Faubourg Finally Finished
They sat, asked questions and listened. When it was all over, the councillors of the Concordia Student Union voted as one, killing the $54 million deal that would have turned the Faubourg into a student centre.
The CSU called the special meeting to hear Concordia’s upper administration make one last pitch for the building as the location for a student union building.
Under the plan presented by Concordia, the CSU would split the purchase, renovation and operating costs of the Faubourg with the university.
In exchange for paying $27.5 million—just over half of the total $54 million cost—the union would get 30.4 per cent exclusively CSU-run space, with the school getting 28.3 per cent. The rest, which would mostly be rented out to retailers, would be “shared.”
VP Facilities Management Peter Bolla emphasized Concordia’s need for a student union building, explaining, “It creates a focal point of student activity, which contributes to dynamic student life. It increases the amount and quality of space to better suit student needs.”
Facilities Planning & Development director Martine Lehoux then gave a briefing on the Faubourg site, which she suggested was ideal.
“It’s strategically located, […] it is more than 5,000 square meters, and [it has] access to green space with [the adjacent] Grey Nuns garden,” she argued.
CSU VP Student Space & Clubs Gonzo Nieto and President Lex Gill responded to the admin’s presentation with a report outlining potential problems with the deal.
The CSU not only called for the rejection of the Faubourg as the site of the centre, but also the cessation of all negotiations with the university’s student centre committee.
The report also suggested that the CSU take sole control of the bank account that holds over $8 million raised for the student centre to date, and to work to find possible “ethical investment options” for the funds.
The motion also mandated the CSU executive to begin a study on student space that will “serve as a binding blueprint for any future student space projects.”
Throughout the dialogue, a sticking point was how fee levy groups would be treated under the current student centre agreement.
The groups—which are funded by fees paid directly by students and are autonomous from the CSU—were originally to be placed within the space designated for the CSU.
Later negotiations stipulated that the fee levy groups be housed under administration space. But the CSU pointed out that none of the groups had been consulted on specific space or infrastructure needs, or even if they wanted to move.
“I’d rather know what I’m getting than move into a building where we don’t even know if there’s going to be walls for clubs,”
–Morgan Pudwell,
CSU VP Advocacy
“I’d rather know what I’m getting than move into a building where we don’t even know if there’s going to be walls for clubs,” said CSU VP Advocacy Morgan Pudwell. “I don’t want the People’s Potato to move somewhere where they don’t know if they’re going to have an oven.”
“And then there’s the question of who pays for the oven, or the move,” added Gill.
During the report, Gill tied the Faubourg project to the Board of Governors meeting that would be taking place the following morning, where the Board would consider a motion—which ultimately passed—to slash undergrad representation at the university’s top governing body.
“This university has abandoned students,” said Gill. “The message they’re sending [is that] undergraduate students are not important. I think it would be foolish for anyone around the table to take seriously the idea that there is an equal sense of respect and partnership between the institution [and students].”
It’s been a long road for the student centre project, which had its genesis in 2003. That year, undergraduate students voted in favour of a $1.00 per credit fee levy for a student union building. The amount was increased to $2.00 per credit in 2005.
In 2006, the CSU had been approached about a student centre in the Faubourg, to which then-CSU President Khaleed Juma said, “We cannot agree to purchases that provide inadequate student space.”
Since then, there have been two efforts—one in March 2010, and another the following November—to further increase the fee levy amount to $4.50 per credit.
In the last election, 69 per cent of students voted against the fee levy in an election that became as much about the Faubourg as it was about the money after the building was revealed as the site for the centre.
Read the CSU’s Student Centre Report & Recommendations.
