U of T’s campus radio station CIUT-FM is preparing to vacate its familiar house across from Robarts and move south of College street. The station’s current home is slated for “selective demolition” as part of a plan to add a huge expansion to the Rotman School of Business. Only the building’s façade will be left intact.
The $92 million plan—the figure includes $204,000 for moving CIUT to a different location— was approved Tuesday by Governing Council’s planning and budget committee.
Students, faculty and staff at Rotman were thrilled at the project.
“Having a good business education is really good for the Canadian economy. Rotman is a responsible institution that teaches about environmental issues and social issues. The project is really a good one for the country. This is the largest gift we’ve ever received,” gushed Alex Kenjeev, Juris Doctor/MBA combined program.
Rotman vice-dean Peter Pauly said the construction would provide space needed to increase Rotman’s enrolment.
“We’re already at the max,” he told planning and budget committee.
The expansion program aims to bring Rotman in line with space guidelines set by the Council of Ontario Universities. U of T’s three campuses are all overcrowded, according to the COU standards.
At this time, it is unclear where CIUT’s new permanent home will be.
Planning documents suggest the station could eventually find space in the proposed Student Commons, a campus hub that has been in the early planning stages for years.
Before the vote, station manager Brian Burchell urged committee members to better consider how last November in an interim planning report on the Rotman project, will affect CIUT.
He found no security in the suggestion that CIUT move to the Student Commons, which has no guarantee of being built any time soon. Burchell, who last year sat on the committee that produced the latest, most realistic plan for the commons, cast doubt on whether student groups and administrative representatives would be able to reconcile “drastically conflicting visions” of the project.
“In any case, the whole thing is dependent on a successful student levy referendum, by no means a sure thing,” he reminded the governors.
For the foreseeable future, after construction of the new Rotman building begins in 2009, the radio station will be moved to a building at 256 McCaul Street, south of College, in a space 30 per cent smaller than their current facility.
Andréa Armborst, president of the University of Toronto Students Union, commented on the relocation.
“There has been this weird trend with student spaces on campus over the last six months: initially APUS, then Sidney Smith and now SEC and CIUT are being displaced,” Armborst said.
Though Burchell did not object to the relocation itself, he expressed serious misgivings about the new location.
The move squeezes CIUT in with the building’s current occupant, U of T’s custodial services, located across the street from a homeless shelter. Burchell said he worried that volunteers leaving the building late at night could be at risk.
Burchell also argued that CIUT’s central location on campus was critical to the station’s role both as a media outlet and a part of the campus community. CIUT has often staged concerts and community events on the front lawn of their St. George and Huron house.
“Once we evict U of T’s radio to south of St. George, will it ever return to its core?” demanded Burchell.
He went on to complain that CIUT had not been consulted on the relocation, prompting U of T’s vice president and provost Vivek Goel to object.
“I don’t think it’s fair to say you haven’t been consulted,” Goel told Burchell at the committee meeting. “We’ve been meeting with you over the past six months.”
Asked to clarify whether consultations had taken place, Burchell later told The Varsity, “I think [Goel and I] have both been using that word ‘consultations,’ but meaning different things.”
According to Goel, Burchell himself had suggested moving CIUT to another building on McCaul, but not enough space was available there.
