“[It was a] very long process to put together all of the different pieces […and] find a physical house within residences, reach out to the Milton-Parc community, put together a student working group that’s empowered to take ownership [among other things],” Lily Schwarzbaum, one of the coordinators of ECOLE, told The Daily.

The house is designed to be a sustainable living environment and community centre for McGill students and the surrounding Milton-Parc community. The top floor of the house will be home to the facilitators of the project, with the ground floor and basement serving as public space for use by anyone in the community.

Currently, ECOLE is still in search of eight to twelve facilitators who will live on the top floor and aim to live sustainably. The facilitators will simultaneously conduct independent studies on a component of their sustainable lifestyle.

“We are looking for diversity [of facilitators] in terms of various backgrounds and all types of social group memberships, but also diversity in terms of academic majors and research interests,” Courtney Ayukawa, head project coordinator and U3 student in Sustainability, Science and Society, said in an interview with The Daily.

“We don’t want a house full of environmental students or students in Environment and Geography […] We want a student in Engineering looking at the carbon footprint of the house, and maybe one student in Environment looking into urban agriculture, and one student in Management looking at conflict resolution and how that could be applied to businesses, or a Philosophy major looking into the dualism of man and nature and how that plays out in the house,” said Ayukawa.

Ayukawa and Schwarzbaum plan to have the facilitators hired by reading week. They also intend to hire two summer interns and a summer project coordinator in the coming month.

After hiring the full staff, the coordinators intend on brainstorming ways to create house rules together. Approaches include deciding, “What conflict resolution techniques will facilitators and coordinators be doing?” Ayukawa said.

The idea for the ECOLE project began approximately three years ago. The project has encountered financial hurdles since its initiation. When members of the sustainable Greenhaus classroom, sponsored by an Alternative University Project (AltU) comprised of McGill and Concordia students, applied to the McGill Sustainability Projects Fund (SPF) in the summer of 2012 for ECOLE sponsorship, they were turned down. The students applied for a second time later that year to see their application rejected again.

When the ECOLE project later received Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) support in Fall 2012, members began to create partnerships with other groups at McGill, deliver presentations, and eventually hire coordinators in the spring of 2013 who were previously uninvolved with the initiative. After learning of ECOLE’s mission, the coordinators put together a timeline for the establishment of an ECOLE space to ensure that it would be adequately funded and prepared by Fall 2014.

“Where we are right now is that we’ve received our funding from the SPF, which is so incredibly exciting because [now that] we have the funding, the project is definitely going to launch in September 2014,” said Ayukawa.

Living costs for ECOLE facilitators will also be partially subsidized. Although rent for the current MORE house is approximately $1,000 per person, rent stipends bring individual rents to around $400 per month, according to Ayukawa.

The coordinators are optimistic about the public spaces of the house. “The common spaces will have things like a couch, and a projector […] and a whiteboard if people wanted to have meetings there,” Ayukawa said.

“We want ECOLE to last for many years. The two main goals are to be a model for sustainable living, and for ECOLE to serve as a catalyst for a surviving connected community for sustainability that integrates community outreach, sustainable living, and equity into the very definition of what sustainable living at McGill is,” said Schwarzbaum.

The deadline to apply for the position of ECOLE facilitator is midnight on February 19.

The post Sustainable student living project funded appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Last Monday, after three years of lobbying from student groups, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) opened up a new student-run cafe (SRC) called The Nest. Tucked into the second floor cafeteria in the Shatner building, replacing the vacated Lola Rosa Xpress.

The new café, which features gluten-free, vegetarian, and vegan menu choices, is student-run, with former SSMU President Josh Redel at the helm as manager.

In an interview with The Daily, Kathleen Bradley, head chef, noted that, “The general reaction to the café this first week has been overwhelmingly positive. [Students] love the prices, the size has been good, it’s a great bang for their buck, and [the menu] rotates daily but there’s something you can come to expect everyday like the burritos.”

