By Fareen Qureishi
Student groups are scrambling to claim the recently vacated office of Leatrice O’Neill, Ryerson Student’s Unions’ (RSU) campus groups administrator, after she moved offices from the basement of the Student Campus Centre (SCC) to the third floor.
The spacious room sits at the end of a string of tiny offices allocated to 23 student groups. More than 60 groups are officially registered by the RSU and the office is hot property for groups currently without headquarters.
Dmitri Vassilev, president of the Bulgarian Students Association would love to take the office space, which would work to meet the demands of his growing group. “We really want it,” said Vassilev. “We’re expanding our association, planning more events. We’re getting more exec and we need an available space to hold regular meetings and to drop off documentation.”
Vassilev might not have much luck in claiming the room. His competition is tough and if the student groups committee decides to stick to the waiting list devised at the beginning of the school year, his group will have to step back in line for an office in the SCC. The committee met Thursday to discuss the space, but no decision was made.
Abe Snobar, student groups and course union commissioner, said that although the chosen group will get its office late in the school year, it will only belong to that group until the end of the semester. Then, every group must fill out an application for an office. The decision is made based on how active a group is and if they have a current office, how often it is used.
O’Neill moved this week from her previous office of SCC B30 to the third floor, where the main RSU office is located. “It was an executive decision to move Leatrice,” said Muhammad Ali Jabbar, president of the RSU.
“We needed one more office for student groups and we had an extra space in the RSU main office. It made sense. There’s over 60 groups and only 23 offices.” “Once we build the office we can figure out who gets the room,” he said, adding that he hopes to have it outfitted with furniture by next week.
While the chosen group will not be announced until the office is renovated, it will hopefully encourage even more space for Ryerson’s student groups, says Jabbar. “The more we can help the students the better. That’s what it comes down to.”
Leave a Reply