Student Centre History Repeated

LettersRetselisitsoe Moshabesha — Published November 23, 2010

To be precise, it was an interview done by Guiseppe Valiante on former CSU exec Taylor Noakes in 2008. In the interview Noakes talks about how insistent Wener was that the CSU convince students to buy the Faubourg and to use student funds to do so.

I find it very disturbing that this guy is still involved with the project. I then wonder if the secrecy behind the location is not really out of fear of increasing the price but has more to do with the fact that students will likely say no to the Faubourg, again.

Isn’t there some kind of conflict of interest in having someone who is the CEO of a property firm and is on Concordia’s Board of Governors and Real Estate Planning Committee promoting this to students?
It is bad enough we have corporatism encroaching on student space, but it seems we cannot even be left alone to decide on whether or not we want this “student centre.” I put the student centre in quotes because to me the presence of this CEO in the CSU’s campaign is a clear indicator that the administration will be very involved in how it is used.

Just like the administration has encroached on current space, they will with time take over whatever space we will have in the proposed centre.

While on the issue of space, I can’t help but wonder what happens to the current student space that we have. It seems more like we gain some space with the centre but also lose a chunk when the CSU moves from the 7th floor. Let us first have clarity on available space before we rush to buy anything.

—Retselisitsoe Moshabesha,
Political Science

This article originally appeared in Volume 31, Issue 15, published November 23, 2010.