While students usually skim past referendum questions, on the ballot for the Student’s Society of McGill University (SSMU) Winter Referendum 2019 is a proposal for a significant mandatory base-fee increase. President Tre Mansdoerfer has suggested a $30 increase, which would raise the current fee from $44.33 to $74.33 per term[Read More…]
Editorial
SSMU Winter 2019 referendum endorsements
The McGill Tribune presents its endorsements for the Winter 2019 Student’s Society of McGill University (SSMU) referendum period. Student Services Fee increase: Yes with reservations In response to the inadequate mental health resources on campus, McGill’s Student Services is investing in multiple large-scale projects and renovations. This includes the Rossy Student[Read More…]
Meet the 2019 SSMU Executive Candidates
In order to present the most informed endorsement decisions possible, our editors attended the SSMU debates, conducted in-person interviews with all of the candidates, and examined each platform in detail. The endorsements are the product of an Editorial Board meeting in which we addressed every position, debated, and voted. In[Read More…]
Legal Information Clinic McGill existence referendum endorsement
The Legal Information Clinic at McGill (LICM) provides essential services for McGill students. It serves as a convenient, free resource for those seeking information on legal matters such as housing laws, defamation, and more. Staffed by current students in the Faculty of Law, the LICM gives McGill law students hands-on[Read More…]
Unfair admissions practices go beyond Hollywood scandals
Every spring, prospective McGill students begin to receive their offers of admission. These students will have among the highest grades of their graduating class: The mean grade 12 academic average for an accepted non-Quebec Canadian student was 93.7 per cent in fall 2017. However, McGill’s extremely competitive admissions cutoffs make[Read More…]
Overworked and underpaid: Executive dysfunction in student government
On Feb. 25, Cody Esterle, Student’s Society of McGill University (SSMU) Vice-President VP) Student Life announced that they would be taking time off for an indefinite period due to immense emotional and physical burnout. Similarly, VP External Marina Cupido resigned in Sept. 2018 citing mental health concerns while in office.[Read More…]
Revised sexual violence policy needs more revision
After missing the Quebec government’s Jan. 1 deadline to update their existing sexual violence policy, McGill’s Senate has entered the final stages of approving its newly-revised Policy Against Sexual Violence (SVP), presenting the document at their Feb. 20 meeting. Last amended in 2016, Senate is updating the policy so that it[Read More…]
Don’t overturn a democratic vote for undemocratic reasons
In an ambiguous and poorly-worded email sent on Feb. 12, Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) executives released a statement announcing that they had overturned the AUS Legislative Council’s decision to withhold approval of the course fee for POLI 339. POLI 339 Comparative Developed: Topics 1 is a two-week summer exchange course[Read More…]
Learning from the successes and failures of AVEQ
Following years of apathy and disengagement, the announcement that the Association for the Voice for Education in Quebec (AVEQ), a provincial student union, had dissolved generated little attention on McGill’s campus. While students are passionate advocates for causes like greater access to mental health services at McGill and the upcoming[Read More…]
In solidarity with Unist’ot’en
Since November 2018, indigenous communities and their allies across Canada have mobilized to show solidarity with the Unist’ot’en camp. The community is part of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation in British Columbia (BC) and has been trying to prevent a natural gas pipeline, Coastal GasLink, from building on their territory. On[Read More…]
