hope he or she does not commit me to, say, a memo inviting people to a big event or something. I hope they don’t commit me to too many things that I have to do, but I think the decisions of significant impact, I will never be able to even do them in one day. I will have to have the appropriate approval,” he says. “It’s an experiment. If it works well, we probably will repeat it once a year or so, so let’s see how it works.”
“As long as nobody fails me in a test or anything, I’ll be happy.”
Entry submissions are due by 4 p.m. on February 6 and more information about the contest is available at www.yorku.ca/president/pres4aday.
