Imagine coming to classes one day and finding the Sidney Smith patio being demolished and the Students Administrative Council (SAC) booted out of their offices and suing Governing Council.
That’s basically what happened at Carleton University last year when plans to renovate the aging “Unicentre,” the Ottawa university’s student hub, spiraled out of control in a bizarre and continuing squabble over who controls and pays for student.
The fight centered around the issue of ownership and control. While student leaders are keen on exclusive control of their student centres, universities are generally loth to grant them this right.
The debacle at Carleton began in April 2005, when former Carleton president Richard Van Loon sent Carleton University Students’ Union (CUSA) a letter telling them to give up their space in the Unicentre to make room for renovations. Then-president Carole Saab of CUSA protested that the university was breaking a 1996 license agreement that protects its right to the space.
The university said it had the right to revoke the space from CUSA. The fact that the terms of the 1996 agreement were kept secret only complicated matters.
Talks quickly broke down, and the university pushed ahead with plans to demolish CUSA’s space, along with that of several other student groups and the patio of a popular student-run pub. Two weeks after the first letter was sent, a demolition crew was brought in on April 21 at 4 a.m.-an hour before a scheduled sit-in to protest the demolition.
Arriving at the site to find it fenced off and being torn up by construction workers, Saab responded with a march on administration offices. The next day, CUSA filed a lawsuit seeking $500,000 from the university.
The next week and a half saw six protestors arrested for sneaking past construction barriers, and 40 students led by Saab shutting down a Board of Governors meeting.
Talks reopened in early May 2005, and the situation seemed to improve when incoming Carleton president David Atkinson took office last summer and discussed the possibility of a new student centre. CUSA dropped its lawsuit after the university approved the new building and signed an important agreement in Aug. 2005 that outlined terms for the proposed building.
The saga did not end there.
Students at Carleton voted against a student fee increase of $11.40 per credit to pay for the construction of a brand new student centre. Speaking to the Charlatan, a campus paper, Atkinson said the outcome demonstrated that a new building is not a priority for students. He blamed the referendum’s failure on the lack of comprehensive plans for the building.
Shawn Menard, the current president of CUSA, has publicly stated that the referendum was organized too quickly, and the question was worded in a complicated, unclear way. Student groups have said they will continue to seek funding for the new building in future semesters, and argued that the university should contribute to the student centre’s construction, but Atkinson has just dropped his support of the building.
Now, CUSA is threatening to sue once again. Menard said he hopes to improve relations with Carleton’s administration this year, but accused the university of “picking and choosing” between the financial obligations in the Aug. 2005 agreement. In the meantime, most of the areas torn down in April 2005 remain under construction.
