In spite of our defeat, several avenues for opposing this fee remain open. In the coming weeks we will contact M. Legault about our concerns and address the particular impact the fee hikes and increases in differential fees will have on graduate enrollment. Further, the issue is not entirely closed at McGill, and we'll see what road the administration chooses to take over the summer.
Deliberations on May 10 took place in Redpath Hall and provided a first-hand observation of the state of our buildings as a thunderstorm led to a small waterfall behind the secretary-general. Other low-lights included the defeat of a PGSS-initiated motion to instantiate a Post-Doctoral Senate seat on the basis that the constituency is too small. Debate on the proposed Intellectual Property Policy was deferred to a special meeting of Senate (see below).
May 24 Senate was preceeded by Dr Richard Tomlinson's gift of $64M to the university. As such, the mood was relatively festive, giving us an opportunity to speak out strongly on the proposed administrative fee hikes during debate on the new budget. Stephen Dery also took the principal to task for advocating the deregulation of tuition fees and we spoke out fervently in favour of the Report of the Task Force on Student Funding, which will be discussed at June 7 Council.
May 31 Senate concentrated exclusively on the proposed policy on Intellectual Property. See below for more details.
The strategy of the Ad Hoc committee was to take the proposal that had been negotiated with VP (Graduate Studies) Belanger and provide a parallel set of amendments that addressed the core differences on ownership. These amendments were circulated to Senators with the agenda several days in advance.
Much to our surprise, VP Belanger came to Senate armed with a second set of amendments that were the polar opposite of ours. This threw the debate into a free-for-all, and discussion on the core question of ownership was heated.
The outcome was not a resolution, as we had hoped, but a referral back to our committee, which meets with increased frustration as each iteration progresses. We should expect to see the debate on the policy continue for some time into the fall.
Robert Sim, UAC.