A proposed legal agreement between Trent University administration and Trent's eight student governments may re-write protocol on student group space and student fee collection - and undermine the student associations' autonomy.

According to the current draft version, the 'support agreement' has a main purpose of "establishing the terms upon which the University is prepared to support the Association/Cabinet." Superseding all existing agreements between the university and these student groups, this agreement would cover issues such as space for the student groups, the collection and remittance of student fees, and university-provided training for the associations' executive.

Jennifer Dale, acting President of the TCSA, explains, "the administration is concerned about liability and risk management and wants to have our relationship legally defined - that was the reason I was given by the Office of Student Affairs." The Office of Student Affairs has approached the TCSA, the five college cabinets, the Julian Blackburn College Student Association (JBCSA) and the Graduate Student Association (GSA) with this proposal.

Besides the TCSA, all of these student groups face unstable and inadequate space situations - Traill College Cabinet continues to share an office with Walkhome and the GSA has been moved around a number of times in the last few years - and so, the student groups hope that this agreement could formally secure them space on campus.

However, just how secure student space would be under this new agreement is being questioned. "This sort of agreement would establish a number of arbitrary and specific objectives that have to be met [by the student group], or else funding and space could be withheld," explains Jesse Greener, Ontario chairperson for the Canadian Federation of Students. For example, the agreement stipulates that the student association's President would have to give annual audited financial statements to the university, attend bi-weekly "Presidents Meetings" and make their successor re-sign the agreement each year. Should they fail to do so, the university would be entitled to withhold their fees and/or take away their space.

"The agreement would make us now legally accountable to the university, not our membership"

"I'm concerned for the student body and the future of student associations at Trent," states Dale.

The legal implications of the agreement have caused concern amongst student government leaders. "Most importantly, the agreement would make us now legally accountable to the university, not our membership [the students]," Dale states. "It would take away student association autonomy." Greener argues that it should not be the university's decision on what meetings the association attends, what programs are organized or how resources should be deployed, as this agreement would establish. "Students should have the ability to decide for themselves on a year-to-year basis what their priorities are; this contract effectively gives the university veto power in many respects."

The college cabinets are "in a more dangerous legal position" than the TCSA, states Dale. Unlike the TCSA, a college cabinet is not an incorporated entity; this means that should the president or the executive sign such a legal agreement with the university, they would become personally liable if the agreement were to be breached.

"This contract effectively gives the university veto power in many respects"

Furthermore, the type of space agreement that this proposal would establish is not a lease, which provides exclusive rights to the space and is what the TCSA currently has. Rather, it is a license, which gives the licensor the power to take away space should it require it for other purposes. According to Greener, a license is "an incredibly weak space agreement [that] provides little in the way of protection." Greener believes that a license agreement would only permanently entrench the instability that student groups currently face. "There's no guarantee at all that any of these groups would be able to permanently establish themselves."

This was the case of Carleton University's students' association (CUSA). When Carleton's administration handed CUSA an eviction notice last spring, "they made it clear that it was within their rights as outlined in their license agreement," recalls Carole Saab, President of CUSA. "Our experience speaks to the nature of the difference between a license and a lease," she elaborates. "The lesson that can be learnt from Carleton University's ‘license' agreement is that we had no guaranteed rights to the space; we had no authority over the space and thus, we could be - and were - pushed out at any time."

According to Greener, the attempt of university administrations to define and hold student groups accountable to a legal relationship is becoming a serious issue across the province. "There is a growing and seemingly coordinated campaign by university administrators to hinder students' ability to undertake meaningful organizing through the undermining of democratic and autonomous students' union structures," he argues. "Trent University is potentially among the worst."

"Trent University is potentially among the worst"

The TCSA is seeking legal opinions and awaiting further explanations from the Office of Student Affairs before proceeding further. College cabinets, the GSA and the JBCSA will be making their decisions within these upcoming weeks. "The TCSA is doing the right thing," Greener believes. "They are asking tough questions and are rightly skeptical to endorse a new agreement with the university, particularly because all of the student groups involved already have rights to their fees protected [in Trent University's Ancillary Fee Protocol]."

