Since assuming the role of President, Vince Bruni-Bossio has emphasized creating relationships, but if he won’t speak to USask’s only student newspaper, how are we to believe him?

USask’s 12th president and vice-chancellor, Vince Bruni-Bossio, is a long-time faculty member in the Edwards School of Business and a respected member of the USask community. He won the 3M National Teaching Fellowship in 2022, a prestigious teaching award, and previously served as USask’s interim provost and vice-president academic.

In a media post announcing his appointment as president in August of last year, Bruni-Bossio emphasized that his plan of “Moving forward together” is founded on the idea that “the best ideas come forth when we prioritize relationships founded in transparency, listening and shared decision-making.”

The Sheaf was excited to sit down with a new president who emphasized relationships and transparency in our institution, and as such, we reached out on Jan. 2 of this year for a brief interview with the president. Since then, we’ve been bounced around by USask Communications, had promises made of scheduling something as late as April 2026, and have been generally ignored by our own university. 

On Jan 5, we were told to check back in February because he was settling into his new role. We checked back on Feb 2, to be told that an interview might be possible after April. USask Communications also told us they’d get back to us with a timetable, but there’s been no follow up to our original request since. 

The Sheaf asked the USSU, who had a chance to meet with Bruni-Bossio briefly earlier this year, to forward the president’s office our interview request again. Nothing. We figured that he must be pretty busy to be unable to spare less than an hour with USask’s only undergraduate student newspaper. 

However, since his appointment as president in August, Bruni-Bossio’s staff did find time in his busy schedule for an interview with The Star Phoenix, 650 CKOM and Global News. Ouch.

So, does the president’s office not take The Sheaf seriously enough to schedule an interview? That’s definitely a possibility. 

If they didn’t care about what we wrote at all, then they shouldn’t have a problem with The Sheaf pointing out that last year, the salary for the president of the university was $460,410, plus a bonus of $46,041, right? They also wouldn’t mind us reminding students that this puts the president in the top one per cent of earners in the nation, according to Statistics Canada. They also probably wouldn’t care if The Sheaf pointed out that, say, our USask president’s salary (much of which comes from students’ tuition and fees) is nearly $41,000 more than the Prime Minister of Canada’s salary. Who’s to say which job deserves to be paid more, though? One runs a country, and the other runs a university…

Whether USask doesn’t take The Sheaf seriously, or if they knowingly ignore us or both –  it’s in the university’s interests to do so. It makes sense. University administration is crossing its fingers that The Sheaf’s criticisms fade away and that students don’t ask questions of their institution. Because if nobody speaks up, then nothing will change. But I digress.

What I’d really like to focus on though is that, during the interview with 650 CKOM, Bruni-Bossio said that “I really want to be known as the president who listened to people, connected with people, focusing on authentic relationship building and collaboration.”

I’m going out on a limb here, but I do think Bruni-Bossio genuinely means that. I’ve heard good things about him as both a professor and a member of the campus community. The guy’s got a 4.7/5 on RateMyProfs – so he must be doing something right. 

In the newly released University Plan 2035, Bruni-Bossio says that “We need the thoughts and insights of the USask community, now more than ever.” A part of shaping this plan is gathering information from students, faculty and staff via surveys being sent to USask emails. I think this is a step in the right direction — but I know we can do better. A dialogue that really addresses the thoughts and insights of the USask community should be much more than a five minute survey. 

At the end of the day, our university shouldn’t be worried about an interview with The Sheaf. If we ever get the chance, I should hope that our student newspaper asks hard questions of its institution. I’d like to know what our president plans to do about rising student tuition and costs, what he plans to do about the steep fines and fees that students pay for parking, what he’ll do to address university investing in weapons manufacturing, what he plans to do about our shrinking course options, and faculty not being replaced and so on.

If USask is worried about risking its reputational image by having their president agree to an interview, then that ought to signal that things need to change. Ideally, these should be easy questions to answer if USask had a plan to address and fix these issues that students and the campus community are faced with. The worst thing USask could do is hide and dodge questions, because that means you either can’t justify your own decisions or genuinely don’t know why you’ve made them.

A new president means new opportunities. It means our institution can move forward and address questions that weren’t answered before. Despite my sarcastic comments, I hope USask does realize I’m only interested in asking these questions because our university is very important to me. I want to see our institution succeed and be the best it can be. I want students to be engaged and supported by their university. Sometimes it takes addressing the difficult questions. And sometimes it starts with a conversation.

So, Bruni-Bossio, I hope that you have a fruitful relationship with The Sheaf during your time as president. I think you’d find that our newspaper is full of motivated and engaged students who want to make students’ lives better on campus. If you’re ever interested in talking, our door’s always open.