Despite the successful first impressions, there have been hurdles with implementing the new SRC. According to Redel, the biggest challenge has been trying to “piece all the vendors together, get them talking, get stuff ordered, get the right prices and [… find] the right suppliers who can deliver on time.”

Redel added that he expected “getting the recipes down pat, and [hiring and training] the staff” to be the biggest challenge but that it was not.

“The initiative is a learning experience for all of us. I want to know where people think we can improve and do better since part of our mandate is a comprehensive customer feedback mechanism,” Bradley said. “We’re continuing to work on customer and student engagement.”

For Bradley, the most meaningful feedback has been from students who appreciate the ability of the SRC to accommodate dietary restrictions. “Being able to provide something vegan everyday, lots of vegetarian food, lots of gluten-free food, is really important and people have really responded to that.”

Students who talked to The Daily generally had positive things to say about the new café, although not all of them knew about it. A U2 Management student said, “I’ll definitely check it out [but] they should publicize it more in emails and posters throughout campus.”

A U1 Faculty of Engineering student standing in line to purchase a vegetarian burrito at The Nest mentioned, “I’m so happy there are vegetarian options for a low price. I’m always broke or low on money so finding a good burrito for cheap, and at such a convenient location, is awesome.”

Currently, the student-run café is limited to breakfast and lunch. Prices are set around $7 to $8 for a sandwich and soup combo, and $5 for a burrito, along with $1.40 for a coffee. Prices are adjusted for students who bring reusable plates or mugs.

“For me, [as] the manager, the most exciting thing is that we haven’t hit any big hiccups in the first week. This means we can start next week on the engagement pieces, the events we’re planning,” Redel said. “We’ve already had student groups talk to us about getting involved, so that’s the best part about this start-up: it’s been pretty seamless.”

In an earlier version of this article, The Daily quoted Josh Redel as saying that it has been challenging dealing with recipes and staff. In fact, Redel said that he expected it to be a challenge but that it was not. The Daily regrets the error.

The post Student-run café kicks off its first week appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Tegho noted that the Faculty currently faces “problems regarding inclusivity,” such as “problematic titles for events, or events and Frosh that are all about drinking and do not include non-drinking options.” He additionally mentioned the presence of rape culture in engineering events such as “engineering chants during Frosh [that] mock people from other schools and other faculties.”

At the end of the discussion, one participant, reflecting on the entire talk, noted that, despite the new ideas being introduced, “there’s still a lot of work to be done to reach our end goal.”

“[The chants] give mixed messages about Frosh and being equitable,” stated Josh Redel, a participant in the discussion, and former president of SSMU in 2012-13 and EUS in 2011-12.

Some ideas to alleviate equity issues included introducing safer space through workshops, Frosh, Rez Project, and professors in a classroom setting. A main goal for the discussion was to find ways to fit social equity and justice into the Engineering curriculum to make students aware of the importance of instilling an atmosphere of safe space within the Faculty.

According to Redel, the EUS lacks policies related to social sustainability and equity “because of [the Engineering Faculty’s] extremely rigid curriculum.”

One key issue to tackle amongst Engineering students is the use of the term “safe space” itself. According to Redel, the term is deemed by many students to be a “joke,” which creates the problem of getting Engineering students to actually attend workshops.

“People will not go to something they perceive as a joke,” he said. As a result, Tegho noted in a follow-up interview with The Daily that he strives to make the equity policy in Engineering “more active rather than reactive.”

Another equity issue among Engineering students discussed at the meeting was “the classroom experience” which, for example, excludes “pronouns other than he [and she]” and “allows for racist and transphobic comments and jokes,” said Tegho.

A participant at the meeting also mentioned that EUS should “approach social equity to Engineering students differently than it would with students of other faculties because engineers are quick to tune things out.” This situation, noted Tegho, creates “a lack of support toward people who experience intimidation, and any kind of oppression.”

One key issue to tackle amongst Engineering students is the use of the term “safe space” itself. According to Redel, the term is deemed by many students to be a “joke,” which creates the problem of getting Engineering students to actually attend workshops.

