While our fashion sensibilities may still be just as bitchin, our budget sure ain't. We wanna bring you hawt news with a retro feel, not old news in tight pants. So vote YES to Arthur's levy increase this week, and to all these other hard-working levy groups too. Because they're all a part of what made being a Trent student so flippin cool back when. And still are.
B!KE @ TRENT
Bringing the services of the Peterborough Community Bike Shop to Trent! With a refundable $3.85 levy, B!KE: The Peterborough Community Bike Shop is looking to create a permanent, student-run workshop at Trent with the tools, parts and guidance for DIY bike repair, a Bike Share program, and several student jobs. In spite of the incredible trails leading to Trent, the campus lacks support for students and staff who cycle: no covered storage, no air pumps or tools, and no support for students living on campus. B!KE @ Trent will make huge strides to better this situation, teaching the hands-on skills to take charge of your transportation! Similar programs are run with great success at McMaster, Western, University of Toronto, Guelph University, McGill University, University of British Columbia, and many more universities. Vote YES for the B!KE levy to build a lasting culture of sustainability and DIY excitement at your school!
The Seasoned Spoon
The Seasoned Spoon asks for your support with a ONE TIME $2 levy in support of our Food Storage Initiative. We have raised most of the funding needed in order to build a root cellar and need your support to start the build, as well as design educational programming. This project will create a variety of learning opportunities for Trent students and community members including: volunteer opportunities, academic research projects, field-to-cellar tours, and workshops which emphasize the importance of ecologically sound ways of living. Ultimately, the Food Storage Initiative and The Root Cellar contribute to the social and environmental goals of the Seasoned Spoon's mandate. The Root Cellar is a site in which to remember our communities' agricultural history, support our community's farmers, and re-learn the skills inherent to a local food system. Your $2 of support is a way of supporting the Seasoned Spoons co-operative vision of a sovereign food system - The Root Cellar will be a place where we can learn together about what it really means to eat seasonally and eat locally
Arthur Newspaper
Arthur is your Trent University and Peterborough independent press. Alive for as long as Trent itself, Arthur has published weekly during the academic year for 45 years. Arthur has been there to cover every major student issue, and inform students about what's happening on campus, in the municipality, and around the world. Arthur provides a forum for students at Trent to respond to what is happening at OUR university. Arthur also helps to build relationships between Trent students and downtown Peterborough communities.
In this election, students have the power to support student initiatives that make our university and community stronger. We're asking for an increase of $3.85 to keep this paper alive, and to be indexed by inflation. Arthur has only received a 50 cent increase in 22 years. The minimum wage has since increased $5.50 without Arthur having the funding to match. Meanwhile production costs have risen, not to mention 22 years of inflation. $3.85 will keep your student-run newspaper reporting on issues that matter, while providing jobs, work experience, and training for students, including out-of-province, and international students. Please support student opportunities at Trent! All full-time undergraduate students can vote, and it'll just take a few minutes of your time. This levy will contribute to the financial stability of the organization so we don't have to keep cutting student jobs! Arthur is YOUR newspaper. Vote YES for your student press!
The Trent Vegetable Gardens
The Trent Vegetable Gardens are a small levy group which is responsible for the operation of Trent's Vegetable Gardens, including the Rooftop Garden on the Environmental Science Complex. Our goal is to provide educational opportunities for the Trent community. Each season, we work with student researchers and volunteers through a variety of educational programming, such as in-class assignments for credit projects, workshops and volunteer days. Our goal is to engage in community development and skill building in research, service work, and small/home-scale food production. This $1 levy increase (to a total levy of $2.50), will aid The Gardens in increasing capacity so that we can expand our educational programming while seeking alternative funding sources. Your support will help to create hands-on learning opportunities and aid the growing movement toward food security.
Trent University Music Society
TUMS has been a part of the Trent and Peterborough community for the past 40 years. We take the place of a full funded music department at Trent, funding bands, choirs, student functions and music lessons. Our
levy was first instituted at $2.50 in the early 1970's, and has not changed since. Since then, inflation as well as other rising costs have greatly reduced our ability to perform all that our original mandate requires of us as well as greatly limit our expansion. Therefore, we are proposing to increase
our levy from $2.50 to $4, as well as being indexed to inflation.
Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG)
Have you heard of the Ontario Public Interest Research Group? OPIRG is a campus-based, community activist group that has been working toward social and environmental justice, offering training, support, and real opportunities to Trent students for 34 years.
