Published by the Students’ Society of McGill University
♦
March 26th. 1996
t h is w e e k N e w s Holy days policy approved by Senate. Page 3
S c ie n c e Students’ “Ridiculous Wrappings” exhibit at Redpath Museum. Page 2
F e a tu r e s Some religious groups are using universities as a recruiting ground. Page 11
E n te rta in m e n t McGill students rock Capezios and f-stops. Page 15
S p o r ts Tribune athletes and team o f the year announced. Page 19 S u r f th e T r ib u n e W e b s ite ; http://www.accent.net/drummer/tribune/
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C o lu m n is ts Mila Aung-Thwin.......Page 7 Ted Frankel.............. Page 12 Don M cGowan............Page 7 D e p a r tm e n ts Crossword...................... Page8 Observer.......................... Page8 What’s O n ................ Page 23
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In Domino Contido
Volume 15 Issue 24
Graduate students protest B y B enji W
einstein _______________
Unable to reach an agreement with the university administration, the A sso cia tio n o f Graduate Students Employed at McGill held a one-day strike last Tuesday. Members of the TA union picketed outside the Roddick and Milton Gates in order to voice their con cerns. Last month, AGSEM mem bers voted in favour of giving the union a one-day strike mandate if the university failed to meet TA contract demands. After the uni versity presented its initial salary proposal, AGSEM announced the strike date to protest the adminis tration’s “offensive proposal.” At the gates, graduate students assembled with picket signs read ing, ‘We work for peanuts,’ and ‘Do we work for M cG ill or McDonald’s?’ Many striking TAs arrived as early as 7:30 a.m. and most stayed until the end o f the day. According to Michael Temelini, who represents AGSEM in negotiations with the university,
How sad would be November i f we had no knowledge o f the spring. - Edwin Way Teale the union was pleased with the strike turnout. “T his is great. It’s way beyond our expectations,” said Temelini. “We expect the adminis tration will start listening to a cou ple hundred people. They’ll see we are very serious.” Throughout the day, AGSEM members also encouraged under graduate students to join the picket line. Wearing stickers declaring their support for the union, and a
few even carrying signs, several undergraduate students marched in a show of solidarity. One under grad AGSEM sympathiser argued that union support is very impor tant. Blaming the failure of SSMU to pass a m otion supporting AGSEM in council, she lamented the small size of the undergraduate contingent. “ [The n egotiation s] really affect undergraduates, and I’m dis appointed not to see more here,”
said political science student Shari Hatch. “That has to do with SSMU shooting down support for AGSEM, because now [for under graduates] the strike isn’t legit imised.” While turnout of union mem bers at the strike was celebrated, the picketing cannot fulfil its pur pose unless it brings about a solu tion to the deadlocked negotia-
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General harassment policy sails through Senate B y Elizabeth W
asserman
After many months of work, SSMU VP University Affairs Lisa Grushcow and the Senate Sub com m ittee on Race and Ethnic Relations finally saw their efforts rewarded. The Policy on Discrimination and Harassment was unanimously approved during the March 20 Senate meeting. In a prelim inary address before opening discussion on the policy, VP Academic Bill Chan pointed out that the adoption of such a policy was long overdue. “W hile we have a sexual harassment policy [at McGill], we do not have at this time a policy dealing with other forms of harass ment and discrimination,” Chan stated. “Many may claim that such
a policy is not necessary, but I think that many more would inter pret the absence of such a policy as evidence that this university is neg ligent of the continuing struggle to eliminate harassment and discrimi nation in this university as well as in our society.” Associate Vice-Principal and member of the subcommittee on Race and Ethnic Relations, Fumiko Ikawa-Smith, explained the inade quacy o f the current regulations dealing with complaints o f this nature. “[T]he existin g p olicy is extremely confusing. [Procedure] depends on who the respondent is, who the informant is, and in the case o f students, there are five options,” explained Ikawa-Smith. Though none of the senators
expressly denied the need for a new policy, there was sufficient controversy surrounding both the definitions and the procedures out lined in the draft to fuel nearly three quarters of an hour’s worth of debate. Dean o f R eligious Studies Donna Runnalls was concerned that the policy prescribed an abrupt resort to formal procedure which might be inappropriate in some cases, and which could aggravate some conflicts. “One o f the things which I think is not addressed here is how to deal in a preliminary manner with issues which may be interpret ed as discrimination or harassment but which may not be understood by the perpetrator as such,” Runnalls commented. “I am very
concemed that we are... developing a culture of conflict rather than a culture of conflict resolution.” Grushcow replied that the pol icy aims to deal with complaints by the simplest and least formal means possible. “The [policy] draft does devote considerable space to infor mal resolution rather than formal resolution of a complaint,” said Grushcow. “What I intend this pol icy to do is to acknowledge that there are specific problems and to lay the groundwork for conflict res olution,” she further stated. Precisely what constitutes dis crimination is defined by the policy in accordance with Article 10 of the Quebec Charter o f Human Rights and Freedoms, which lists
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