Student groups are facing removal from yet another space on campus after the Academic Board declared the university’s property on 245 College Street as “surplus.” Following Governing Council’s rubber stamp on March 4, U of T plans to lease the building to a private developer to build a residence.
“The idea here is that by leasing this piece of land to developers we will be able to provide hundreds of beds to students who need it,” said U of T spokesperson Robert Steiner.
Currently the space is being used by engineering student groups including the U of T Aeronautics Team, Human Power Vehicle, Concrete Canoe, and Skule Night. Collectively, the clubs spend upwards of 200 hours a week designing projects for non-academic activities.
The property was previously owned by the U of T Press before the university purchased it in 2007 to influence the development of sites adjacent to the St. George campus. Private developing company Knightstone Capital acquired the adjacent lot and offered to buy the building, which the university agreed to lease out instead.
According to Steiner, the plan is to construct a 1250-bed residence on the consolidation of both plots. The agreement will provide the university with $350,000 per year, for student life programs and services
“It’s a 99-year lease to them, they run the property, they get the rent from the students living there. And they will be paying us some of the money they get from their revenues, so it’s sort of a win-win all over the place,” Steiner added.
Student clubs now using the space find it more difficult to get hold of permanent space due to the nature of their projects.
“[The Design Teams] are moved around quite a bit, because […] most clubs just require an office space, but they require a large amount of space to build cars and canoes,” said Jimmy Lu, VP of Student Life at Engineering Society, who found out the space from the Faculty of Engineering. He was told at the time that the space would be temporary.
“Student club activity is generally quite prevalent but it’s not as prevalent as it should be, as [it is at] some other universities. If they were to leave this space for student clubs to use it would go a long way in actually promoting student clubs and encouraging them to do better,” said Nishant Bhatt, manager of the Aeronautics Team.
Bhatt believes that clubs have a direct, and far greater, benefit to students than student services.
“We represent U of T in international competitions. If we have space and funding, there is a lot more we can do to work on our competitive edge,” he said.
Ryan Campbell, EngSoc member and a student representative on GC, maintains the impending deal to be a wise choice, as much of U of T’s debt arises from building student residences.
Currently, there is an unmet demand for student housing on St. George with all on-campus residences fully occupied. Upper-year and international students are often forced to look for housing off campus. Steiner said rent would be set according to market rates in the new facility.
Campbell had approached the EngSoc in a meeting and detailed the finer points of the deal. According to him, the majority were supportive of the idea.
Furthermore, he said 245 College street is unsuitable for teams such as Concrete Canoe to carry out their activities.
Student groups outside the engineering faculty are also critical of the deal.
“In principle, we oppose public-private partnerships for services that the university should be providing independently. Projects like this always risk setting a precedent for future developments, particularly if the trend of under-funding universities continues,” said UTSU VP university affairs, Adam Awad.