The Office of Student Affairs was contacted by Arthur for questioning but gave no comment.

Sara Swerdlyk

In January 2003, the Trent Action Coalition unleashed thousands of copies of its "Grade Report for Bonnie Patterson." The report card, which was posted through inter-college mail, was printed on imitation Trent letterhead, and assigned the President a series of bad (and even failing) grades, and even went so far as to report that she did not play well with others.

The administration was not amused. Shortly afterward, the Director of Student affairs sent a letter to one student's parents, complaining about his "unacceptable misbehaviour," and denouncing such nefarious misuses of intercollege mail, as well as the ‘illegal' use of the Trent letterhead.

January marked an interesting chapter in the history of Trent's commitment to the staples of its promotional materials--undergraduate teaching and small class sizes. The administration haggled bitterly with the Trent University Faculty Association (TUFA) over the issue of complement numbers (the ratio of students per faculty). Meanwhile, Politics 100 students found that their complaints about the course had paid off--they arrived back to class after the winter break to find that the tutorials that had been scrapped the previous year had been reinstated.

The same month, the Students Against Sweatshops convinced the administration to get with the times and stop using sweatshop labour to make university paraphernalia.

February was a good month for that principle we make such a fuss over in ‘free market' societies: competition. Even Aramark grudgingly paid tribute to it, giving permission for a new student run cafe, the Seasoned Spoon, to open its doors (well, for two days a week, on the condition that it served soup only).

Meanwhile, students voted to grant a levy to a second student newspaper, the Absynthe, marking the sunset of Arthur's dominance of the Trent student newspaper market. In the same referendum, students voted to give a levy to the Trent Queer Collective, and the Seasoned Spoon, and to purchase a new building to be used as a student facility.

Upon their return from the winter reading break, many students were alarmed to find out that the administration was drafting a student code of conduct. A draft of the code targeted such misdemeanors as unauthorized use of the Trent logo, and unauthorized ‘trespassing,' and many feared it would give the university pseudo-judicial powers to punish activists.

In late March, the Committee to Review the Presidency announced its recommendation that the university offer to renew President Patterson's contract until 2007. Patterson critics, predictably outraged, could explain this catastrophy only by reiterating that the formation of the committee had sidestepped a number of democratic steps followed in the formation of all past presidential review committees. However, the committee did largely agree, privately, that when it came to relations with the university community, Patterson's Presidency had been, well, not entirely smooth. They recommended that somebody else should be hired who could better manage internal relations.

In June, a squatting tour and affordable housing campaign by the Peterborough Coaltion Against Poverty (PCAP) brought attention to the city's housing crisis. The group visited vacant local buildings to illustrate that the homeless suffer needlessly, and demanded that City Council invest in affordable housing. The campaign became front page news in July, when the group squatted an abandoned city building which had previously been part of the affordable housing pool. For two weeks, the building housed several homeless youth and housing activists, while PCAP negotiated with city officials. City Council eventually kicked the squatters out.

In the fall, the much-hyped ‘double cohort' finally washed up on the shores of the Otonobee. Trent greeted these new students, and the returning ones, with a brand new construction site.

Peterborough at last caught up with the rest of the world, hosting its first annual Gay Pride Parade on September 13. Over 500 took to the streets in support of the march.

October saw Peterborough residents hit the polls in a provincial election. Local activists took advantage of MPP candidates' pre-election public image efforts by holding a rally in support of their Living Wage campaign. Peterborough's Liberal candidate, Jeff Leal, became Peterborough's new MPP, while Gary Stewart, Peterborough's former Tory MPP, who had been conspicuously absent at the leaders debate on campus, lost his seat.

In the same month, the Downtown Student Facility Trust finalized their purchase of Sadlier House, a building formerly owned by Trent and a part of Peter Robinson College.

Meanwhile, during the fall reading break, Aramark workers went on strike. After two weeks on the picket lines, the CUPE members gained a pension, as well a wage increase.

