Hi everyone, and welcome to the discussion of “The Other Referendum”. No we will not be publishing a highly controversial PCP about it, and this article will not have to be reviewed by the IW advisory board.
But lack of controversy does not imply lack of importance. We spent a lot of time on the Sever Ties Referendum, which I am by no means belittling because it initiated a very thought-provoking discussion. But I haven’t heard much talk lately about the SLC/PAC Referendum, which will have a very direct effect on UW students.
Anyone who has bought lunch at SLC, and then tried to sit somewhere and eat it – of all things, can you imagine?! – can agree with me that we don’t have enough general student space on campus. This is the reason for the current expansion project: its goal is to facilitate a greater sense of community and enhance students’ university experience by increasing social, activity, dining, and recreation space. It has been driven primarily by Feds and Graduate Student Association (GSA), who are currently working with Athletics and the Administration. The University has hired architects to develop the building plans and artistic renderings, which are already available here:
https://uwaterloo.ca/associate-provost-students/slcpac-expansion-project/design-renderings
They have also allocated staff to help the students prepare their proposal.
Let’s take a look at why this is so important. Every couple of years, the Council of Ontario Universities (COU) releases a space assessment of all Ontario universities in which they classify types of spaces – for example, office, athletics, etc. – and give recommendations on how much the university should have based on population. Currently, academic office space is 124.5% of what it should be, while study space is only 42%, recreation/athletic space is 48.2%, and common use/student activity space is 53.2%. Obviously, professors have much more space than necessary, while students have less than half of what we should. This is definitely a problem, which is why Feds and GSA called for this referendum.
The wording of the referendum is as follows:
“Do you support a fee of $18.00 per term for the construction of the SLC/PAC Expansion with the following conditions:
-student contributions to on-going operating costs, determined by a committee whose membership is comprised of a majority of students
-part time students pay 30% of the fee,
-the fee will begin after completion of the project
-the fee will be indexed annually to inflation, thereafter.”
The two questions most students have are, what do I have to put into this? And, what do I get out of this?
Altogether, the university will contribute $10 million to the project, and students will contribute the other $24 million. The student fee of $18.00 per term goes to the SLC expansion and PAC fitness centre renovation. The fee will not come into effect until after the new space is open and fully operational, which is projected to be fall 2018. A lot of the students on campus right now will not benefit from this new facility, but you will not end up paying if you won’t be here!
The proposed expansion will add 63,970 square feet to SLC and PAC, west of BMH. It will connect to the current SLC on all floors, and connect to the Red North corner of PAC. It will also link from SLC to the third floor of MC, yay! (Is it just me, or is it kind of ridiculous that SLC doesn’t connect to anything? When I’m on campus late or on the weekend, I have to walk all the way to SLC in the cold just to get Tims.) There will also be a covered walkway to the AHS buildings, and a new SLC courtyard when the existing one is built over. By the way, the construction will not take away from the existing green space. See the plans for more details – the pictures on the website will give you a much better idea of what the completed project will look like.
The building will consist of student spaces, as stated. This includes: fourteen bookable multipurpose rooms, bookable event space for 150 people, 525 dining seats which is a 200% increase, 4500 square feet of social lounge space which includes couches and pool and foosball tables, a graduate student lounge, and a multi-faith space in the Qibla direction (towards Mecca) to fit 100 with prayer mat storage and cleansing amenities. There will also be 11,000 square feet of fitness space added to the current PAC as a two level concept, which is a 3.5 time increase from its current size, and 3000 added square feet of recreation studio space.
Undergraduate and graduate voting are both open from February 9-11. All full-time and part-time students can participate in the referendum and will be emailed a link to the online poll. The expansion project is dependent on a successful yes vote and will be discontinued if students vote no. In the latter case, the university will likely be unwilling to participate in similar discussions in the near future.
Results of the referendum vote will be announced on Friday.
Remember, it is important to go vote! Personally, I will only benefit in my 4B term if the project finishes on time, but that’s not the point. Let’s invest in the next generation of UW students.
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