STORY BY CATARINA MUIA
A disabled Sheridan student is giving the SU a failing grade for its unwillingness to help him hire a personal assistant.
Earlier this month, Peter Biec, a second-year Advertising and Marketing Communications – Management student who uses a wheelchair, brought a want-ad poster to hire an assistant to Sheridan’s Student Union. The union rejected it for the college’s bulletin boards.
Biec needs help with note taking and other tasks. He pays his assistants out of his own pocket.
Biec has been at Sheridan since 2004. He originally studied in the Journalism – Print program.
He said he was disappointed when the SU didn’t approve his posters, which were advertising his need for the paid aid.
Biec said the SU rejected the ads outright.
“They don’t want to be held responsible if it doesn’t work out,” he said.
Biec says he respects the SU’s position, but the ruling leaves him unable to find an assistant.
SU president, Jenna Pulver, stood by the decision.
“The only things that can be posted are things that are about Sheridan,” she told the Sun.
Notices of Student Union pub nights, peer mentors, announcements and anything that is related to Sheridan is suitable for the college’s poster boards, says the SU president.
Pulver said the SU hesitates when it comes to employment.
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“Many situations have come up where there’s jobs that are maybe taking advantage of students, or aren’t quite as legitimate as they should be,” she said.
“We want to know that what is being posted is legitimate for students and that a student isn’t going to be put at risk.”
For students like Biec who want to promote personal jobs or anything of that category, Pulver suggested that they put their ads up on the Sheridan Wire.
The SU president is hoping that within the next couple months, there will be an opportunities page for internal and external jobs.
For now, Biec is spreading the word about his situation on his own and through outside sources.
He still hopes that sometime soon, there will be a way to spread the word so that more people know that these jobs are available.
“The Student Union is a good avenue to make students aware. If they don’t allow me to do it, it kind of ties my hands behind my back,” said Biec. “The fact I need help is something that exists.”
Read the SU’s Poster Approval Agreement to find out what posters can go up at the college.