Students steaming mad at SU

By David Quayat

Editors, the Gauntlet
Re: “McQ’s becomes McSU’s,” May 18, 2000

     Editors, the Gauntlet
Re: "McQ’s becomes McSU’s," May 18, 2000

      I am writing to express my total disgust over the Students’ Union decision to take over McQ’s. I think it is a sad day indeed when the SU decides it necessary to shut down a family business, which has contributed positively to the lives of students for 15 years.

And what justification do they use to take over McQ’s? Money. Well, I find this vaguely ironic given that many SU executives, past and present, love to tout our SU as the most financially solid student organization in the country. Also, I am loath to point out the fact that Mr. Cho pays one of the highest rental rates in the city, as well as being forced to pay the SU a portion of his profits. So it is not like the SU is not already profiting from Mr. Cho’s business.

Other SU’s, according to president Toby White, have their own convenience stores, so why not us? Well, I doubt strongly that other SU’s had to shut down a family-run business to do that. In addition, other SU’s seize their own student newspapers and are members of the Canadian Federation of Students. You don’t see us doing either of those things. Would the SU executive jump off a bridge if others were to as well?

This decision was made with little student input and is billed as simply a business move. But last time I checked, the SU stood for something more than dollars and cents. The SU over the years has fought things like rising rent and tuition costs because it hurts individual students. The SU has also attempted to stave off the business, or corporate if you like, mentality from becoming the key factor in shaping this campus. And now what does it do? It has made a "corporate" decision to put a family on the unemployment line to fill our own pockets. Shame on the past and present SU executive for being a bunch of corporate stooges and moral hypocrites.

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