Petition for Extraordinary General Meeting to revisit the decision taken by the Council concerning the modified Grad House agreement with the University of Ottawa, as it is clearly in contradiction with the referendum question regarding ownership of the building.



As you probably know there is ongoing project of replacing existing building where Cafe Nostalgica is located with a brand
new 3-storey high development that supposed to accommodate Cafe and social spaces for grad students.

Website with details on referendum results related to Grad House project (January 25th, 2011): http://gsaed.ca/en/section/45

The initial cost of the project was in range of $3.5M and it supposed to be financed by Jack Trucot Levy
(equity that grad students have in University Centre) and mortgage signed for 30 years that will be
paid off by each grad student with fee $22.50 per semester.
The new building would be owned and operated by grad students.

The referendum on this project was done on January 2011. Only about 500 students voted and about 300 votes
were given in support of the project. Therefore all grad students (and couple generations) would pay for this project with extra fees on top of the tuition.

The present status of the project can be reviewed in this dociument: PDF Accordding to those changes graduate students will be forced to pay for a property that will be owned and managed by University.
This situation is not acceptable considering tuition hikes and extra fees that already we have to carry.

Many generations of grads will have to pay for something they will never own, use or see.
It seems the new agreement clearly contradict last year referendum question. According to the by-law project has to be done according to results of referendum.
If project can not be done according to referendum than it should be abandoned. It is illegal to act against results of the referendum.

There is a petition (need min. 100 signatures) to call for general assembly where GSAED decision can be reversed.

We need to unite and stand up against such practices because there are our $$$ that will be wasted in such project.

We are geting support from CUPE2626, and departmental/faculty grad associations.

Signed petitions can be dropped off in CUPE2626 office (University Centre, room 303)
Link to petition: XLS | PDF
Please print the petition and sign.

Electrical Engineering GSA and CUPE2626