University of Toronto Students Challenge University to Host Survey on Plans to Turf Back Campus

TORONTO, March 5, 2013 /CNW/ - Over the past month, a number of University of Toronto community groups have expressed concern about the University of Toronto plan to convert Back Campus into two field hockey fields for the 2015 Pan American Games.

Last week, a group of petitioners opposed the plan after collecting over 3000 signatures opposing the move. In response, University of Toronto President David Naylor suggested that petitioners represented a minority position and that a counter-petition would likely get far more responses due to the popularity of the plan. He then passed over the elected student representatives from the University of Toronto Students' Union and the Graduate Students' Union (GSU) present at the meeting to instead ask two handpicked students their views on the plan. Unsurprisingly, they agreed with the University's plan.

Today, groups representing undergraduate and graduate students are sending the University of Toronto a letter proposing a #GreenWager (http://www.utgsu.ca/2013/03/01/backcampus/) for the University to send out a survey question to all students to determine the fate of the plan. According to Jason Dumelie, an executive officer of the GSU, "We want this wager because we believe that the people who can best judge the strength of this plan are the people who the University says it's for: the average student. If President Naylor has conviction in his plan, then I don't see any reason he shouldn't choose to take this wager on."

On February 25, the Board of Directors of the University of Toronto Graduate Students' Union voted overwhelmingly to oppose the University's plan to convert the Back Campus into field hockey fields.

The University of Toronto Graduate Students' Union represents over 14,000 graduate students at the University of Toronto. For more information please visit http://www.utgsu.ca.

SOURCE: University of Toronto Graduate Students' Union

Jason Dumalie
Academic and Funding Division 3 & 4 Commissioner, University of Toronto
Graduate Students' Union
Phone: [phone], Email: academics3&[email protected]