Keeping low-wages and exploited labour in the spotlight, CUPE held the first ever conference of part-time faculty in Ontario.

In November, the Seasoned Spoon reopened its doors in Champlain College, assuaging Aramark with a sample menu featuring such vegetarian delicacies as parsnip flax-seed muffins.

Meanwhile, the City Council decided to demolish the building that PCAP had squatted in the summer.
In a second round at the polls for municipal elections, Sylvia Sutherland was reelected as Mayor. Meanwhile, the Parkway referendum gave the issue, ahem, much needed closure. Less than half of Peterborough residents voted against its extension, and Sutherland called the referendum moot.

And finally in December, Trent Radio found out it would have to raise over $30 thousand to cover transmission equipment. The station held a ‘dial and donate' marathon, and a rock-show benefit.

Isabel Macdonald & Niiti Simmonds

For many newcomers to Trent, phrases like "DNA Cluster," "dismantled college system," and "Bonnie ‘personification of evil' Paterson" may soon become an all-too-commonly overheard discourse, in some breeding such irritation to the point of angry letters to student press editors or the formation of apolitical student associations. Yet, despite this cacophony of student concern over corporate ‘this' and transparency ‘that,' what's really being said about the university, its politics and its future, often remains so damn confusing, wrapped in a mist of heavy bureaucratic administration-speak or hip activist lingo.

For your learning pleasure, Arthur presents to you our succinct and action-packed version of recent Trent history, as we highlight significant events and issues from the last 5 years of student-administration friction. This Trent Activism 101 acts as a study guide for those concerned about the future of Trent and university life in general. One of the most important roles Arthur plays within the Trent community is conveying university politics in a discernible and effective manner in order to inform and stimulate critical debate. We hope that this will be a sufficient briefer for first year students fresh on the battlefield, as well as provide clarity (or nostalgia!) for the long-time veterans.

As the following is but a Coles Notes description of issues and events, we direct your attention to the Arthur archives for the full stories, available for perusing in our office or online (www.trentarthur.info). Inform yourself further by attending one of Trent Action's alternative tours of Trent campus or participating in the number of events scheduled for DisOrientation week ‘05. Engaging in the conversations and actions that will ultimately shape Trent's future is crucial in honouring its roots as a politically and socially active university.

"Students clarified through petition and protest that common space and corporate space were in fact antonyms, not synonyms."

Trent University; it's not what it used to be. Sure, things never stay the same and Trent is no exception ą in recent years, Trent has shifted its focus in several aspects: from liberal arts to professional programs, from small classroom sizes to ‘medium' sizes, from stengthening its undergraduate programs to expanding its graduate studies, from number 1 in MacLean's magazine's university survey to number 1 in the race to meet its commercialization potential.

What this change in direction has translated into for the Trent community is a plethora of concerns, from the increased privatization of the campus and an unprecedented intolerance of student dissent, to the disintegration of the college system and a worsening lack of transparent decision-making policies amongst its governing bodies. These recent evolutions pose serious problems to the quality of education available to Trent students and have been met by substantial opposition, some attempts valiantly successful, and others, not.

"Using police force to disrupt a student protest was an unprecedented move in the history of Trent University."

Who's Space?
Key phrases: "Ad-ucation," "private caf," "No Starbucks"

In 2000, Trent signed a four-year contract with Zoom Media allowing 162 ads into hallways, dining halls and bathroom stalls. After immediate and widespread student protest, the administration said that it would adhere to the wishes of the college cabinets and the Trent Central Student Association. Shortly after all six student groups voted against the Zoom contract, it was made public that the contract did not allow Trent to pull out unless Zoom failed to meet its obligations. Zoom, on the other hand, had a handful of scapegoats to turn to if it felt the partnership unbeneficial, one of which being an excess of vandalism of the ads.

With students recognizing their way out, the first three months of the contract saw over $6000 worth of vandalism. As the contract gave Zoom full financial responsibility for any damages due to graffiti, Zoom soon found that its ads werew not living up to their lucrative expectations. With a steady onslaught of student ad-busting and the resulting steep cut in Zoom's profit, virtually all ads were removed from campus in 2003, and the contract was not renewed in 2004.

