An open letter from CUPE 3906 shares graduate student tenant's concerns about poor living conditions in McMaster's new downtown residence building
In Sept. 2023, McMaster University's new graduate student residence on 10 Bay Street opened to tenants. This is McMaster’s first graduate residence and was first announced in 2021. The residency was announced to follow a phased occupancy model, which allows students to move in gradually while construction continued on incomplete sections of the building.
In Dec. 2023, CUPE 3906 released an open letter by newly ratified Tenant Working Solidarity Group which called on McMaster Housing Services to address their concerns with the new residency. Concerns in the open letter included issues with water quality, privacy invasion, noise issues, and bug infestations.
Alessandra Fracassi, Masters of Science in Psychotherapy program, shared her disorganized move-in experience. Fracassi stated that her family waited over five hours in the lobby of a different building before being allowed to move in. Fracassi also described noticing incomplete ceiling construction in areas of the building once let in.
“It was like five or six hours that we waited until the room was supposed to be ready. And we kept asking for more details [on] what was going on, it was all very chaotic. Nobody was giving us a clear timeline of what was going on. So we weren't sure if we should just leave or stay or how much longer it would be,” said Fracassi.
One of the most discussed concerns with the residence building has been the water quality. In early December, several media outlets began to report on findings of coliform bacteria in the water of the residency.
Both Fracassi and Lujayn Mostafa, a student in the Masters of Science in Psychotherapy program, said that they became aware of issues with their water in Nov. 2023. Both shared that even with multiple flushings of the building's water line ??what does this mean is it make more sense now? i canlink websites to these ways to clean the water and water chlorination, the issue remains. Mostafa shared that she wishes more information could be disclosed to residents on the water contamination and the plan to solve this issue.
“They're not really saying much about what their strategy is for dealing with it except for they've said that they've flushed the water, lots of times from the building. But that doesn't seem to be solving it because it keeps going up. So clearly, the source must be kind of ongoing,” said Fracassi.
Elliot Goodell Ugalde, CUPE 3906 TSWG Co-chair and graduate student in the political sciences department at McMaster, shared that the ongoing water issues have led to a tenant being hospitalized.
“We're currently experiencing a coliform outbreak in our water supply. There has been one tenant who has been sent to the ER, they've been hospitalized, presumably as a consequence of this coliform outbreak. Luckily, they're doing better now they're on a variety of antibiotics,” said Ugalde.
Ugalde confirmed that McMaster has still not publicized the results of approximately four water contamination tests which came back with safety concerns. He shared that he hopes McMaster begins to take active steps to prioritize the health and safety of the residents.
In a statement to The Silhouette on Jan. 10, 2024, McMaster confirmed that there are coliform bacteria levels in the residency water, however that it is not critical to the resident’s health. They stated that they are providing students with water bottles.
Fracassi, Mostafa, and Ugalde commented on this, stating that they have been provided water jugs meant to be shared amongst students for all tasks that require water, including cooking and self-hygiene. Ugalde expressed that these jugs are being shared between all the students on a floor, which can include upwards of 40 tenants.
Knightstone Capital Management Incorporated, the management team of 10 Bay Street, has not responded to our inquiry about the ongoing issues. Ugalde shared that upon trying to initiate communications, CUPE 3906 union representatives have had a difficult time airing tenant concerns with McMaster and Kingstone building management.
Ugalde detailed that building management constantly asked for certain CUPE to speak with them privately as tenants rather than discussing issues openly with all tenants within the union. Furthermore, CUPE 3906 representatives have not felt McMaster has make an effort to facilitate open discussion about the status of the building.
“They have [reached out], but it's not a dialogue. It's this isn't a conversation that the university is willing to have with us as a collective at this point, which is frustrating that they won't sit down with us and actually discuss these issues in the collective front,” said Ugalde.
The union hopes that going forward, McMaster University will have an open conversation and allow tenants to be made aware of the safety of their living conditions.
This is an ongoing story.
Academic provost and vice president Susan Tighe delivered the State of the Academy Address on Mar. 1, which was interrupted by a protest about graduate student funding
On Mar. 1 at 2:30 p.m., academic provost and vice-president Susan Tighe gave the State of the Academy address, which covered McMaster University’s 2021-2022 initiatives and progress and the university's aims for the 2022-2023 academic year.
In her address, Tighe emphasized the importance of experiential learning at McMaster, whether through co-ops or hands-on experience, and gave an update on equity and inclusion initiatives spanning over multiple faculties, including McMaster’s new Indigenous Studies department. She also announced McMaster’s new Digital Learning Strategy, to be launched on May 8.
Tighe provided a snapshot of the year, highlighting some key statistics about McMaster’s performance. According to Tighe, 42,000 students accessed the health and wellness centre, the Pulse saw an average of 4,500 daily check-ins, the average admission grade was 91.9 per cent out of 36,000 students and McMaster was placed thirteenth on the Forbes Canada’s Best Employers List.
