New student president sees McMaster’s big picture

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Piribauer_Tommy_2005.jpg” caption=”Tommy Piribauer poses in front of the McMaster University Student Centre sign. Photo credit: Chantall Van Raay”]For a change, Tommy Piribauer stands in front of the camera, not behind it. He displays a broad grin as he leans against a sign in front of the McMaster University Student Centre. After all, he just finished talking about his new role as president of the McMaster Students Union (MSU). His smile disappears momentarily, while reminiscing about his days as a photographer. Leading a student body of 17,691 will not leave much time for his favourite hobby.

“Most people that know me will most often recognize me with a camera,” he said earlier in a boardroom in the MSU office. “That's probably what I'll miss the most is not having much of an opportunity to go take photos of the football game or of campus events.”

Piribauer, 24, has officially been in his new role for just over a week, replacing outgoing president Shano Mohan on May 2.

He's quickly realized the demands of the job. Working day and night, sometimes seven days a week, Piribauer manages to fit in meetings, events, and responding to the hundreds of emails that end up in his inbox each day.

Although his days are filled with the regular duties of MSU president, he has set numerous goals for the upcoming year. Some of these include completing and improving a Hamilton Street Railway agreement, increasing support for off-campus students, boosting support for student clubs, updating the risk management policy and improving public relations, by revamping the MSU Web site and establishing a vision statement, and working on plans for a new Burlington campus.

Piribauer grew in Kingston, where he lived until he was 19. The bug for student politics and photography hatched while a student at Holy Cross High School. He was on student council for his first three years of high school, until he got involved in developing the yearbook in Grade 11.

He applied his knowledge of yearbooks and politics when he became a commerce student at McMaster. In only his first year, he was hired as the editor of the Marmor.

“When I got to Mac, surprisingly it was one of the only schools that produced a yearbook but it was having a lot of trouble getting someone in who understood both the business and production aspect of it. I was lucky in that after eight months of school I was hired by the MSU as their editor.”

Politics re-entered his life in his final year as a student, when he was elected a commerce seat on the Student Representative Assembly. When he graduated in the spring of 2004, he became vice-president administration of the MSU, during which he came up with a list of new ideas for the student union. To implement his ideas, he realized he would have to fill the top seat and so decided to run for presidency.

Although his job leaves him little time for much else, Piribauer manages to maintain a 'student life', which means watching movies (normally one from his massive movie collection), making an appearance at the Quarters campus pub, watching a Toronto Blue Jays baseball game on television or attending a Marauders football game.

It was football, in fact, that got Piribauer hooked on McMaster.

“One of the most exciting moments at McMaster was in my first year. You always have those moments where you go from being somewhere you don't feel comfortable with or you're not too sure about, to this is fun, this is home, this is the kind of community I want to be a part of.”

He was in his second year, photographing the game which the Marauders were losing. “It was a playoff game and the stands were packed full of fans,” he said. “The team just wasn't clicking, and Ben Chapdelaine hit a very long pass and ignited the fans. The fans didn't stop. They continued to go. It just really motivated the team and the team started to click and boom, they hit drive after drive and a couple of touchdowns later they ended up winning the game. It was as much a part of the fans support as I've ever seen at a game and it really made you feel like they wouldn't be doing the same if it was just the field, no stands, no people. That's what really made me feel that, this is Mac. This is what the community is like. These are the students.”