Support Community Matters and Ben Prunty for CSU President

LettersMegan Michaud — Published March 21, 2014

I give my full support to Ben Prunty as president of the CSU and his dynamic team Community Matters.

Last semester, I had the pleasure of working with Ben during my internship with the Concordia Food Coalition—a community service-learning component in Professor Satoshi Ikeda’s course “The Political Economy of Food.” Ben led our team of five interns in developing his brainchild—a conference on sustainable food systems. To our team’s delight, the Concordia Transitions Conference was a huge success—approximately 150 community members attended the event throughout the day.

Thanks to Ben’s exceptional leadership skills, our team never felt like the conference was solely his “baby.” On the contrary, Ben has an ability to inspire other people and mobilize them to accomplish a common goal. He also has a talent for identifying the skills that his team members can bring to the table and incorporating those strengths in the larger picture.

More than anything, Ben knows how to create a sense of community among his fellow team members. Not only did the Concordia Transitions Conference create dialogue surrounding food initiatives on campus, but it also created this same sense of community among its guests- a feeling that together we could accomplish great things for our university.

As project coordinator of one of the many wonderful fee-levy groups on campus and a proud supporter of the “No” Campaign against the per-faculty fee-levy referendum question, there is no doubt in my mind that Concordia’s vibrant community is one of the university’s greatest assets. If you want a Concordia with a sustainable student-run food system, support for student-led projects and most of all—a community that “matters”—vote for Ben Prunty and the rest of his team next week!