On Thursday, Ollivier Dyens, Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning), announced that McGill has removed its one-time $20 registration fee for students using McGill’s Mental Health Services. Students who have already paid the fee at the beginning of September will be reimbursed.

Dyens and Executive Director of Student Services Jana Luker cited the growing importance of Mental Health Services as the reason for rescinding the fee. The statement released last Friday assured that eliminating the fee would not result in a reduction of services.

“Given the pressing and growing need for these services, we will take steps to reallocate resources within Student Life and Learning and will try to improve the service, even without the fee,” Dyens wrote in the statement.

Initially, the fee was implemented in order to keep up with the demand for mental health services. This has been outpacing enrolment rates, meaning that costs for mental health services are increasing. The fees would be used exclusively to pay for staff and services offered to students.

The $100 fee for students seeking help for eating disorders, which was implemented at the same time as the Mental Health Services registration fee, has also been rescinded.

On Oct. 11, the office of Student Life and Learning  (SLL) will meet to discuss how to compensate for the fee by reallocating funds from SLL and Student Services. Providing support for Mental Health Services has been pinned as one of the office’s main priorities this year.

Luker outlined a number of plans to increase the efficiency of Mental Health Services. One possibility is reducing the maximum number of sessions that a student can attend with a Mental Health Services therapist. The maximum number is currently 16.

Rather than completing all the sessions with a Mental Health Services therapist, Luker said students would be referred to therapists in the community, reducing pressure on McGill therapists and student services.

“We’re looking at the preventative, the proactive things, so people can be seen before they get to a more acute state,” Luker said.

This could also include the creation of programs such as peer-to-peer sessions, support groups, and even online programs.

“Maybe we’ll start to do Skype intake,” Luker said. “We’ve got this online program—we got a big grant from Bell to do some sort of pre-therapy triage. If we can do some [therapy] in a group, then maybe we can reduce the need for one-on-one.”

Luker also noted that wait times are currently significant. Typically, students must wait two weeks to see a therapist, and up to six weeks during exam periods.

According to Robert Franck, director of Mental Health Services, the office’s main goal this year is to reduce waiting times so that students can access therapy sessions more quickly. Franck said one in five McGill students sought mental health services last year.

“Our goal for this year is to ensure that no student is waiting more than two weeks to obtain therapy sessions,” Franck said. “Our focus is to hire new therapists for ongoing sessions, and not counsellors for initial consultations.”

Over the next few months, there will be several events being hosted at McGill focusing on student mental health. On Oct. 5, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) will be hosting its first-ever student-run conference on mental health to address important issues such as support, advocacy, and self-care. On Nov. 12, there will be a joint meeting  between the  Board of Governors and the Senate with the purpose of discussing the issue of student mental health.

Fortier addresses Quebec Charter of Values, university rankings, and frosh

In her opening remarks at the Sept. 18 Senate meeting, Fortier addressed the impact of the Quebec Charter of Values at McGill and the implications of two recently-released university rankings.

Regarding the charter,  Fortier re-stated the university’s commitment to creating and maintaining an inclusive community. She said no concrete decisions have been made about McGill’s course of action, specifically in regards to the part of the charter that would ban professors from wearing visible signs of religion.

“I view this as a period of consultation,” she said. “It’s too early to see exactly where we’ll be. At the appropriate time, we’ll take action where required.”

Fortier commented on McGill’s recent downward movement in the QS Rankings and upward movement in the Shanghai Rankings. She cautioned against changing the university too drastically in response to the data.

“One of the negative effects of the rankings is to move all of us [universities] into becoming clones of one another—the uniqueness of what we are makes us special,” she said. “There are some parts of the rankings where, for us, we would lose some of the great qualities of McGill if we were to move in any direction.”

Fortier also addressed frosh week, in light of occurrences at other Canadian universities this year that have received negative media attention for disrespectful or intolerant activities during frosh. Fortier said that McGill’s Orientation Week was well-received by new students and their parents this year.

“We need to pay attention to the climate on our campus. For the most part, Orientation Week went well but there are some events that were not entirely positive,” Fortier said.

Fortier went on to say that new Deputy Provost Ollivier Dyens is working to improve McGill’s Orientation Week for next year.

MUHC to move to Glen Campus

Senator Adam Bouchard asked whether the research and graduation time of students working in the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) will be delayed by the centre’s move to Glen Campus, which is expected to be completed by September 2014.

David Eidelman, vice-principal (Health Affairs) and dean of the Faculty of Medicine, said that a company has been hired to complete the move. Other than delays during the two weeks of moving time, Eidelman said he expects a smooth transition.

“Most [students] will be moving into superior facilities from what they have,” Eidelman said. “Even though the short-term hit is real, the long-term benefit […] will improve the graduate experience.”

The move is part of the $2,355 billion Re-development Project which consolidates the Montreal Children’s Hospital, the Royal Victoria Hospital, and the Research Institute of the MUHC into one location at Glen Campus, located near Décarie Boulevard and Rue Saint-Jacques.

Fundraising campaign

Marc Weinstein, vice-principal (Development and Alumni Relations), announced that McGill’s History in the Making philanthropy campaign raised over $1 billion since its launch in 2007.

“[This has been] by far the most successful campaign that McGill has ever taken, and one of the shortest ones in terms of timeframe compared to other universities,” Weinstein said.

The donations received through the campaign are all dedicated to specific projects including student aid and advising, research, and faculty support.

The Quebec Superior Court has granted approval for a class action lawsuit to proceed to trial, in a case against the city of Montreal for the alleged abuse and mass arrest of more than 500 student protesters during a university tuition demonstration on May 23, 2012.

The case was filed by Jean-Pierre Lord, a student at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), who was one of 508 students arrested and detained at the demonstration that night. He asks for $7,500 per arrested student—$2,500 each for arrest, detention, and human rights violation.

In the demonstration in question, police herded a large group of protestors into 17 buses at approximately 1 a.m. Lord claims that the conditions of their detainment were unpleasant.

“Eight hours […] of detention, in the bus, the window’s closed,” Lord told the CBC. “It was extremely hot; many people were sick.”

The motion also says each protester was forced to have their hands tied behind their back and denied access to water or bathrooms. Upon their release, each protester received a $634 fine for conducting an illegal protest.

The City of Montreal argued that Lord’s lawsuit was groundless since the protest was declared illegal. A protest can be declared illegal if the organizers do not report it to the police beforehand or have their route approved by city officials.

The court dismissed the city’s claim, calling it “frivolous,” and permitted the lawsuit based on the mass arrests, the detention, and the conditions of detention.

According to Vice-President External of the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Sam Harris, SSMU could theoretically provide support—for example, financially—for the lawsuit if their members were involved, but they have no current plans to become involved.

“We haven’t had SSMU members come up to us asking for any help in this regard, so I don’t know if we would get involved in any way,” Harris said. “Obviously, we condemn police abuse, but we also need to let the court case play its course.”

While he does not know of any McGill students who were arrested in that protest, Harris believes that some must have been from McGill.

The trial will begin in early 2014.