We got the Gardens
In September, the Eyeopener went out on a limb and wrote about Ryerson’s dream to make the hockey shrine the new home for the Rams. The next day, Ryerson announced they were in talks with Loblaw about a partnership for the site. By December, it was ours. With a drop-dead date of March 2011, the pressure is on.
Gould Street closing… soon
Gould Street went green in September, when the RSU laid out turf to celebrate the announcement of a year-long closure of the street. The closure is set to be a pilot project partnership between Ryerson and the City of Toronto. Gould Street was supposed to be closed by this Spring, but now it looks it won’t be car-free until this August due to the ongoing construction on the Image Arts building.
Thousands lost over Coke
In October, the Eyeopener broke that Ryerson would lose over $130,000 in funding because students didn’t guzzle enough Coke. The sales shortfall meant that Ryerson would be stuck with a Coke contract for an additional year, without any guarantee of the funding the exclusive deal provided for athletics, bursaries and scholarships. Coke told the Eyeopener that athletics funding would not be cut, but Ryerson still missed out on thousands of dollars.
Death of alumni shocks Rye
Over 1,000 Ryerson students walked with candles in hand to the site where Christopher Skinner was beaten to death by a group of men on Oct. 18, 2009. It was suspected that Skinner, an openly gay man, may have been a victim of a hate crime. Skinner was an active part of the Ryerson community and spent many years hosting Glamour Bingo, an annual residence event with a drag-queen theme. RyePRIDE created the Chris Skinner Memorial Award in his honour, recognizing a queer or trans student who plays an active role in the LGBT communities on or off Ryerson campus.
$10-million class action filed
Ryerson faces the threat of a $10 million class-action lawsuit in March, filed on behalf of Chris Avenir, an engineering student who was almost expelled in 2008 for his role in a Facebook study group. The statement of claim alleges that Ryerson breeches its own academic misconduct policy and suggests appeals should follow Ontario’s Statutory Procedures Act. The statement argues the current policy does not allow for students to have legal representation for academic misconduct before the issue reaches Senate.
If the class is approved, every student who’s sat in an academic misconduct trial since 2003 could be included in the class action.
–Eyeopener staff
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