McMaster students will continue paying for the HSR Bus Pass, Solar Car and Engineers Without Borders following referenda results
This MSU election season, students not only voted for their 2023-2024 president-elect, but they also voted in three referenda about whether to continue paying for the Hamilton Street Railway bus pass, McMaster University Solar Car and Engineers Without Borders.
In the HSR bus pass referendum, 77.1 per cent voted to continue paying for a 12-month unlimited ride HSR bus pass until the 2025-2026 school year. Approximately 10.5 per cent of the student population voted, bringing it barely above the 10 per cent threshold for referendum results to be counted.
Students paid $232.94 in the 2022-2023 school year for the unlimited bus pass. Next year’s fee will total $241.79, due to transportation price increases as a part of Hamilton’s city council 10-year strategic plan.
Students paid $232.94 in the 2022-2023 school year for the unlimited bus pass. Next year’s fee will total $241.79, due to transportation price increases as a part of Hamilton’s city council 10-year strategic plan.
In order for a referendum to be acknowledged, at least 10 per cent of the student body must vote. Both the McMaster Solar Car and Engineers Without Borders referenda failed to meet this threshold. Therefore, the previous fees will be kept as a fee on students’ tuition.
Annually, McMaster Solar Car and Engineers Without Borders cost each student $1.11 and $0.41 respectively.
Annually, McMaster Solar Car and Engineers Without Borders cost each student $1.11 and S0.41 respectively.
The results from these referenda have not changed the fees to McMaster students, with the exception of a $8.85 price increase in the HSR bus pass due to rising costs of transportation in the 2023-2024 school year.
Farzeen Foda
Senior News Editor
On March 17, amidst the St. Patrick’s Day festivities, was the first ever Global Engineering Conference hosted by the McMaster Chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB).
The event was held as part of National Engineering Month and was jointly sponsored by the Office of the Dean of Engineering and the PV Lab, which operates out of the McMaster Innovation Park.
The goal of the conference was to foster discussion pertaining to engineering education and how academics in the field can incorporate and promote awareness about some of the realities facing the discipline in the 21st century, such as sustainability and social responsibility.
Other topics of discussion pertained to the current requirements for the accreditation of an engineering curriculum according to the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB).
This discussion included David Wilkinson, dean of Engineering, and Jacinta O’Brien, a representative from Engineers Canada, which is the national engineering licensing body.
They discussed “what challenges lie ahead, and a dialogue was established for future enhancements,” said Dhaval Bhavsar, president of the EWB McMaster chapter.
The event featured representatives from Hatch, Engineers Canada and the CEAB.
Given the success of the Conference in its first year, it is quite likely that it may become a yearly event, noted Bhavsar, explaining that such an event could be very informative to students enrolled in disciplines outside of engineering.
“I think any student, whether they are in engineering or not, if they have ever asked the question, ‘Why am I learning this, I am never going to use this in the real world,’ need to be part of this conversation,” he said.
Kacper Niburski
Assistant News Editor
Although Halloween may be a time where our younger selves yearn the bygone days of mountainous piles of sweets and goodies, a group of students from McMaster, dressed primarily in gorilla costumes, have found something else to go bananas about.
In an effort to promote Fair Trade consumption and awareness, Engineers Without Borders (EWB), World University Service of Canada (WUSC), and MacGreen participated in an annual reverse Trick or Treat campaign entitled “Scare them Fair” on Oct. 31st.
Members, many of whom dressed as bananas, the Fair Trade product logo, or gorillas, gave out Oxfam Belgian Mini’s, one of the many Fair Trade chocolates sold in Canada, to unsuspecting passer-bys while participating in an open dialogue regarding the merits of Fair Trade, a stance taken by ethical supply chains.
“That’s the beauty of it,” said Amy Tang, a member of the EWB McMaster chapter. “Not only we’re we out there giving sweets – Fair Trade ones at that – but we were also giving information.”
Much of this “information” was meant as an introduction to Fair Trade for those who had not heard of it before and an attempt to clear up any ambiguities to those who have.
“Contrary to what the name of the campaign suggests, we want to use the fun of Halloween to start conversations with students, faculty, staff, and the general Hamilton community,” said Brandon Desbarbieux, coordinator of Fair Trade Awareness for EWB.
The event stands as an ongoing drive for consumer responsibility in the marketplace that originated in Vancouver, Canada’s largest Fair Trade city and home to Canada’s first Fair Trade Campus, University of British Columbia.
Similarly, McMaster is seeking Fair Trade Campus status. Tang noted that it has been a topic constantly up for discussion, and “that much of the faculty support it: Patrick Deane, Ilene-Busch-Vishniac; those are just some of the many.”
Some, however, have been known reject Fair Trade because it is often more expensive than other producers.
“This is a common misconception,” said Tang. “It does not have to be more expensive. If you look at Union Market, if you look at OPRIG Office on the second floor of MUSC, if you go to any chain super market, it is not. It actually costs less.”
Financial costs are only one consideration though.
While it is true that money may be the mitigating factor for some, it is certain that the social benefits are unquestionable. Even if it is the case that finances are a concern, the social costs greatly outrun the worries of any paper trail.
Tang argued this point. Highlighting the “Scare them Fair” event, she added that this pursuit of equitable consumption is becoming more popular, even at McMaster.
“When we were giving the chocolate out, a girl said, ‘Look, Mommy! Fair Trade chocolate.’ She didn’t say chocolate. She specified the kind. That’s evidence enough of the movement spreading.”
This, coupled with the joint advocacy of ethical purchases by three groups at McMaster, may very well be compelling. If it is, then perhaps in the near future, Halloween will become a time of united chants, “Monkeys. Bananas. Fair Trade. Oh my.”
Dina Fanara
Assistant News Editor
Each year, McMaster’s Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG) joins forces with local stores and vendors of fair trade products to put on the annual Fair Trade Fair in the McMaster University Student Centre (MUSC) atrium.
The fair, which has been taking place for over ten years, shrunk slightly in size this year, but is still going strong.
Products for sale included the usual Fair Trade Certified chocolates, coffee, and tea, jewellery from all over the world, Christmas ornaments, clay and wooden figurines, clothing, journals, soaps, moisturizers and several other odds and ends.
Also present at the Fair was McMaster’s Engineers Without Borders (EWB), promoting Fair Trade Certification awareness, focusing on educating students on the process for products to become certified, and why it is important to purchase Fair Trade products when possible.
According to one EWB volunteer, Meaghan Langille, fair trade “promotes social responsibility by ensuring that that the people who made the product that you’re purchasing were paid a fair wage and ethical working conditions.”
“It’s a great way to promote a global economy,” she said about the event. “It’s something that we can do to help people in developing countries through what we are purchasing and consuming,” said Langille.
It was widely expressed by several vendors that a second-term event, which used to occur but was stopped several years ago, would be greatly beneficial to the cause.
Another suggestion was to add another day to the first-term fair, as many students asked vendors if they would be returning the following day.
