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York University Students Continue to Stand up to School

President Marsden

Michael Sitayeb, Excalibur (York University)

: hs cad : TORONTO (CUP)—Students gathered in Vari Hall last week in clear defiance of York University President Lorna Marsden, to protest and commemorate the con- troversial events of January 20, 2005.

Over a year ago, students protesting Bush’s inaugu- ration were assaulted when campus security and Toronto police broke up a demonstration in Vari Hall.

The event resulted in a sustained outrage from stu- dents, organizations, and even some faculty arguing that York suppressed free speech. Conflict erupted in other quarters, with senators denouncing the violence on campus and Marsden fighting off criticism in a three- hour senate meeting.

York claims that the demonstration had been dis- rupting class in nearby lecture halls with some protes- tors using megaphones to speak to the crowd.

“Her administration’s security personnel were joined by police in violently assaulting a student demonstration in the Vari Hall rotunda,” said a press release from the Grass Roots Anti-Imperialist Network (GRAIN), also one of the main elements of the protest last year on Jan. 20.

York security has also come under scrutiny. Critics allege they ‘were responsible for calling the police to intrude on campus.

Since then, commission and various committees have developed and reviewed policies for the use of campus space for activities and events.

On January 13, the administration published a “Message from President Marsden.” The press release was designed to report on progress from the commit- tees looking into student space issues. ’

In response to the protest, Marsden commissioned the Working Group on the Temporary Use of University Space. It defined three goals for establishing a policy. First, the student space must be provided based on any effects to academics and the purpose of

Photos by Nicole Burton

the university as a place for learning, the right to free speech and the safety of the York community. Concurrently, an Office of Temporary Use of

University Space has been created to examine applica- tions for space by different organizations and assesses their viability.

“We've raised the standard. Things were quite chaot- ic before we had these regulations in place,” says Richard Fischer, chief marketing and communications officer at York.

“Ninety-nine percent of event bookings have been done without any problems,” he says. Many have criti- cized this process, however. :

“This is disastrous... There has been a major push to erect bureaucratic barriers for progressive events,” says Dan Freeman-Maloy, a member of GRAIN. “It’s very clearly politically driven and not based on anti-dis- ruption.”

Maloy states that many barriers hold smaller organi- zations from having protests and other events. Generally groups have to submit their requests one

-month ahead of time and provide a list of speakers and

volunteers that will be present at the event.

The high security fees sometimes required by York are also a barrier to running events.

“Tr’s becoming increasingly difficult to book spaces. Most spaces are booked and overwhelmed because there are so many student clubs,” says Omari Mason, president of the York Federation of Students (YFS).

“T think most organizations have to book space that is ‘unbookable’ so to speak,” he adds.

The YFS is doing just that this week. Most of the events in Vari Hall are no longer permitted by the Temporary Use of University Space policy because the area is designated as a learning space, yet they have set up tables and commemoration events everyday from Monday to today.

In the meantime York administration submitted a draft of the report on use of space.

“We're getting mixed signals from the administra- tion...the draft report really did not reflect our priori- ties,” says Mason.

The final version of the report was to be presented at the senate meeting tomorrow, but the meeting is now cancelled and the committee will likely be reporting in February.

As part of the Temporary Use of Space commis- sion process, York has engaged in talks with police services Chief Bill Blair to discuss the events of January 20.