Adding the Shatner building’s fourth floor to last week’s Activities Night received mixed reviews from clubs and services. According to Students’ Society Vice-President Clubs and Services Floh Herra-Vega, the decision to open the top floor was made because this year SSMU recognized more clubs than ever before.
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News, off and on campus.
BASiC hosts Lander and Huh at annual Ampersand Conference
The Bachelor of Arts & Science Integrative Council hosted the second annual Ampersand Conference last week, which focussed on creativity in the digital age. The four-day event featured addresses by Christian Lander, the founder of the popular blog Stuff White People Like, and Ben Huh, the internet entrepreneur who popularized Lolcats, as well as workshops on digitial innovation.
CAMPUS: Muslim students association still searching
Students walking through campus will once again pass Muslim students praying in stairwells and on fields as the ongoing dispute between McGill and the Muslim Student Association over providing a prayer space drags into its second year. The dispute began in May 2005 when the university declined to renew MSA’s lease on a prayer space in the basement of Peterson Hall.
CITY: Pedestrians take over city’s downtown
If your back-to-school shopping included a new pair of sneakers, Friday, Sept. 22 is the day to put them to use. For the fourth straight year, the city of Montreal will be participating in International Car Free Day, known locally as “En Ville, Sans Ma Voiture!” or “In Town, Without My Car!” by transforming its downtown core into a pedestrian paradise.
Daily Publications Society narrowly passes $1 fee increase
The Daily Publications Society, which publishes The McGill Daily and Le Délit, passed its $1 fee increase on Thursday, with 51.3 per cent of students voting to increase the DPS’s non-opt-outable fee to $6 per semester. Approximately 2,500 students, or 12.
EDUCATION: University of Toronto moves towards higher tuition fees, fewer undergrad spaces
On Thursday, members of the University of Toronto’s highest governing body voted overwhelmingly in favour of adopting a long-term policy framework that is closely modeled on research-intensive universities in the United States. The policy document, entitled ‘”Towards 2030,” was first tabled by U of T President David Naylor.
CAMPUS: Controversy over travel directive continues
After working to send McGill student teachers to Indonesia for over a year, professor Fiona Benson was “gobsmacked” to learn that the university’s new travel directive would force the trip’s cancellation less than a month before departure. “I was given a green light to go to Indonesia by [Faculty of Education Dean Hélène Perrault] and by the administration,” said Benson, who is also the director of the Faculty of Education’s Office of Student Teaching.
CAMPUS: MUNACA still without contract
The McGill University Non-Academic Certified Association’s negotiation committee rejected McGill’s latest contract offer last week, informing the administration that they would not lower their salary demands. MUNACA, a union representing non-academic employees like nurses, librarians, and administrative assistants, wants a 13 per cent salary increase over four years.
STM to launch new express bus service to Trudeau Airport
At the end of the month, the Montreal Transit Association (STM) will launch a new bus service providing direct transportation from downtown Montreal to Trudeau Airport. Service on the 747 Express bus starts on March 29. The bus will offer rides to and from the airport 24 hours a day, and will cost $7 each way.
Newburgh to face J-Board
Four weeks after the Students’ Society’s Winter General Assembly, the SSMU Judicial Board has accepted a submission from members of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights concerning the impartiality of Zach Newburgh, the current speaker of SSMU Council and next year’s SSMU president.