In addition to this, Tighe spoke to strategies for growing the frozen enrolment rate and recruiting international students. She also spoke about how these strategies have contributed to the post-pandemic consolidated budget.
“McMaster is one of the very few institutions in this province that is healthy financially . . . but we are facing pressures . . . pandemic closures, rising expenses, including utilities and other operating costs, hyperinflation, and certainly government deficits are all impacting bottom lines,” said Tighe.
Near the end of the address, a group of approximately 10 protesters interrupted Tighe by standing up and reading their open letter, in protest of current graduate student funding.
Near the end of the address, a group of approximately 10 protestors interrupted Tighe by standing up and reading their open letter, in protest of current graduate student funding.
Kate O'Melia, News Reporter
The open letter, which is addressed to the McMaster University Graduate Council, has three key demands regarding graduate student funding: extending the funding floor to all full-time graduate students at McMaster, raising the funding floor to $24,000 after tuition and indexing the funding floor to inflation. The open letter also discusses current cost of living in Hamilton, citing a January 2022 report.
“The average cost of a one-bedroom apartment in Hamilton was $1,559 per month as of January 2022, which means the minimum funding floor of $13,500 per year barely covers the cost of just 8 months of housing,” said the open letter.
At the time of publication, the letter has 548 signatures from individuals and support from a number of local organizations, including the Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion, the Disability Justice Network, CUPE 3906 and others.
At the beginning of her address, Tighe had announced the Graduate Funding Task Force, a new initiative that aims to collect data on graduate student income and offer short- and long-term solutions to combat affordability issues for McMaster’s graduate students.
The protesters acknowledged this task force and said it was not enough to make up for their funding concerns.
During the protest, the moderator asked the protesters to sit down, saying they would be asked to leave. The event finally ended when Tighe came to speak to the moderator onstage, stating that the event would not continue. By 3:30 p.m. almost all attendees had exited L.R. Wilson concert hall.
The planned Q&A session did not take place, due to the premature ending of the event.
The planned Q&A session did not take place, due to the premature ending of the event.
Kate O'Melia, News Reporter
The address was open to all students and staff, as long as attendees had pre-ordered their free tickets. . If any students or staff were unable to attend, a recording of the address will be available on McMaster’s Youtube Channel.
When Sarah Olutola isn’t working on her dissertation here at Mac’s English and Cultural Studies graduate program, she can be found on bookshelves across Canada under the pen name Sarah Raughley.
Sarah’s first published book, Feather Bound, is the result of her creative writing efforts done after hours, after being encouraged in some of her English classes.
“Mac gave me encouragement in a roundabout way in that I had this class that we had to share our work and get feedback on it every step of the way. It wasn’t something I was used to as I didn’t usually show my creative writing to others,” said Olutola.
The book, an entry into the young adult fantasy genre, tells the story of a young girl with a secretive past getting swept up into a world of glitz and glamour, but soon finds that same world has disturbing connotations.
“It’s more low-key magical realism which basically means contemporary but with a touch of magic. You know, how sometimes fairy tales are creepier than they let on? It’s like those, but transposed into the modern world.”
Though this is Sarah’s first book published, it is not the first work taht she has tried to get bound and sold. “Just because you may have a debut doesn’t mean it’s the first book you try to get published. There are other works I’ve tried but wasn’t able to. This was an outlier for me, a bit experimental, and that’s how it went.”
She talks of her influences beyond other books, being that she plays a great deal of video games and wants people to take the medium seriously. “I’m sort of a geek and I found when I was a kid I did read, but I played video games more than I read. A lot of people dismiss video games as a way of storytelling. You see a lot of really creative, out-of-the-box storytelling in games.”
To aspiring McMaster authors, she stresses the importance of doing your research and investigating alternative publishing avenues.
“There’s the traditional route, which I did. Getting an agent, writing a manuscript, and e-mailing a query to a bunch of publishers. Nowadays, because of the rise of e-books and e-readers, you don’t really need to go through the traditional route. I’m happy I have an agent and that kind of support, but I’m also open to putting myself out there, for a dollar or two on Kindle,” said Olutola.
“Another big tip would be to read, read, and read a lot in your field, and even outside your field. It helps you build your vocabulary and evolve your writing style.”
She is not ready to put her passion to bed just yet, as she has already taken steps towards another publication. “I just wrote another manuscript, along the lines of big epic fantasies that I like [such as LOTR and ASOIAF] and I am currently sending that to publishers. I’m hoping that becomes my next book. It’s something completely new.”
When asked about the pen name, Olutola responded, “I’m eventually going to have to publish works under my professional name, and I didn’t want to get my academic work mixed up with my fiction writing. Raughley is a nickname for my Nigerian name, just a spelled a little differently.”