Trent students returned last fall not only to a victory against corporate advertising on campus; they were also greeted by a large, spacious, abrasively yellow addition to the campus landscape. Enweying, a product of the SuperBuild project, brought the university fancy residences, a new on-campus college and the First Peoples House of Learning, but no additional student common space. Completely the opposite, it houses Trent's first-ever private cafeteria; access to Robinson Hall is limited to those who pay up-front for the $9.00 buffet-style meal. To top off an already fairly large blow to public space on campus, Gzowski College was constructed lacking space for student groups' offices or any of the traditional senior and junior common rooms that the other colleges have.

A big new building, and yet no student space within: perhaps you can imagine why in late October of 2004, over 100 students stormed Gzowski's private dining hall, reclaiming it as a public place for a potluck and community meeting. The cafeteria run-in inspired the formation of a university committee to review the cafeteria's predicament, and while the cafeteria remains private during the day, it is now open to the public during evening hours, for all night owl students still hanging around campus after 7:30pm.

Ironically, one of the administration's responses to the private cafeteria and the lack of common space at Gzowski was to invite Starbucks Coffee to set up shop in the basement of Enweying. After students clarified through petition and protest that common space and corporate space were in fact antonyms, not synonyms, and strived unsuccessfully to create a student-run café, Starbucks invitation was retracted and an Aramark coffee cart serving fair trade coffee was put in its place instead.

Arrested Dissent
Key phrases: "Trent 8," "The Occupation," "Student Code of Conduct"

In late February of 2000, eight female students occupied the Vice-President's office, in an attempt to force negotiations between students and administration on the decision-making processes, faltering college system and increasing corporatization of Trent. Student occupations were not new to Trent activism at this point, yet few would say that the outcome of this one was just like all those other clashes between them radicals and Trent administration.

The occupation ended on the fourth morning, when 25 police officers, following orders from President Patterson, broke into the office and arrested the "Trent 8." The police also arrested and detained for two hours 17 students who had been sleeping in the hallway in solidarity with the occupants. Using police force to disrupt a student protest was an unprecedented move in the history of Trent University, drawing national media attention to the event and leading to both the Trent Faculty Council and the Trent Central Student Association passing motions condemning President Patterson's actions during the incident.
Despite continued appeals from the university community for Bonnie Patterson to strive to have the charges dropped, the Trent 8, originally charged with criminal mischief, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of trespassing and were sentenced to either a $500 fine or 75 hours of community service.

In the following three years, Trent administration re-ignited its interests in implementing a Student Code of Conduct that would give the Director of Student Affairs the power to unilaterally interpret ‘student misconduct' - and to discipline accordingly. A draft of the code targeted such misdemeanors as unauthorized use of the Trent logo, ‘trespassing,' and, well, any conduct "that has, or might reasonably be seen to have, an adverse effect on the health, safety, rights, or property on the members of the university community, its visitors or Trent University."

Many students feared that the code would grant the university pseudo-judicial powers to intimidate and prosecute the politically active amongst us. Additionally, the vague language of the code sparked concern amongst CUPE members, for the right to strike could be construed as a punishable act.

As it became increasingly perceived as inappropriate, unnecessary and dangerous for the university to engage in the moral and political regulation of student behaviour, the administration's momentum slowed and talk of the Student Code of Conduct died. However, Arthur's 8 ball tells us that after a two-year hiatus, this topic may just find its way onto the 2005-06 agenda.

Lost and Found Colleges
Key phrases: "Peter Robinson" "Sadleir House," "Traill at Risk"

Missing from the block of George and Water Streets is a thriving community of students, faculty and university staff, historically known as Peter Robinson (PR) College. As part of a Superbuild plan to consolidate university facilities on Symons Campus and to bring Trent out of its financial troubles, the University administration proposed the closure of Trent's two founding downtown colleges, Peter Robinson and Catherine Parr Traill.

