Lack of student space
For the second time in 2 years UofT St. George students voted YES to creating a student-run building, the Student Commons. You voted yes to contributing financially in exchange for governance and space permanence. Students will retain full control over the facility and its operations – preventing the promotion of corporate and private interests over student use and management.
The YES vote means that we can move forward to a final project planning report. We will be reconstituting the committee with more students from across the St. George campus. This committee will work to determine the design and governance of the building.
We have already negotiated majority student-run governance of the building in addition to Leadership and Energy in Environmental Design (LEED) certification, corporate-free principles and a University financial contribution of a minimum of $1 million. The U.T.S.U. envisions the Student Commons as a nexus of community, co-operation, and communication which will serve to add to the pockets of student activity across our campus. The facility will house club offices, levy group space, meeting rooms, commuter space, lounges, rehearsal space, construction space, a student-operated cafeteria with vegan, Halal and Kosher food options and U.T.S.U. services including a cheap copy shop, food bank and a permanent used textbook exchange.
Students at the St. George campus have lobbied for more student space on campus for decades. Unfortunately, we have recently witnessed the closure and therefore reduction of our study, lounge and meeting space from the Sidney Smith lobby to the Sexual Education Counselling Centre/ CIUT building. This trend has made it clear that we need a student-run, student operated community facility on our campus, and we need it now!
This is an exciting stage of the project. For the first time in the over 40 years that the students’ union has had the mandate of advocating for this space it is becoming a reality.
The YES vote means that we can move forward to a final project planning report. We will be reconstituting the committee with more students from across the St. George campus. This committee will work to determine the design and governance of the building.
We have already negotiated majority student-run governance of the building in addition to Leadership and Energy in Environmental Design (LEED) certification, corporate-free principles and a University financial contribution of a minimum of $1 million. The U.T.S.U. envisions the Student Commons as a nexus of community, co-operation, and communication which will serve to add to the pockets of student activity across our campus. The facility will house club offices, levy group space, meeting rooms, commuter space, lounges, rehearsal space, construction space, a student-operated cafeteria with vegan, Halal and Kosher food options and U.T.S.U. services including a cheap copy shop, food bank and a permanent used textbook exchange.
Students at the St. George campus have lobbied for more student space on campus for decades. Unfortunately, we have recently witnessed the closure and therefore reduction of our study, lounge and meeting space from the Sidney Smith lobby to the Sexual Education Counselling Centre/ CIUT building. This trend has made it clear that we need a student-run, student operated community facility on our campus, and we need it now!
This is an exciting stage of the project. For the first time in the over 40 years that the students’ union has had the mandate of advocating for this space it is becoming a reality.