Hi everyone,
There’s a few new updates from the Federation to pass along.
BY-ELECTIONS!
The Federation’s Spring By-elections have started. Nomination forms were due on July 4th, campaigning will run from July 12th to July 18th, and voting takes place from July 19th until July 21th. Engineering currently has three vacant seats available and we can hopefully see them all get filled up so that we can have full engineering representation on the FedS Student Council.
Fed Hall Update
On June 14th, the Federation received a ‘Statement of Understanding’ from the President of the university, Dr. Feridun Hamdullahpur, and the Associate Provost, Student Services, Bud Walker. In it, the university states it “is committed to a continued partnership on student space with the Federation of Students and…for further dialogue and negotiation on the plans” for Fed Hall. Where exactly this will take us has yet to be seen, however it’s a good step forward to ensuring priority student access and event subsidization for student groups can continue. A scanned copy of the memo can be found at feds.ca under ‘Fed Hall Update June 14th.’ I’ll keep you posted though.
Phillip Street Development
The Federation was approached by a private developer regarding a student housing complex that will be built along Phillip Street, asking what type of retail students want to see. Based on feedback received from students (some of the recommendations included restaurants, a coffee shop, student “gathering” space, and a hardware store) the overwhelmingly first choice was a full “urban-style” grocery store.
Details about the overall development are still preliminary but the current plan calls for five high-rise buildings ranging from 20 to 25 floors that will house approximately 2250 people. The site is the former Unit 36 townhouse complex just north of Campus Court plaza (where Mel’s was). Beyond that, there isn’t too much more information available, but as plans advance I’ll try to pass on more information.
Bubble Tea Coming to the SLC
The current Curry-Up/Wasabi area of the SLC will be renovated starting in July to become a new Wasabi/Bubble Tea venture. This means that Curry-Up will close, due in part to the fact that Food Services has slowly been introducing new curry options across its outlets. The choice of Bubble Tea was based on strong support from the FedS Review Survey that sent to all students last winter. Be sure to check it out when it opens this September!
Health Plan and U-Pass Fees
Based on a review of the total claims rate, the current Health Plan fee will remain for the upcoming year without any changes to coverage. Yeah to no fee increases!
The same can’t be said of the U-Pass fee which will increase to $60.64 per term starting in the fall. The increase is a result of the huge demand for bus service that GRT has seen from the program. They also need to slowly increase the fare recovery rate for students, which is about 1/3 lower than the standard adult rate on the system. Students will see the benefits of this increase starting as early as June 27th when the iXpress increase service substantially, including 10 minute headways from 7am to 6pm on weekdays. More service increases are promised for the fall.
If you have any questions or comments based on anything here, or anything relating to the Federation, please don’t hesitate to contact me at t.ek.jenkins@gmail.com.