Matt Barter

Jennie Massey.

When I served on the MUN Students’ Union Executive, I had encounters with administrators in which they tried to align students with their views. 

The below is a quote from the meeting minutes of the student union Executive Committee:

“Concerns were raised about having regular meetings with Director of Student Life Jennie Massey and Ancillary Operations Director. It was noted that Jennie Massey in particular had attempted on numerous occasions to convince the executive to align themselves with her personal goals and that she made inappropriate proposals in meetings. It was suggested that the executive should not meet with her on a regular basis as the meetings were not productive and seemed to only forge overly close relationships with administrators with whom the union should retain more distant, arms-length relationships since their goals and interests did not often align with those of the students’ union.”

The passage above shows an example of a time when Massey tried to align students with the views of the administration. Massey’s Mentee Ladan Mowlid, disclosed information about my disability to the media.

I filed a complaint against Ladan, and she was found to be in violation of MUN’s own Student Code of Conduct. I believe the disclosure was in an attempt to smear me.

MUN’s treatment of me as a MUNSU board member, journalist, and writer has been that of a smear campaign.

Massey has since moved to Western University, where she works as Associate Vice-President (Student Experience). In this position, she banned students from holding on-campus leadership positions in November 2020 including on the student council, due to mistakenly not following her stringent, rapidly changing COVID rules. The student council at Western stated that the administration misinterpreted the Student Code of Conduct and overstepped their authority.

Matt Barter is a fourth-year student in the Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty at Memorial University of Newfoundland, majoring in Political Science with a minor in Sociology. He enjoys reading thought-provoking articles, walks in nature, and volunteering in the community.