Providing activist skills and engaged Peterborough folks since 1976, we operate community resources including the Free Market, Green Dishes and the Food Cupboard, provide research, working group and internship opportunities, offer educational initiatives like the documentary series, plus contribute to many community-wide events (Peterborough Pride, International Women's Day and more). Every year OPIRG organizes countless workshops, speakers and trainings and provides sponsorship, collaboration and promotional support to other activist groups. In addition to all this, OPIRG has been helping draft a sustainability policy for Trent, striving to make this university Ontario's first fair trade certified university.
This spring, OPIRG is asking for a $3 levy increase. Our levy has not increased since 1991, which means that as inflation and wages rise, positions and project funding have been lost. If you are a full time undergraduate Trent Student, voting Yes for OPIRG's levy increase, means we can continue our social and environmental justice programming, increase services, fund new projects, and hire more staff. So make sure you vote! It's not often you find an anti-oppressive, consensus-based, activist, student-led group that is oriented toward community building, social justice and environmentalism: check out opirgpeterborough.ca
Trent Radio
Trent Radio needs your vote. Trent Radio has not had a levy increase since 1989. Do you know what was popular in 1989? Flock of Seagulls. Help us move out of the 1980s. Trent Radio's levy is not currently indexed annually, and thus we cannot meet the financial demands of daily operations. With every passing year, we are more broke. Trent Radio asks for a levy increase of $3 to a total of $18, and separately that our levy be indexed annually to the consumer price index. Trent Radio is operated and established by the students of Trent University, and has been serving the students of Trent University since the late 1960s. Trent Radio is designed with the production of exceptional radio in mind. Our aims and objectives include producer-oriented programming (that means you are in control of your own show, not us) and broad community participation in the production of creative local radio. Trent Radio's programmers are by definition amateurs - that is, we do it for the love of it. This space reflects an organisation where people are learning and creating together. Please, help us fight the music of the Flock of Seagulls, and the release of the original Gameboy and catch up with the current cost of living. Vote Yes for Trent Radio's levy increase.
TCSA Election & Levy Group Speeches Come to Sadleir House
Despite the blizzard outside, the Hobbs Library in Sadleir House on Wednesday March 9 was packed with candidates, levy group organizers, and curious students sticking through three hours of speeches and questions. There was a strong focus on student initiatives, with the levy groups asking for more support from students in the form of a few dollars a year, and the TCSA candidates discussing how best to support students. Sheldon Willerton and Jonathan Alphonsus are running for the position of President, one which Willerton filled this past year. Willerton's speech centered around accomplishments of the past year, particularly support for staff, and focus on lowering student fees. Alphonsus argued that students needed to know more about TCSA initiatives before the student union can claim to represent them. Brea Hutchinson and Liben Abdi Bogore, running for Vice President Student Issues, discussed sexual harassment on campus, tuition fees, and Hutchinson in particular spoke of cuts to scholarships and academic programs.
A common theme running through the levy group speeches, despite slight differences of rhetoric and budgets, were that many of the groups hadn't received increases in decades, weren't indexed to inflation, and were trying to deliver the same, or better, services with a tighter and tighter budget. OPIRG's Matt Davidson told the crowd about their initiative to get all student groups indexed to CPI. The initiative has been been receiving a lot of logistical questions, but considering how many extremely active levy groups were there asking for increases simply because they aren't indexed to inflation, it is worth considering how many fewer levy increase requests there would be if groups were indexed to CPI.
Caileigh Morrison from Trent Radio used her radio voice to persuade the unsure why our university radio station needs more funding. Trent Radio also recorded the entirety of the speeches, and Arthur volunteer videographer Emily-Blondin Doan filmed the speeches for those still deciding on what to check off at the ballot (check them out at youtube.com/trentnewspaper). The Trent University Music Society, The Seasoned Spoon's Root Cellar initiative, Trent Vegetable Gardens, B!KE, and Arthur also spoke. Then the format returned to speeches from the executive candidates, and the only equity commissioner to run this spring, Suha Jarrar for Anti-Racism Commissioner. All of the executive positions of the TCSA (Vice President of Finance, Student Issues, Membership Services, and President) are contested, which provides an opportunity to students to get picky with their vote and be closer to building the type of student union that will keep student life at Trent sustainable, challenge the administration on student's issues, and support student initiatives at Trent while outreaching to students.