To resolve issues such as the ones listed above, Tegho, along with others in attendance, agreed that holding workshops in Winter 2014 and thereafter could be an effective way to teach students about the idea and effects of creating a safer space.

Another idea included critically analyzing the work of students in the EUS and organizers of EUS events to “provide them with tools and resources,” such as a checklist, that “make the EUS more inclusive,” noted Tegho in an interview with The Daily.

He also mentioned that communicating with professors about equity could be useful; for instance, one of the professors teaching FACC 100: Introduction to the Engineering Profession, is “looking for ideas and inputs,” implying that the course’s curriculum allows space for the inclusion of “the subject of equity.”

Tegho noted that overall, “the talk was successful because it brought lots of good ideas.”

At the end of the discussion, one participant, reflecting on the entire talk, noted that, despite the new ideas being introduced, “there’s still a lot of work to be done to reach our end goal.”

The post Engineering Undergraduate Society discusses safe space and equity appeared first on The McGill Daily.

From September 23 to 27, McGill hosted its third annual Indigenous Awareness Week, which aimed to create awareness about oft-overlooked Indigenous issues at the university. The week, organized by for the Social Equity and Diversity Education Office (SEDE), saw over 480 students, staff, alumni, and community members, take part in events ranging from informational talks to interactive workshops and movie screenings.

Allan Vicaire, Indigenous Education Advisor at SEDE, spoke to the importance of the week at McGill. “I think there is a big misconception over what Indigenous people are, we have a lot of international students, and just even Canadians […] we’re not taught the proper history – we’re taught the watered down history,” he said. “We need to break down misperceptions with the truth.”

This year saw a change of the name of the week from “Aboriginal” to “Indigenous”, which, according to Vicaire, “is more of an inclusive term.” Looking to the future, Vicaire stated that the organizers were looking to alter the title once again. “It’s more than awareness […] you also want to talk about the achievements and struggles.”

“‘Who Makes the Call?’ A Panel on Indigenous Identity”

Thursday saw a critical look at the complex questions of identity faced by many Indigenous peoples in Canada, as well as issues of status and inclusion, with a panel titled “Who Makes the Call.” Paige Isaac, coordinator of McGill’s First Peoples House, moderated the panel discussion between Cecile Charlie, Skawennati Fragnito, and Michael Loft.

The panelists discussed their experiences of what it means to be Indigenous, as well as their thoughts on the importance of Indigenous legal status. After the Indian Act was enacted in 1876, many Native people faced the dilemma of being non-status – in other words, they had no legal right to own land on reserves and often faced exclusion from their own band.

In 1985, Bill C-31 amended the Indian Act to grant status to the children of Native women who married non-status men – an issue that directly affected the family of Fragnito, one of the panelists. Still, this did not end the conflicts between the legal definition of identity and self-identification.

Loft, a social worker and associate professor with McGill’s School of Social Work, explained that “bloodism,” or the practice of defining status by the amount of non-Native blood, “didn’t come from our people” but instead stemmed from the Indian Act itself.

“Once you lose your status, you can never get it back,” Loft said, explaining that status was important within a community for inclusion. He also pointed to low high school graduation rates in some Indigenous communities as an effect of a lack of inclusion.

All of the panelists emphasized that identity – and not just the oft-discussed issues of land rights or the Indian Act – was a crucial fight in the struggle for Indigenous rights.

“This isn’t just talking about numbers, or talking about rights, but this is about people,” Loft said.

Written by Arianee Wang.

“Challenges and Barriers for Indigenous Women”

The opening ceremony of Indigenous Awareness Week featured a talk given by Teresa Edwards, Director of Human Rights and International Affairs at the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC), on the struggles faced by Indigenous women across the country.

Touching on Aboriginal women and the justice system, missing and murdered women, and domestic abuse, Edwards highlighted the systemic racism within the Canadian justice system. For instance, she noted that one in three females in the federal correctional system is Aboriginal.

