Member Services Officer

Brighita Lungu

This was Brighita Lungu’s second year as the Member Services Officer (MSO). Recent disagreement over the severity of PGSS’S budget deficit has meant that the most recent Financial Affairs Officers (FAOS) have targeted services for cuts. Lungu said that this has increased the burden of her job because she has to advocate for the protection of services not only at the university level but also within the executive committee.

In terms of services, Lungu has highlighted Study Sundays as among her biggest accomplishments. Originally an initiative by the Mcgill Office of Religious and Spiritual Life (MORSL) and taken over by PGSS in 2012, Study Sundays are organized once a month and aim to provide students who are also parents with a quiet study space and free childcare. This year, the project came close to cancellation, but Lungu salvaged the program by sacrificing the free lunches provided by Thomson House. It is disappointing to see Lungu forced into these kinds of concessions, especially considering her original desire to increase the amount of services PGSS provides, but she has remained a strong and passionate advocate for PGSS services. Hopefully Lungu’s firm stance on the importance of PGSS services will be reflected in institutional memory, and future MSOS will also fight back against cuts demanded by FAOS.

On the university level, Lungu has been working with her counterparts at SSMU to lobby the office of the Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) (DPSLL) to be more transparent with the student services budget. A huge chunk of the student services budget is paid for by student fees, yet the University, until recently, has been reticent in sharing this information with the student body. It has taken her two years to convince DPSLL Ollivier Dyens to increase transparency of the budget. Hopefully her successors will be able to use the released information for more targeted and efficient advocacy.