THE HCGIIL TRIflUHE Published by the Student Society of McGill University
Wednesday, October 14, 1987
Volu me 7, Issue 6
McGill Takes Stand on Underfunding
Will these new books find a new home?
photo: Lionel Chow
Bookstore Construction Delayed by Angela Chapman One more chapter in the bookstore debate; construction delayed. At the Oct. 8 Board of Governors Building Committee meeting, it was announced that although demolition is complete, the City of Montreal has yet to issue a building permit. Daniel Tenenbaum, Students’ Society Presi dent and member of the Committee, told the Tribune that the permit re quest, “has to go through three read ings.” Consequently, “construction will not begin until 1988.” Meanwhile, the controversy over funding continues. One contentious point is the U niversity administration’s decision to add a level to the bookstore resulting in a budget increase from $4.5 million to $6.4 million. Past Students’ Societies have ap
proved of the bookstore project. Last year’s StudSoc President Paul Pickersgill presented a letter to the admini stration that committed Students’ So ciety to foregoing surplus from the bookstore for a maximum period of 15 years or until the loan of $4.5 million was paid off. This amount covered the construction of a two story bookstore. The letter was issued to the admini stration in January 1987. Subsequent discussion in Students’ Council rec ognized that the bookstore would not include space for Students’ Society. In May 1987, the administration’s Building Committee outlined a pro posal for an increased budget of $6.4 million. It claimed that the space in crease of 40% “was due to “profes sional opinion” that the bookstore would need more space and that “unanimous agreement within the
University” favoured a height of three floors to have the building blend with the surrounding architecture. This increase was approved by both the Senate and the Board of Governors. Sam Kingdon, VP Physical Re sources, denied that the third floor addition was made after an agreement had been reached with last year’s Stu dents’ Society. “The initial proposal, in James Green’s (1985-86 StudSoc President) time, only speculated on the building having two floors,” he said. “When Paul Pickersgill became involved in December 1986, the pro posal was for three floors.” Bookstore surplus has, until 1987, been given to theStudents’Society. As the bookstore is run on a non-profit basis, there is no guarantee that there will be a surplus. Consequently, the continued on page 3
by Jennifer Mori “We are asking that the injustice stop no w ,” declared John A rm our, McGill’s Vice-Principal Administra tion and Finance, at an emergency press conference held last Monday to protest the recent (Sept. 28) ministère de l’enseignement supérieure et de la science (MESS) declaration of univer sity funding allocations for this fiscal year. MESS Minister Claude Ryan an nounced this March that an extra $30 million would be injected into the uni versity system over two years to com bat longstanding problems of underfunding. Ryan announced that McGill would be receiving only $2 million of this year’s $15 million allocation al though, “McGill accounts for over 50% of the relative underfunding in the university system,” in the words of Principal David Johnston. Ministry figures indicate that McGill has been the most severely underfunded of Québec universities for the past dec ade. “McGill has been running a deficit of over $10 million during the past
Les États Généraux par Marie-Claude Harvey C’est à la maison David Thomson que s’est déroulé le 3 octobre les 4e Etats Généraux des étudiant(e)s de 2e et 3e cycles du Québec. Ces réunions ont pour but de fortifier les liens entre les étudiant(e)s gradué(e)s des différentes universités québécoises en leur offrant l’occasion de partager leurs idées et opinions. L ’organisation de ces 4e états généraux a été prise en main par André
PGSS Awaits StudSoc Decision by Trib News Staff Amidst considerable procedural confusion, the Post Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) council decided last Wednesday to mandate its executive to negotiate secession from the Students’ Society if this summer’s negotiated StudSoc constitutional amendments are not sent to referendum this Octo ber. The summer agreement, which adds a non-voting graduate commissioner to the StudSoc executive, increases graduate representation on Students’ Council from three to five seats, changes the Students’ Society fee strucure, and enables graduate stu dents to run for any faculty association seat on Council, is to be debated in Stu dents’ Council this evening. There was some debate in PGSS council whether the councillors were obliged to accept the agreement. Under PGSS’ initial secession proposal, pre sented in February, the PGSS execu tive was mandated to negotiate seces sion if Students’ Society did not meet its demands for representational re form on Students’ Council, reduced graduate student fees, a graduate commissioner on the StudSoc execu tive, and better interaction between the parties by April 30. That deadline could not be reached because Stu
