Headliners: Feb. 28 – March 4

Pro-life club sues Carleton

Alanna Wallace — CUP Ontario Bureau Chief

WATERLOO, Ont. (CUP) — The pro-life club at Carleton University has launched a lawsuit against the university after five students were arrested at a demonstration last fall.

On Oct. 4 of last year, the students were arrested and charged with trespassing when they attempted to erect a controversial display on campus called the Genocide Awareness Project, which compares pictures of aborted fetuses to historical atrocities like the Holocaust.

The university says it will “defend itself vigorously” against the $225,000 lawsuit.

Carleton’s objection to the group’s usage of graphic images was the main catalyst for the disruption in October when the university tried to get the group to hold their display in a less high-traffic area of campus. When the group refused to move, they were arrested for trespassing.

Campus radio station banned from B.C. university

Danielle Pope — CUP Western Bureau Chief

VICTORIA (CUP) — One British Columbia university has received a lot of static as of late, after its student radio station was banned from hosting events on campus.

Radio Malaspina Society, known in Nanaimo as CHLY 101.7 FM, was recently banned from campus for hosting a party last October that resulted in “the destruction of property, trespassing, illegal alcohol and drug use, disrespecting security and general debauchery,” according to Vancouver Island University officials.

On Dec. 8, Ric Kelm, VIU infrastructure and ancillary services executive director, sent the station an official letter saying they would be banned from campus for one year, with the organization’s standing on campus under review.

“Radio Malaspina was issued written requirements, verbally and via email regarding expected conduct at this event,” Kelm said in the letter. “The signature on the contract indicates that expected conduct and behaviour were made aware to all parties involved.”

Because RMS operates at an off-campus office, the station is not being physically removed from any on-campus facility. Still, the inability to host student events could severely impact the station in a number of ways — namely, the ability to draw their needed 60 per cent student representation on the RMS board of directors, which would breach the B.C. Society Act and possibly jeopardize the station’s license to broadcast with the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission.

UVic takes stand against CFS

Kailey Willetts — The Martlet (University of Victoria)

VICTORIA (CUP) — The University of Victoria students’ society is taking the official stance that they no longer want to be members of the Canadian Federation of Students.

The decision came at the board of director’s Feb. 28 meeting when director-at-large Karina Sangha moved a motion for the board to officially endorse the “no” side in the upcoming referendum on CFS membership.

However, no financial or other resources have been committed to the referendum, which will take place from March 29-31.

McGill to face ‘financial consequences’ for increased MBA tuition

Henry Gass — The McGill Daily (McGill University)

MONTREAL (CUP) — McGill University would face “financial consequences” for increasing tuition for their MBA program this year, according to media interviews with Quebec education minister Line Beauchamp.

The program’s tuition increased from approximately $2,000 a year to $29,500 a year for the two-year master’s degree. The announced tuition marks an increase of roughly 1,163 per cent.

“For us, it is not acceptable that a regular MBA sees such tuition fees,” Beauchamp told French-language newspaper Le Devoir, which broke the news.

The provincial government has been threatening to punish McGill for the cost of its MBA program since the university made the announcement in fall 2009.

Since the tuition increase was announced, McGill has maintained that the increase will close a roughly $10,000 funding gap between what students pay and the cost of running the program. Formerly, the MBA program was subsidized with tuition revenue from undergraduate programs.

The university also argues the increase will allow McGill to better compete with other elite private business schools like Harvard, where annual tuition is more than $50,000.

Content courtesy of the Canadian University Press

Photo: Chelsea Pottage