Edwards also spoke out against the common misperception that the women who go missing live high-risk lifestyles, stating that instead, “a high-risk lifestyle for Aboriginal women is being an Aboriginal woman.”

Edwards also spoke on the need for allies. When asked by The Daily how a student at McGill might act as an ally, Edwards said, “Education is always powerful. Non-Indigenous people can be great allies – they are going to go into the world and be judges, police, teachers. And they can in turn educate people on the real situation of Indigenous people, good and bad, to make a better Canada for everyone.”

“As an ally you can come to show your support at public, peaceful demonstrations, or on October 4 to honour the many missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada and across the globe,“ she said.

According to NWAC’s Sisters in Spirit Database, which started in 2005 to gather information on missing and murdered women across Canada, there are 582 cases of missing or murdered Indigenous women across the country.

Speaking to The Daily on the importance of Indigenous Awareness Week, Edwards stated, “If people knew and had the information they would be in a better place to make decisions and behave differently, and to be more informed with politics, with legislation, all the decisions that they make.”

Written by Jordan Venton-Rublee.

“Restructuring the Indigenous-Crown Relationship in Canada: The Promise of Indigenous Multilevel Governance”

Last Tuesday, Christopher Alcantara of Wilfrid Laurier University spoke at Thomson House about strained relationships between the Crown and Indigenous communities, critiquing at the top-down approach traditionally used by the government under the Indian Act.

Canada has a history of exploiting and oppressing Indigenous populations. The Indian Act, first enacted in 1876 and later amended, is seen as an attempt to assimilate Indigenous peoples to Canadian culture, contributing to poverty and their disempowerment. While it does not govern Inuit or Métis peoples, to this day, the Act remains the main piece of legislation that governs the relationship between Indigenous peoples and the Crown, despite a general consensus that the act has failed First Nations as a whole.

This, Alcantara said, is because the Canadian government continues to impose its own vision on Indigenous populations, with little consultation with tribes and band members – though recent developments, such as certain tribes’ transitions to self-governed land ownership, show that this trend may be shifting.

Alcantara argued that a multilateral governance system, in which Aboriginal groups are empowered to create policies tailored to fit the needs of their communities, should replace the current top-down approach of the Canadian government. If Indigenous populations are given freedom of choice, they will be able to experiment with different courses of action and determine how best to proceed in raising the standard of living, he said.

Some audience members questioned the effectiveness of Alcantara’s idea of “slow, incremental change” in making right the wrongs faced by Indigenous peoples at the hands of settlers.

“We must always be motivated by justice,” said Alcantara, but he noted that while large attempts at change may seem appealing, they usually do not work. Through the empowerment of First Peoples and celebration of their culture, Canada may one day see the healing of a nation that has been oppressed for centuries.

Written by Jill Bachelder. 

“Indigenous Health For First Nations, Inuit and Metis”

To close off the talks and lectures of Indigenous Awareness Week, Simon Brascoupé, an adjunct research professor at Carleton University, gave a presentation on the status of health and well-being of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples in Canada. Brascoupé began the talk by reciting statistics disclosing the relative poorness in both health and healthcare for Indigenous peoples as compared with non-Indigenous peoples.

According to Brascoupé, Inuit infants die at 3.6 times the rate of other Canadian babies; in 2010, tuberculosis had doubled among Inuit infants to 185 times the rate of Canadian-born non-Indigenous infants; and by mid-2010, 116 First Nations communities across Canada were under a drinking water advisory.

The health challenges for Aboriginal, Métis, and Inuit peoples range from a crisis of chronic disease to lung cancer rates. Brascoupé supported the notion that solutions to such problems should be community-based.

Brascoupé also noted the importance of advocacy in improving Aboriginal health, from organizations to individual doctors and researchers.

Aboriginal doctors, such as Malcolm King, do important work in increasing attention to Aboriginal medical care.  These doctors also cite the causes of health disparities as including factors such as colonization, migration, loss of language and culture, and disconnection from native lands.

