At the end of the Fall 2017 semester, McGill students learned that Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Ollivier Dyens will not pursue a second term once his current mandate concludes at the end of July 2018. While there will be an interim deputy provost after he departs, the formal[Read More…]
Editorial
McGill’s sexual violence policy lacking on professor-student relationships
Quebec’s proposed Bill 151 requires all postsecondary schools to have a campus sexual violence policy by September 2019. Among other things, the bill stipulates that an acceptable policy must provide a clear code of conduct on relationships between faculty members and students. In Fall 2016, McGill introduced a Policy against Sexual[Read More…]
SSMU executive mid-term reviews
President Muna Tojiboeva Prior to her election as this year’s SSMU President, Muna Tojiboeva campaigned on a platform of increased transparency, accountability, and concrete action on behalf of student interests; however, she has failed to uphold these standards. Instead, her first semester as President has been defined by her inability[Read More…]
PGSS executive midterm reviews
Financial Affairs Officer: Matthew Satterthwaite Following the resignation of former secretary-general Jacob Lavigne in September, Satterthwaite took on a number of responsibilities outside of the portfolio of Financial Affairs Officer (FAO) during the Fall 2017 semester, including chairing both the PGSS Board of Directors (BoD) and the Executive Committee. Despite[Read More…]
Student mental health needs admin support, not “hygiene de vie”
In an Nov. 21 interview with the McGill Reporter, Ollivier Dyens, Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning), shut down the possibility of a Fall reading week in the foreseeable future, despite 71.5 per cent of students declaring support for the break in an April 2015 Enrolment Services survey. In the[Read More…]
When educators are undervalued, everyone loses
On Tuesday, Nov. 21, hundreds of thousands of Ontario college students returned to class as the province’s five-week college faculty strike finally came to an end. The 12,000 college faculty—including professors, instructors, counsellors, and librarians—had been on strike since Oct. 16. After all that, it’s hard to say who won.[Read More…]
In countering hate and racism, SSMU must keep local issues at the forefront
On Sunday, Nov. 12, thousands of activists filled Place Émilie-Gamelin for the “Large Demonstration Against Hate and Racism.” A McGill contingent, led by Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Vice-President (VP) External Connor Spencer, joined forces with a coalition of Montreal activist groups to protest hate and the far-right. SSMU Council[Read More…]
Fall 2017 SSMU Referendum Endorsements
Motion Regarding Sustainability Projects Fund Fee Referendum Question: “Yes” The Sustainability Projects Fund (SPF) is an open fund that students can apply to to finance community projects and environmentally friendly ideas, thereby promoting sustainable initiatives across campus. Some projects sponsored by the SPF currently are The Plate Club, Rez Life,[Read More…]
If SSMU Council won’t stand up for campus press, students must
For some, campus publications have become proxies for different opinions on recent Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) controversies, most notably the Oct. 22 SSMU General Assembly and divisions within the executive. The Nov. 2 SSMU Legislative Council meeting saw a surreal turn of events in this trend, when the[Read More…]
SSMU President must step up, or step down
The current state of the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) is disconcerting, to say the least: Executives and employees have resorted to publishing op-eds against each other, and five of the six remaining executives have formally expressed a position of non-confidence in President Muna Tojiboeva, due to a lack[Read More…]