GUSS GA Update
Chair Threatens to Charge Student Protesters
Geography, Environmental Students and Urban Studies students are still preventing professors from entering classrooms despite a threatening letter from chair Dr. David Greene.
Tactics aimed at blocking professors from entering their classrooms started Wednesday morning for the Urban Planning Association whereas the Geography Undergraduate Student Society have being striking for four days now.
Greene sent an email to the student body saying their tactics are “both violations of the Code of Rights and Responsibilities which governs the behavior of all members of the Concordia community,” which he claimed are human rights violations.
Referring to article 29.g of the Code of Rights and Responsibilities, Greene said the rights include peaceful protest but also “the right of students and professors to engage in legitimate academic or other pursuits without obstruction or harassment.”
“Some of the boycotting students have told me that this violation of their peers’ rights was democratically sanctioned, and therefore proper,” said Greene in the email. “This is one of the most chilling statements I have heard in my 24 years at this university.”
As a result, Greene wants to charge students, and started doing so Wednesday morning by taking down names and photos of the protesters blocking professors from going to class.
The strike will continue throughout the week according to a GUSS statement released today. A group of 17 professors from the three departments have also said today that they will not call security or penalize students for striking.
“Everyone is aware that we are going up against a power struggle,” said GUSS President Andrew Roberts. “I would think [breaking human rights violations] is a stretch.”
“Everyone is aware that we are going up against a power struggle,” said GUSS President Andrew Roberts. “I would think [breaking human rights violations] is a stretch.”
Roberts said that students blocking the doors are being very respectful, and those who wanted to get in an out of the classrooms could do so—but teachers would be blocked from entering.
“For the most part it’s been very effective,” said Roberts.
“The response was amicable, people cooperated and realized we have a right to strike,” said Planning Association VP Academic Andrew Campbell. “We were blocking classrooms and we let the professors know our rights to strike as students. Most teachers just updated the students outside.”
“The reactions were fair. They just let us know [if] they were for or against.”
GUSS, UPA and GeoGrads are meeting faculty representatives tomorrow during the geography, planning and environment faculty meeting to discuss the strike further. The meeting, however, is not open to the public.
The General Assembly for GUSS is Monday, March 12 on the seventh floor of the Hall building at 4:00 p.m. UPA’s GA will be on the same day, but details have yet to be confirmed.
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