The McGill Tribune Vol. 14 Issue 20

Page 1

Published by the Students’ Society of McGill University

Negotiation breakdown: Marriott to be shown the door •

SSMU council votes to look fo r a new food service company

New s Coming to a class room near you: a look at SSMU Executive Candidates. See Page 4

Three years after the Shatner referendum: a retrospective. See Page 9

Editorial The internet: the fraud for the ’90s. See Page 6

ENTERTAINMENT A sneak preview of the six original student plays showing at McGill’s 8th Annual Drama Festival. See Page 16

SPORTS Hockey takes UQTR to crucial third game of best-of-three series. See page 20

Columnists G. Gibson................Page 7 M. Luz..................... Page 7 P. Shah.................. Page 10

Departments ..Page 8 ..Page 8 Page 23

Crossword Observer... What’s On

W a lk s a fo N e tw o rk 3 9 8 -2 4 9 8 Walking you from anywhere to anywhere. Sun-Thurs 7:00pm to 12:45am Fri-Sat 7:00pm to 2:30am

By M onique S hebbeare______________________

As of April 7 of this year, Marriott Food Corporation’s food services contract with SSMU will terminate. ~ SSMU council voted at its February 16 meet­ ing to accept a food and beverage committee rec­ ommendation to reject Marriott’s most recent con­ tract offer, and to go to tender to find another company to run the food services at 16 locations across McGill’s campus. Since January, Marriott and SSMU have been in the process of renegotiating the contract signed in May 1992. The negotiation breakdown During the renegotiations three contract pro­ posals were discussed: a first Marriott proposal, a SSMU counter proposal, and a second Marriott proposal. It was the second Marriott proposal that sparked the SSMU decision. “We were all disappointed with Marriott’s final proposal,” SSMU VP Finance Paul Johnson said in a letter addressed to SSMU council mem­ bers. “With only a modest price decrease (about 4% across the board), their main answer to the shrinking student pocket book was the introduc­ tion of ‘mini’ sizes of coffee, doughnuts, juice and cookies.” “Students with very small budgets, they rea­ soned, should also eat very small things,” he added. “We tried to create a win-win situation for both parties,” said Martin Généreux, Marriott M anagement Services account director for McGill. “In one of the proposals that SSMU gave us with the prices, all of them were lower than the 1991/92 price list of Scott’s. This is 1995.” Johnson told the council that the SSMU’s counter-proposal was based on students getting lower prices in exchange for a willingness to give up some of the revenue generated for SSMU by the contract with Marriott. The current contract requires M arriott to pay a minimum annual amount of $350,000 to SSMU with a five percent increase each year. SSMU was willing to abolish this minimum guarantee. “We were willing to let go of the minimum guarantee so we were expecting them to bend a little more,” said SSMU General Manager Guy Brisebois. Généreux did not expect the SSMU decision to go to tender. ‘They took our last offer as final and decid­ ed to go to tender,” he said. “We were surprised — we believed and still believe that we will come to an agreement.” The new and the not-so-new “We’d like to know if there’s somebody out there that might come up with a different approach to the cafeteria,” said Brisebois. “We’re not just looking for prices and a good financial offer. We’re looking for someone to bring a dif­

ferent approach and appeal to students”. The suggestion was made by Johnson and others at council that a new food contractor may bring a more flexible approach, and find new ways to get students to use on-campus food ser­ vices. “They [students] are far from a captive mar­ ket,” said Johnson. “The problem is getting stu­ dents in there.”

Amidst concerns o f their impending demise, Sloan taught a Spectrum fu ll o f kids how to move a n d shake. The T rib u n e has the goods — see page 15 fo r the interview.

Expanded campus election coverage in the Tribune This issue’s publication coincides with the start of a two-week campaign for various SSMU and other student posi­ tions. The McGill Tribune will provide complete coverage of the important races, starting with profiles of SSMU’s exec­ utive com m ittee races (see pages 4-5). You can look forward to more election features in the next two weeks, including a look at the Board of Governors race, and Senate elections. Next week we’ll look at faculty associations and Inter-

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Arts Rep Lisa Grushcow suggested to council that SSMU be open to the possibility of a studentrun co-operative operation of the food services. “I think student co-ops are a great idea,” she said. “I think that we should solicit viable student proposals. I’ve seen it work at University of Alberta — we could do something on a smaller scale.” See Marriott Page 3

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Residence Council, and will publish the results of a quiz given to candidates for SSMU’s executive offices, as well as providing ongoing cov­ erage o f their cam paigns. Hopefully new features such as the quiz w ill give you the opportunity to discover how much these candidates know about their positions, rather than merely a regurgitation of their stated platforms, which often overlook areas in which they are lacking in knowledge or expertise. Student governm ent is

important, particularly when universities are faced with radi­ cal alterations in government funding; we at the Tribune want to ensure that all students at McGill can cast informed ballots when they go to the polls M arch 14-16. Please remember to vote, and contact M onique Shebbeare, Sylvie Babarik or me if you have any suggestions about what you would like to see or comments about what you have seen. Michael Broadhurst Editor-in-Chief

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