The plan was deemed unnecessary, ill-thought-out, detrimental to Trent's educational experience and financially disastrous by critics and gained formal opposition from the TCSA, the Faculty Council, the University Senate, student activists and Peterborough citizens. Nevertheless, the Board of Governors adopted the plan in 1999, effectively overruling the bicameral system that governs Trent and bypassing massive community concern.

Starting in the fall of 2001, PR College was slowly dismantled and its buildings sold for much less than anticipated. Half a million dollars was spent to renovate Traill to make it suitable to take on the departments from PR. Students still affiliated with PR became orphaned from their college office, which is now Peter Gzowski, their faculty fellows and any form of college life.

The last remaining PR building, Stratton House, was abandoned a year ago by its student groups due to a lack of stability and maintenance and was sold by Trent administration this past summer.

Sadleir House, one of the original buildings of Trent, was bought back by students and alumni in 2004 through a successful student levy campaign, bank loans and community donations. The downtown student facility now acts as a thriving hub for student and community groups, providing office, performance, meeting and activity space. The reclamation of Sadleir House has alleviated the lack of student space problem plaguing the university, as well as closing the chapter of PR history with a beautiful gain for the Trent and Peterborough community.

Due to a combination of steep opposition, the 2003 double-cohort pressures, construction delays of new facilities and financial problems, the Board of Governors delayed taking decisive actions on the closure of Traill College. In 2006, the Board will review its plans for the college, but, with groups and staff from Langton House at Traill being relocated to Symons campus this year, the compulsion for concern is already warranted.

BoG'ed Down by Secrecy
Key phrases: "Board of Governors," "70-acre industrial park over Trent nature areas," "Patterson is the shame of Trent"

The Trent Act of 1964 states that Trent University is governed by a Senate, which is primarily comprised of faculty and students and has authority over educational matters, and a Board of Governors (BoG), which is primarily comprised of business people and is responsible for finances and the physical capital of the university, including buildings. Since it discounted the Senate's decision regarding the closure of PR in 1999, the BoG has assumed a virtually unilateral position of authority in university governance.

Though students are not allowed to speak at BoG meetings without special permission or to submit items for the agenda, groups of students have often made their concerns known at the meetings through various actions, from the deliverance of actual cow-spines and paper hearts (for the spineless and the heartless of Trent) to the handing out of alternative meeting agendas with items comprised by students. Chaired by former Director of CSIS (Canada's CIA), Reid Morden, the BoG has a tendency of planning its meetings when students are most predisposed to not attend; for example, for this upcoming year, the BoG has scheduled two of its five annual meetings during the exam periods and one during the summer.

The BoG's disregard for student concern and democratic procedures has been most recently illuminated through its handling of the controversial and highly secretive DNA Cluster project. Since 2002, President Patterson, the main proponent of the project at Trent, has been propelling the university into a partnership with the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Greater Peterborough Area Economic Development Corporation, possibly the Ontario Provincial Police and other private sector partners to establish a DNA and forensics research center on Symons campus. The site for research will eventually be joined by a 70-acre industrial park meant to bring new industry to Peterborough.

Trent and Peterborough community members who expressed concerns about the lack of dissemination of information regarding the project, its financial viability, the commercialization of research and the rapid speed at which the project was moving forward, received little acknowledgement from the administration and BoG. When President Bonnie Patterson didn't attend a public forum on the topic organized by concerned students and alumni, after having chosen the time and date herself, attendants didn't wait long for the regrets that would not be given.

In the clichÄ but too true fashion of history repeating itself, the BoG approved the DNA Cluster project late last year in a session closed to the public, on the same day that concerned members had furtively expressed reservations and presented the BoG with a petition of 500 signatures, collected within five days, opposing the approval of the DNA Cluster and the aura of secrecy surrounding it.

Half of the DNA Cluster's buildings are scheduled for construction completion by the end of this December. $3.6 million of its funding is contingent upon meeting this deadline; Trent's history also includes a seeming inability to produce buildings on time.

Alissa Paxton
Sara Swerdlyk