“I’ve met a lot of Aboriginal people that say ‘I’m on my healing journey, but I’m not healed,’’’ Brascoupé said. “[It’s] because they want to break the cycle of colonization.”

Written by Sarina Gupta.

“Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance”

Friday saw the screening of the documentary Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance, followed by a speech from Elder John Onawario Cree. Onawario Cree was present at the 1990 Oka Crisis, a land conflict between the Mohawk, the Quebec police, and the Canadian Army.

Director Alanis Obomsawin took the viewers through the struggle, which started in Kanehsatà:ke and the town of Oka, when the local Mohawk community attempted to protect their sacred land from development as a golf course.

After the Mohawk community decided to barricade the bridges that led to their land, the Quebec police led a raid on Mohawk territory that ended with Mohawk elders arrested and thrown in jail. The film essentially painted a portrait of the people behind the barricades.

During his presentation afterwards, Onawario Cree explained that many people didn’t understand why the Mohawk would stage an uprising. “In the [1990s], there were a lot of promises broken,” he said. “They sign treaties, and don’t honour them.”

“Now, we are protecting the land against the pipeline, but the oil companies do what they want,” he added. “It hasn’t gotten any better – it has gotten worse. We are still fighting for our land.”

Ultimately, he said, “the most important thing that came out of all this was the pride of being a human. Being a human being first, and then being a Mohawk.”

Written by Joelle Dahm.

“Understanding Mohawk: Language and History”

On Tuesday, a group gathered to participate in “Kanien’kéha 100: A Super Crash Course in the Language of the People of the Flint,” a Mohawk language learning session. The session, led by Akwiratékha Martin of Kahnawake, provided a basic introduction to the Kanien’kéha language, its history, and the ongoing language revitalization efforts in Kahnawake and beyond.

Martin, a language instructor in Kahnawake, began his session – as is customary in Mohawk tradition – with the Ohenten Kariwatkwa, or the “words that come before all else.” He then began a brief history of the language and explained the etymology of the name ‘Mohawk,’ a word in the Algonquin language that translates to ‘Man-Eaters.’  For this reason, many Mohawk people prefer to refer to themselves as Kanien’kehá:ka, or ‘the People of the Flint.’

Martin also provided some context for the state of Indigenous languages today, many of which have gone extinct. For instance, there are no longer any living speakers of the Laurentian, Neutral, Erie, and Susquehannock languages, to name a few.

According to Martin, there are approximately 1,300 first language Kanien’kéha speakers today. There are also several Mohawk immersion elementary schools in various Mohawk communities; the schools continue to grade six, after which Kanien’kéha is offered as a second language course.

“While children do develop a solid base of the language […] there is something missing,” Martin said. “Many children do not become fluent speakers due to governmental standards for the curriculum, and most of the children’s parents are not speakers, often turning Kanien’kéha into a kind of ‘school language’ that goes unpracticed in the home.”

Shortcomings aside, Martin highlighted the importance of revitalization projects. Above all, he stressed the “absolute beauty” of the language, emphasizing the meaning that can be awarded to a single word. “Think of any sentence you can,” he urged the audience, “then crush it into one word. That’s how awesome Kanien’kéha is.”

Written by Susannah White.

“Law vs. Justice: How the Courts are preparing the way for one last, fatal, round of treaty negotiations with Indigenous Peoples in Canada”

For in-depth coverage of the talk, see the article “Problematizing Canada’s history” by Ralph Haddad in our Health and Education section.

When Mary Eberts  – a longtime lawyer whose practice is centered on equality and Indigenous rights – began her Wednesday lecture on Canadian law and Indigenous people, she considered the traditional thanks given to the Mohawk people whose ground McGill rests upon. “We as settlers should […] be in a state of perpetual thankfulness,” Eberts said. “But what have we been doing instead?”

As part of the annual Wallenberg Lecture series hosted by the McGill Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, Eberts focused her talk on “what [Canadians] have been doing instead” – taking the land of the Indigenous peoples of Canada, and perpetuating complex legal negotiations over treaty rights.

