Although the year of the double cohort is on its way out, AMS academic affairs commissioner Jonathan Espie says the AMS and the University should not assume all challenges are behind them.
Espie presented a report entitled “The Enrolment Boom: The effects of the Double Cohort” at the AMS Annual General Meeting on Mar. 23. The report included a series of recommendations regarding issues surrounding the advent of the double cohort or the “enrolment boom,” as it was referred to in the report. The recommendations dealt with alcohol, age, non-academic discipline, financial resources, housing and the exit boom.
The motion to ratify the report was ed, meaning the incoming executive is mandated to carry out the report’s recommendations, Espie said. In 2000, Christopher Lee, then-academic affairs commissioner, issued a report on the double cohort. Espie said he felt it would be a good idea to write a follow-up report.
A large portion of Lee’s report discussed the anticipated effects of an increased number of students during the enrolment boom, effects that have not necessarily come to fruition, Espie said.
According to Espie’s report, the University only accepted 190 additional students in 2003-04 compared to the enrolment in 2002-03.
“This report focuses more on the issues to do with the age of the enrolment boom,” he said.
One of the most prevalent issues this year has been concerns about underage drinking, Espie said.
The report recommends the AMS continue its current practice of limiting QP access for those under 19 to special events only.
“Because of the legality and issues surrounding it, and the fact that every other school in the province has had their [all-ages] programs stripped and removed, if we want to keep ours in any form at all, we have to be very careful with it,” Espie said. “If someone was to break the liquor license, full-time staff all over the University would lose their jobs, and we [can’t] continue to put ourselves [at] risk.” The report also recommends the AMS investigate and possibly implement all-ages nights at Alfie’s.
Espie said this recommendation was included under the assumption that Alfie’s will be open next year in some form. Espie said he made this assumption because the AMS has hired employees to work at both Alfie’s and the QP.
Espie also recommended the AMS and other student governments lobby the provincial government to have Ontario’s legal drinking age lowered to 18.
Espie said the current age requirement is meant to deter students from drinking in high school, but since OAC has been removed, it should be reduced to 18.
“Dial-a-bottle [use] is up; so is the use of fake IDs,” he said. “People are going to drink if they want. I personally would rather it be with friends than out on the streets … I’d rather students be safe.”
Other recommendations include additional bursary funds, the development of a closer relationship between the AMS and MCRC, the availability of paid positions in the AMS for first-year students and the preparation within Career Services for the influx of students who will be graduating during the exit echo.
Espie said he wants the University and the provincial government to be held able for the extra students they itted and ensure that jobs and opportunities are available to them.
“We have to start looking at the exit boom. These students are going to want to go to graduate school and get jobs,” he said. “Schools across the province accepted these students into undergraduate and they have to make room for them in graduate [schools], but they have to make this room not at the [expense] of undergraduate studies.”
Espie said implementing these recommendations will be the responsibility of the incoming executives and their council, and different tasks will be allocated to different jurisdictions.
Tyler Turnbull, AMS president-elect, said he thinks the recommendations are excellent.
“All the recommendations [Espie] has made are valid,” he said. “Some are more feasible than others.”
Turnbull said that of all the recommendations, it was most important to consider those regarding non-academic discipline.
This will involve defining the parental role the University is permitted to play in students’ lives, he said.
“[We must ensure] there is no grey line as to where students stand in relation to the istration.”
Turnbull said while the issue of lobbying for a change in the legal drinking age will be challenging, it is something he is willing to work on.
“I’m going to try and push for it, [but] it could take longer than a year,” he said. “Everyone knows how young the campus will be next year [and] we need to cater our events to those under 19.”
Turnbull said his executive wants to focus on as many all-ages events as possible and is already beginning to plan them.
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