WHEREAS the SSMU “shall serve as an umbrella organization to coordinate and support the student groups that make up civic life in the McGill community, while providing services to strengthen the educational, cultural, environmental, political and social conditions of our membership”;
WHEREAS Radio CKUT FM provides McGill students with news and music programming, radio training, journalism experience, internships, employment, and more;
WHEREAS McGill undergraduate students have supported CKUT with a fee of $4.00 each semester for full time students, and $2.00 per semester for part time students, since 1988, and any student who pays said fee is automatically a member of CKUT, with all the rights and privileges pursuant thereto;
WHEREAS at a General Assembly in 2007 the SSMU’s members voted “that the SSMU take every reasonable action to reclaim and protect the sovereignty and independence of all campus student groups and activities” and “that the SSMU take every reasonable action to put an end to the online opt-out system recently created by the University such that campus groups shall be in charge of their own opt-out processes”;
WHEREAS other media organizations on McGill campus, such as the McGill Daily and the McGill Tribune (renewable every five years), are non-opt-outable;
WHEREAS radio is a public good and all members and non-members have access to the airwaves as listeners, and may attend events CKUT organizes on and off McGill campus, etc;
WHEREAS the costs of running a radio station increase each year and online opt outs significantly reduce student fees to CKUT, jeopardizing the station’s ability to maintain the same level of activity and services;
WHEREAS CKUT is consistently voted as the #1 or #2 Radio Station in the Mirror’s Best of Montreal Readers Poll;
BE IT RESOLVED that the SSMU Executive Committee endorse a “yes” vote to CKUT’s referendum question which asks: “Do you support Radio CKUT’s undergraduate fee becoming non-opt-outable to support the operations of Radio CKUT?” and post this endorsement on the SSMU website as well as on the SSMU listserv on Monday, March 12, 2012.