One of the legal underpinnings of colonization, Eberts explained, was the Doctrine of Discovery, which Eberts described as “a sort of gentlemen’s agreement between the Europeans” that originated during the 1400s to govern the colonization of overseas land.

According to Eberts, under Section 35 of the Constitution Act of 1982, there are still cases of Indigenous rights “that are being decided by the Supreme Court of Canada today [… that invoke] the Doctrine of Discovery.”

Now, in disputes over land rights, the Canadian government requires that Indigenous peoples participate in negotiations that Eberts called inherently unequal. The government employs a “take-it-or-leave-it” approach, she said, and the court system for settling land claims is often terribly slow.

Apart from the legal precedent of land claims and negotiations in history and presently between the Canadian government and Indigenous communities, Eberts criticized the Canadian government for shying away from its past treatment of Indigenous peoples.

Although Eberts conceded she was not an expert on this particular matter, she argued that the historical treatment of Indigenous people constitutes genocide. After listing the five elements of genocide, as per the UN Convention adopted in 1948 – including killing or harming members of a particular group, or forcibly transferring children of the group to others – Eberts said, “Certainly, the intention was there.”

Written by Dana Wray.

“McGill’s Vision: Indigenous Studies Program”

On Wednesday, Haley Dinel and Joey Shea – the former and current SSMU VP University Affairs, respectively – hosted an information session on the University’s ongoing efforts to instate an Indigenous Studies minor, an ongoing effort since the early 2000s.

 The session highlighted the findings from a forum, held by SSMU last November, that brought in participants to discussion a vision for the program. The Indigenous Studies effort will likely see its status as a minor program solidified in 2014.

 As it stands now, the minor would be nestled under the Canadian Studies program. Dr. Will Straw, Director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada, noted that such a move would help the “disciplinary neutrality” of the program.

One participant asked if the program would use disciplines such as sociology and social work to delve into contemporary problems facing Indigenous people, such as alcoholism and homelessness. “[It’s] a whole slew of really dark issues that First Nations are facing right now,” he said.

Dinel responded that the program, at least for the short term – especially as it was currently planned as a minor rather than a major – could not touch upon every issue that planners might like to see.

“You have to take it in baby steps,” she said.

Straw also noted that, once established as a minor with existing resources, the program would begin to mobilize to grow using outside resources. Straw predicted a move toward a major within two to four years of the program’s inception as a minor.

As for the bureaucracy tying up the program at the moment, Straw said that organizers had foreseen and planned for such an obstacle.

“I think we’ve done our homework,” he said.

Written by Molly Korab.

An earlier version of this article stated that Allan Vicaire is the Aboriginal Sustainability Project Coordinator for SEDE. In fact, he is the Indigenous Education Advisor for SEDE. The Daily regrets the error.

The post Indigenous Awareness Week appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Dean of Arts Christopher Manfredi stressed that the aim of the plan was to eliminate inefficiency through the reorganization of remaining administrative staff. “It’s not about doing more with less,” said Manfredi. “It’s about finding things we don’t need to do anymore.”

The plan comes in the wake of government budget cuts that have forced the University to reduce costs across the board. To help lessen the blow of cuts, a Voluntary Retirement Program (VRP) was put into place for staff. However, after 255 staff took advantage of the VRP, the number of administrative and support staff for the Faculty of Arts’ 16 departments has shrunk from 59 to 52.

While savings from the VRP were significant, totaling $583,000 for the Faculty, the staff downsizing has not gone unnoticed.

Department of English Chair Allan Hepburn told The Daily he was concerned about whether a decreased administrative staff would be able to fulfill the needs of multiple departments. “I delegate certain tasks to the people who work for me. I can’t do them. They’re [human resources], they’re finance, and so on. I’m not a support staff person,” said Hepburn.

“[The concern is] how many administrative staff are designated to take care of students,” Hepburn added later. “If you have 1,600 students and you only have four administrative staff to take care of their needs, those staff are responsible for 400 students each.”

