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 new GSAED executive committee (elected with number
of 300 votes) mismanaged the project as follows.
- The project manager was replaced by person who is not even a
graduate student (it is well paid position).
- Cost of property taxes that would have to be paid for the
building were neglected.
The estimated proprty taxtes for commercial
property in prime location would reach $50K/year and this is beyond
financial capabilites of GSAED.
- There is significant increase in total cost of project
that is exceeding $5M
The present status of the project can be reviewed in this dociument: PDF
In result of this GSAED Council approved the following changes:
- 1. New building will be build with money borrowed from the
university.
- 2. The loan will be paid over 50 years with the interest.
- 3. The building will never belong to grad students. It
will belong to
university and it will be rented by GSAED.
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