dents’ Council did not achieve quorum to debate the issues. “These amendments do not have to be approved because we did not enter negotiations for autonomy (after April 30),” Stefan Thomas, PGSS President remarked. “Why did the PGSS negotiating committee go for Scenario A (recon ciliation) when autonomy (Scenario B) was recommended?” asked John Shep pard, Chemical Engineering Rep. to PGSS Council. “We didn’t think it was wise to break away from SSMU (Students’ Society of McGill University),” Thomas an swered. “We felt that as we had agreed to negotiate, we were obliged to make compromises,” André Couture, PGSS VP External added. Sheppard pointed out that last year’s council had given the executive the mandate to negotiate secession and that although the negotiating committee’s report had been received, it had not yet been approved. “The arrangement was altered from last year and Council is required to rule on that,” he said. Lee Iverson, PGSS Council Speaker, ruled that moving to mandate secession if the SSMU constitutional amendments were not sent to referen dum was tacit acceptance of the
amendments themselves but he was overruled on the grounds that it was Students’ Society’s responsibility to accept or reject what had essentially been PGSS demands. Daniel Tenenbaum, Students’ Soci ety President, addressed PGSS Coun cil, explaining why the amendments, presented at the first Students ’ Council meeting a month ago, had yet to be debated. “It came to my attention that there were other items that would take up a lot of time in our second Council meet ing,” he said. “Approving constitu tional amendments is a time consum ing procedure.” Tenbenbaum has tened to add that, “there is still time to put them to referendun on Oct. 28.” Remembering various Students’
three years, and has an accumulated deficit of over $29 million,” announced Johnston. McGill has borne the cost of $90 million of underfunding since 1981 despite remaining in the top ranks of Canadian universities in terms of federal research grants and post-gradu ate degrees granted per professor. From 1980-85, McGill’s full-time fac ulty dropped 10% while its salaries fell $3000 to $5000 behind other Québec universities. Despite the lowest admin istrative costs in the province, if not the country, McGill is underfunded $1544 per student compared to an average of $817 per student for all Québec univer sities. “There is a clear contradiction, “ said Johnston, “between the outstanding performance of McGill’s staff and our severe degree of relative underfunding.” “The Government will not permit us to raise tuition fees, now frozen for 17 years. The only solution is improved government support,” remarked Ar mour. Were the ministry’s proposed $2 continued on page 3
Society “stalling tactics” (Couture) of the past spring, PGSS councillors questioned Tenenbaum on Students’ Council’s readiness to accept the pro posals. “There is a 95% chance the amend ments will be passed,” Tenenbaum said confidently. “Supposing they’re tabled?” somone asked sourly. “That, er, would be very unfortu nate,” he replied. The possible repercussions on graduate students of a proposed StudSoc fee increase were discussed. “If the fee increase and the amend ments are both approved at this fall’s referenda, the new fee structure for graduate students will apply,” reas sured Tenenbaum
Guys and Dolls Comes to Town............... page 6 No Anniversary for Douglas — Part II..... page 8 Rowers Stay Afloat.................................page 10 Redmen Grid Squad Victorious..............page 11
Couture, vice-président aux affaires externes de l’association des étudiants gradués de McGill. Une trentaine d’étudiants des universités de Concor dia, Laval, Montréal, et de l’école Polytechnique ont pris part à cet événe ment qui s’est déroulé entièrement en français, en raison d'un manque de res sources financières nécessaires à l’établissement d ’une procédure de traduction. Parmi les sujets discutés, un exposé abordant le délicat sujet de la recherche militaire en milieu universitaire a sus cité une polémique prévisible. Le débat a été amorcé par le discours de M. Beaulieu, chercheur scientifique à l’emploi du Centre de recherche pour la défense à Valcartier depuis plus de 35 ans. Selon ce dernier, l’université ne doit pas être une “tour d’ivoire” mais doit se concentrer sur les recherches appliquées, solidement ancrées dans la réalité. Toujours d’après M. Beaulieu, la défense nationale représente une partie intégrante de notre société et de notre économie qui conséquemment ne doit pas être ignorée par le milieu scien tifique universitaire. Anticipant les ob jections des auditeurs adhérant à la phi losophie “Pugwash”, le docteur en physique théorique a terminé son ex posé en affirmant que la responsabilité morale de l’existance des armes de de struction massive doit être assumée par les politiciens qui ordonnent leur utili sation, et non par les chercheurs qui les ont crées. Le co n féran cier invité par l’université Laval a lui aussi suscité une discussion animée. M. Réjean Bil odeau, attaché politique au cabinet de M. C laude Ryan, m inistre de l’enseignement supérieur et de la sci ence, s’est appliqué pendant près de 2h à répondre aux diverses questions soulevées par les étudiant(e)s présent(e)s. Les interrogations des participantes ont porté surtout sur le système de prêts et bourses et sur les réformes attendues en vue de son amélioration. suite à la page 3