The PPP plan also calls for the consolidation of 16 independent departments into six interconnected units. As such, support staff may have to relocate and serve multiple departments.

Mary Chin, a union representative and member of the Communications Committee at the McGill University Non-Academic Certified Association (MUNACA), remarked that staff members “feel very proprietorial and very connected to [their] departments,” and that they “won’t know how to help” after the move. She then added that the support staff is “concerned about workload.”

In answer to a question about how support staff would adjust to changes, Manfredi said, “Obviously we want them to go where they want,” later adding that the plan’s implementation will require a lengthy “transition period.”

In a statement to The Daily, Chin questioned the administration’s strategy.

“We need to know: are we going to have the time to learn about these new programs and how to help these new students? Whether Dean Manfredi has addressed that, I think the answer was a little general.”

Nevertheless, Chin emphasized that she was glad for the consultation process. “It’s important to come and speak and really take up the offer of dialogue.”

The post Debate begins again on Leacock restructuring appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Chaplaincy Services focuses on promoting spiritual and religious well-being among students of the McGill community.

While still located within the Brown Student Services building, it has been moved to Suite 2100 on the second floor, where the Campus Life and Engagement office (formerly known as the First-Year Office) was previously located.

The new location is “smaller but with a lot more visibility,” according to Sara Parks Ricker, Director of Chaplaincy Services at McGill. The new location has already seen an uptick in attendees, according to Ricker.

“Lots of students drop in whereas before nobody came by accident,” said Ricker. This may partially be because the new office features large glass windows, increasing visibility.

The downsizing of the services due to relocation did cost Chaplaincy Services the winter coat program, which provides free winter coats to international students. The program has not been scratched altogether, but is now being run by International Student Services (ISS), which also relocated this year.

ISS is now located on the fourth floor of the west wing in the Brown building – Chaplaincy Services’ previous location. Whereas Chaplaincy Services once had a whole room to store these coats, Ricker said they will now be placed in the hallway.

The relocation of Chaplaincy Services came as part of a larger decision to move services around. “[It involved a] big committee with many different players,” according to Jana Luker, Executive Director of Student Services.

The process began when the Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD) moved to the foot of McTavish and vacated a large space in the Brown building. The vacated space was then taken up by the Scholarships and Student Aid Office (SSAO), also previously located separately in the Brown building.

Luker stated that it “didn’t make sense” to have ISS sharing space with assistants from SSAO, especially when part of SSAO’s staff was already in its own location. The committee decided to concoct what they called a “win-win situation.”

Since the population of international students increases each year and thus needs more advisors, ISS was in need of a larger space, leading them to take over what had previously been the Chaplaincy Services office. Chaplaincy, looking for increased visibility and accessibility, took over the old First-Year Office, explained Luker.

The money for the move came from the Student Services’ budget, according to Ricker.   The relocations of offices resulted in the merging of two services but no loss of services, according to Luker.

Ricker went on to state that “right now, in the face of budget cuts that are [limiting] McGill services, we’re here to help protect [such needs].”

“[We want to help] all students feel safe and cozy and relaxed to help deal with pressures of being a McGill student.”

The post McGill Chaplaincy Services moves to new location appeared first on The McGill Daily.

The late August press release announcing the cancellation stated that the fair was scheduled to run this year from October 22 to 24. According to Sally Cooper, the coordinator of the Book Fair, the 2013 date had been known “for about three years,” as most dates are scheduled years in advance.

The fair is usually held in the autumn of each year, and is entirely volunteer-led. Over the decades since its inception, the fair has raised funds of over $1.6 million, with all proceeds donated toward providing McGill scholarships.

Dan Doran, the Associate Director of Project Management in Facilities, Operations, and Development – part of University Services – addressed the ongoing construction in an email to The Daily.

“The Book Fair had always been scheduled at a time that would conflict with the terrace construction,” said Doran.

Prior to construction, during the planning portion of the project, a meeting occurred between Doran, the project manager, and all the project stakeholders where “it was explained that the Book Fair this year would not be able to be held in its normal location.”

