The launch of McGill’s first “Who Needs Feminism?” week—an event organized by McGill students, took place last week. As part of the event, photographers took photographs of students and members of the McGill community holding signs reading, “I need feminism because…” followed by their personal explanations of its importance.

Inspired by a similar event held last spring at Duke University in North Carolina, organizers promoted the event through their Facebook page, and then conducted photo sessions around campus and within university residences. They uploaded the photos to their tumblr blog, wnfmcgill.tumblr.com.

“One of the goals was to begin conversation and dialogue around feminism—and it has, on so many different levels and within all [these] different groups around campus,” Courtney Ayukawa, U2 arts and science and an organizer of the event, said. “In that sense, I think [the event has been] a huge success.”

Many students reacted positively to the event, and the demand for photo shoots exceeded original expectations. Many supporters spoke in favour of bringing attention to feminism, which they viewed as an issue worthy of more discussion.

“I think it’s a great initiative,” Ethan Zmenak, U0 management, said. “It points out stuff that you don’t realize all around you and how inequality still happens.”

The initiative also reached students at other universities, such as Mafisa Kap, an art history student at Concordia.

“The thing about gender inequality … is that I find that it’s something that’s so institutionalized, so systematic, that it’s hard for women to even necessarily be able to point out when they’re not being treated like equals,” Kap said.

“Feminism doesn’t just look out for the equality of women, it looks out for all marginalized people, whether those are people of low or middle class, whether those are people of colour, whether those are people of sexual or gender differences,” Kap added.

Participants also commented on various situations in which inequalities—both economic and cultural—continue to present themselves in modern society.

“I think that the wage discrepancy is just astounding,” Elizabeth Flannery, U2 arts, said. “When you’re raising a child as a single woman, and there’s such a huge discrepancy, it’s just terrifying.”

Flannery also addressed the complex connotations associated with feminism today.

“What I see feminism as is fighting for equality,” she said. “Feminism has proven to me [that] I can do things like start my own business. I should really thank the people who started the feminism movement, because we wouldn’t be where we are without their help.”

Despite the widespread support and enthusiasm demonstrated by participants, the initiative also received some negative critiques.

“We’ve gotten criticism for not having an exceptionally high level of understanding of the background of feminism,” Brooke Nancekivell, U2 arts and another event organizer, said. “But from our angle, the whole point is to start these conversations, and [the event’s] accessibility and openness has allowed for that.”

Looking forward, organizers expressed both short and long term goals for future events and dialogue on the topic of feminism.

“Something we have talked about [for next semester] is … [having] a series of workshops, film screenings, critical discussions on feminism, feminist issues, [and] women’s issues, and how they relate to our society,” Nancekivell said.

“The dialogue about feminism that this campaign has started will hopefully lead to people learning about other forms of privilege and structural oppression, and really start thinking critically about their role [within] it,” Ayukawa said. “Hopefully, this is just an entrance to all of the things in our society that can be really looked at again and again and again.”

On Tuesday Oct. 30, the event will conclude with a McGill community discussion on feminism in the Shatner Ballroom of the Students’ Society of McGill University building.

This fall’s referendum period for the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) will include questions on increases in SSMU base fees for both the McGill Student Emergency Response Team (M-SERT) and CKUT, McGill’s campus-community radio station. The campaign period runs from Nov. 1 to 11, and polling will take place between Nov. 5 and 11.

Last year, the administration invalidated the results of two referendum questions by CKUT and QPIRG after deeming the questions’ phrasing to be “unclear”. The questions addressed both the organizations’ existence and a proposed change to make their fees only opt-outable in person. While CKUT was able to negotiate with the administration for the continued recognition of its existence, QPIRG ran another question during the Winter semester.

SSMU Chief Electoral Officer Hubie Yu said these concerns about the clarity of referendum questions have affected the way Elections SSMU, students, and the administration interact this semester.

“Students interested in submitting questions approached me early in the semester, and I’ve been working with them to ensure that questions each deals with only one issue,” she said. “In addition, the office of the Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) has a new form approval process to ensure that questions are implementable.”

CKUT

Following the invalidation of its 2011 referendum question, CKUT ran another, asking for its fee to become non-opt-outable. This referendum was unsuccessful. This year, CKUT seeks to increase its opt-outable student fee by $1, to be implemented in January 2013.

“The opt-outable fee hasn’t gone up since 1988, and the cost of running the station has gone up a lot since [then],” Carol Fraser, chair of CKUT’s board, said. “The $4 fee hasn’t increased with inflation, and we need increased funding [to maintain] our utility fees, staff, equipment, and transmitter.”

Currently, student fees are the largest source of revenue for CKUT. An increase in student fees would substantially affect CKUT’s operations.

CKUT Funding and Outreach Coordinator Caitlin Manicom emphasized CKUT’s benefits to students.

“CKUT provides great programming, extensive training, internships, work study positions, free concerts on McGill campus, free tickets to other Montreal concerts, and more,” she said. “It truly offers so much to the McGill community, and also helps promote McGill’s name in Montreal and across the world.”

M-SERT

Like CKUT, M-SERT is seeking a fee increase in this referendum period. Its question asks for a $0.50 increase for all full-time and part-time undergraduate students studying at the downtown campus, starting in the Winter semester of 2013.

M-SERT is the only student-run volunteer service that provides emergency first aid to McGill students and the Montreal community. It is regularly stationed at McGill residences, and covers McGill activities such as frosh, faculty association events, and intramural hockey games, as well as other events around the city. M-SERT also offers Red Cross first aid courses throughout the year.

Ahan Ali, director of M-SERT, said the increase will help offset costs the group has incurred from further investment in responders’ training.

“We are looking to continue to improve our service, and the supplies and equipment available at each of our response stations, [including] residences, main office, [and the] hockey arena,” Ali said. “We [also] want to restructure the allocation of our finances such that revenue [from our first aid courses] can be used to continually improve the quality of our [these] courses.”

Currently, M-SERT receives $0.25 per student each semester as part of the “Safety Network” fee within SSMU. It has also independently generated approximately 60 per cent of its operating costs through its Red Cross first aid courses, but its growth over the past five years has added “more and more financial strain,” according to Ali.

“We are currently operating at a sufficient level to provide quality first aid care to the McGill community,” Ali said. “The concern we have is being able to maintain [this quality] in the long term as we continue to expand.”

Ali said M-SERT is important for the McGill community because of its commitment to student life.

“M-SERT has responders on shift in Molson, covering Upper Rez, and in La Citadelle, covering Lower Rez, from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. every night of the academic term,” he said. “We are dispatched through security to medical calls, and we carry oxygen, an automated external defibrillator, epi-pens, and many more first aid supplies regularly required when responding to the various incidences we are called to.”

M-SERT has formed a ‘Yes’ committee of roughly 20 people, and the committee chair is finalizing the methods and strategies for the campaign.

At the time of press, no ‘No’ committees had been organized for either question.