Save the Grey House!

Updates!

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 11:33:00 -0400

Dear Supporters and Friends,

We apologize for the lack of updates. Things have been really busy on our end and communications with the AMS have been very confusing and unclear. We appreciate all of the offerings of support and the letters that everyone has written; your work means so much to us and we thank you profusely.

At 4PM on Wednesday, Levana and OPIRG submitted re-ratification and space allocation forms to the AMS. Even though we had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the previous AMS executive, an agreement which the current VPUA Kieran Slobodin was a part of and indicated his support for, which secured our offices in the Grey House, we were told that our agreement was invalid.

We had also believed that the AMS did not have the authority to evict us from the Grey House. The AMS has contested this by saying that groups must be ratified clubs to receive space. While this may be true for AMS-held and managed space, there is actually no policy on joint spaces aside from an informal agreement that can be made between the parties involved in the ownership of the space. We felt that an informal agreement could be made through the Student Life Centre Council which is comprised of the AMS, the Society for Graduate and Professional Students (SGPS) and the University as opposed to the processes the Space Allocation Committee, who has acted in bad faith towards us, have deemed necessary.

SLC Council is meeting on September 26, 2011 and Levana, OPIRG and EQuIP will be attending.

In the meantime, OPIRG and Levana have taken the steps that the AMS has mandated to retain our space. We have re-ratified and indicated we would like to remain in the Grey House, fulfilling their ‘space allocation’ procedure.

EQuIP is still waiting to hear about their space. The AMS is in the process of setting up a meeting to discuss other ‘accessible’ spaces outside of the Grey House, ignoring requests to stay in the space and claiming that physical accessibility is the purpose for their eviction. It should be made clear that in evicting EQuIP, accessibility was never brought up as a concern. The only reason given for the eviction was that EQuIP is a ‘committee’ rather than a ‘club’. Accessibility comes in many forms, not solely through the provision of a space that allows wheelchair access, but also one that allows for confidentiality and comfort, circumstances that are difficult to replicate on this campus outside of the Grey House.

Additionally, EQuIP, OPIRG and Levana have been part of an ongoing process for the past three years trying to install an elevator in the Grey House. The AMS claims to care deeply about accessibility, but has stalled this process multiple times and has neglected to mention our efforts to make our space accessible.

At this point, the decision to allow all three groups to remain in our space is in the hands of the AMS Space Allocation Committee. The actions of this committee thus far include: consistently unclear communication about deadlines; fervent denial of responsibility for bridging the world of policy with the real world; dismissal of the spirit of our MOU; and publishing three letters to the editor in the Journal which indict and attack Levana and OPIRG, and aim to separate us from EQuIP. These actions demonstrate continued bad faith and an abuse of power.

We are waiting to hear back from them on their decision.

Until then, we are continuing to operate out of the house and plan to be for the rest of the year. Further information will be posted regarding actions once we hear back on the status of our “space allocation” request.

Until then, feel free to send the committee your thoughts!

Thanks again for your support. Stay tuned!

IMPORTANT - On Space Allocation and Jurisdiction in the Grey House

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 14:52:00 -0400

Dear Friends and Supporters,

OPIRG and Levana have just learned that the most recent Student Life Centre Agreement (dated April 28th 2011) designates the office space in the Grey House as jointly held AMS and the Society for Graduate and Professional Students (SGPS) space. Additionally, other spaces in the house are jointly owned by the University, the AMS, and the SGPS. No space in the Grey House is owned solely by the AMS.

This means that the AMS Space Allocation Committee under the Commission of Internal Affairs does not have the jurisdiction to allocate space in the Grey House alone. They do not have the authority to evict OPIRG, Levana, or EQuIP from the Grey House.

The Space Allocation Committee delivered an eviction notice to OPIRG, Levana, and EQuIP without an understanding of their own policies that designated the space as shared space. This demonstrates that the entire ratification and space allocation process is not fully understood by the AMS itself, let alone clubs who are understaffed in the summer months. That the AMS chose to evict three organizations from the Grey House, without re-allocating the space to anyone, demonstrates not only a lack of good faith but a willful act of abuse. Particularly the decision to evict EQuIP based on a minor technicality, a club with a presence in the Grey House, at Queen’s and in Kingston for almost 40 years, demonstrates the AMS acted in bad faith.

OPIRG and Levana never refused to re-ratify. We communicated repeatedly that we needed more time to make a decision during the summer months. It was never stated that either group was choosing to not re-ratify. Allegations claiming otherwise are false. See our e-mail communication for more information.

Many have been questioning why the decision to re-ratify has taken so much time for both OPIRG and Levana. The answer is complicated because it involves a nuanced understanding of the nature of the work we do. OPIRG and Levana serve not just undergraduate students but professional students, graduate students, and the wider Kingston community. Being an ‘AMS Club’ would just be one part of our identities; we receive fees from the SGPS as well and have partnerships with many organizations throughout Kingston. Whose ‘jurisdiction’ we fall under is complicated and confusing. We have not been attempting to outrun our responsibilities to students by taking our time in making a decision on re-ratification, we have been contemplating what it means to be owned by the AMS, and particularly this AMS, as a club.

Ratification is one aspect of our relationship with the AMS, an organization that we have a long history with and that has in the past been unsupportive of our activities and work.

The current AMS government’s campaign committed to upholding anti-oppressive principles and practices and supporting the goals of our organizations. We were under the impression that our relationships were improving. We were wrong.

We will not allow a safe space we have spent decades building and nurturing to be taken away. We refuse to bow to homophobic, transphobic, and sexist attempts to evict us from our space.

We are staying.

Thank-you!

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 22:01:14 -0400

Thanks so much to everyone who has written and called the AMS! Your support means so much.

We are currently discussing amongst our groups how best to proceed. Some of us have been contacted by the AMS about a meeting tomorrow and will update everyone as soon as we can!

Until then, we encourage you to explore this website and all of our pages, including our new ‘documents’ page with copies of letters between the Space Allocation Committee and ourselves, including our eviction letter and letters to AMS staff.

Updates about more actions to take will come soon!

THANKS AGAIN!

Click the links above to learn more!

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 15:10:06 -0400

Click the links above to learn more!