Cooper said that the “decision to cancel was taken by a group of volunteers during the summer,” and was then brought to the attention of Vice-Principal (Development and Alumni Relations) Marc Weinstein and the McGill community.

Despite the fair’s cancellation, Cooper told The Daily that the staff has continued sorting and pricing the books they have received, and intends on collecting books again in the spring for next year’s fair.

According to Cooper, as construction continued earlier this year around Redpath, the prospects for the fair appeared dimmer. “At first it seemed that [the construction] wouldn’t be too big a problem, but then we heard more details and discovered that they would […be] closing all the doors that open onto the terrace,” she said.

As construction regulations required that a wall be built across the fair’s space in the basement in order to replace the Redpath windows, volunteers were left without an adequate entrance or exit.

“We tried to find another way to keep bringing in the books, but nothing worked so we made the decision to stop accepting books after June 6,” Cooper said.

That lack of space, combined with delays from the Quebec construction strike, left few options to fair organizers other than to cancel.

Despite the cancellation being “unfortunate,” Cooper confirmed that “the only safe thing to do was cancel the sale,” and acknowledged that the ongoing construction is “very badly needed.”

The projected date of completion for the construction was November 15, but because of construction strikes during the summer, the date has been extended several weeks.

The province-wide strike involved 175,000 construction workers in Quebec. After two weeks, the 77,000 workers that had not negotiated an end to the strike were forced back to work by Bill 54, which threatened to fine groups and individuals who refused to comply.

The tentative completion date for the library construction has now been set for early- to mid-December. According to organizers, the annual Book Fair will resume in October 2014.

The post McGill Book Fair cancelled due to construction appeared first on The McGill Daily.

The Engineering Undergraduate Support Fund (EUSF) will provide an extra $200,000 per year to the Faculty of Engineering. Simon Zhu, president of the EUS and one of the fund’s creators, wrote in an email to The Daily that the Faculty of Engineering expects a budget cut of approximately 3 to 5 per cent.

In the referendum, 67.5 per cent of undergraduate students supported the EUSF, 25.3 per cent opposed the fund, and the remainder abstained.

 Zhu also addressed student concerns surrounding transparency on how the funds will be spent, as well as concerns on the quality of Teaching Assistants (TAs).

Some of the concerns, Zhu said, regard the operation rather than the creation of the fund. He said that the fund incorporates measures to address the issue of transparency, such as having the faculty annually issue a report describing how EUSF money is allocated.

Students were also concerned about the tendency for student fees to exist indefinitely. “While I personally think there is a ton of long-term potential for this fund, the last thing we want is for McGill to find an ‘excuse’ to under-fund the Engineering faculty because the EUSF is providing an extra $200,000 per year,” wrote Zhu.

The EUS felt it necessary to set an expiration date of two years for the fund, which aligns with the projected time frame of the budget cuts from the government. To continue the fund past this two-year time frame, another referendum would have to be initiated.

Zhu pointed out that student leaders did not want the fund to become a burden on students instead of McGill’s responsibility.

“I wholeheartedly agreed [with these concerns] but also acknowledged the unfortunate and disappointing reality of our university’s financial situation, which required immediate action,” Zhu wrote.

Zhu also noted that the EUSF extends beyond the authority of the present EUS fee in that it will provide financial resources for student services, such as TAs, lab technicians, and various support staff.

The creation of the EUSF was inspired by the Engineering department’s existing Equipment Fund, which requires full-time students to pay a non opt-outable fee of $50 per semester. This fund, Zhu said, has been in effect for the Engineering Faculty over the past twenty years.

However, the EUSF committee will be smaller than that of the Equipment Fund, a change Zhu sees as for the better.

“A smaller committee will remove any potential for politics, since each department will be vying for this fund, empower students to make decisions while still maintaining perspective […] with the help of the Associate Dean and Director, and also make it easier to schedule meetings,” he said.

The EUSF’s committee will consist of the President of the EUS, the departmental presidents, the Director of the McGill Engineering Student Center, and the Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education.

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