QPIRG-McGill proposes three-way negotiations between protesters, Administration and QPIRG

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

QPIRG McGill has extended an offer to the McGill administration for tripartite negotiations between #6party, the McGill administration, and QPIRG McGill. With this offer we hope to resolve the ongoing dispute over our fall 2011 referendum.

In November 2011, QPIRG McGill won a student referendum which asked for continued support of our existence as an autonomous student organization that administers its own fee refunds. The expected consequences of this successful referendum question include that the University would begin negotiations with QPIRG-McGill for the renewal of the Memorandum of Agreement between the two parties and that QPIRG would regain control of its own fee levy refunds in lieu of the McGill administration’s online opt-out system.

The McGill administration has continuously – and without just cause - refused to accept the referendum results. This decision comes at a time when relationships between students and the Administration are strained.

Faced with the McGill administration’s refusal to recognize this referendum (as well as that of campus-community radio station CKUT), students – calling themselves #6party – have been occupying the office of Morton J. Mendelson, Deputy Provost of Student Life and Learning, since the morning of Tuesday, 7 February. #6party’s primary objective is to secure recognition of QPIRG and CKUT’s respective referendum results. Though we are not affiliated with the students of #6party, we share this goal.

In light of the administration’s refusal to negotiate with the students of #6party and their increasingly inhumane treatment of these students (including but not limited to denying them access to food, bathrooms, and electricity), we hope to resolve this dispute as soon as possible. We believe that in-person negotiations between representatives of the three parties will be the most expedient way to achieve this. We trust that the Administration also wishes to find an
expedient end to this dispute, and hope that they will come to the table toward this end.

CONTACT INFORMATION
Kira Page, member of the Board of the Directors
page.kira@gmail.com
438-868-3957