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P u b l i s h e d b y t h e S t u d e n t s ’ S o c ie ty o f M c G ill U n i v e r s i t y
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McGill puts a dent in $200 million worth of deferred maintenance Quebec provides shot in the arm to help fix McGill's crumbling infrastructure B y S t e p h a n ie L e v it z
Amidst the hullabaloo of Open Air Pub and general back to school chaos, McGill students will be subjected to the noise of drills and hammers as McGill works on com pleting nearly 2 0 deferred maintenance projects on campus. Thanks in part to a $14.7 mil lion grant from the Quebec govern ment earlier this year, McGill was able to begin work on the millions of dollars of repairs that have been put off for several years because of a lack of funds. One of the condi tions of the provincial grant was that McGill contribute another 30 per cent. Additional donations from faculties and individuals brought the total amount of money available to approxim ately $21 million. According to Susan Vivian, assistant to the executive director of facilities developm ent, the
The work that we will do with the $21 million is just the tip of the iceberg. Susan Vivian, department of facilities development
money is n ’t even close to the amount that McGill really needs. “The university right now is looking at over $ 2 0 0 million of deferred maintenance on campus,” stated Vivian. “The work that we will do with the $21 million is just the tip of the iceberg.” The construction around cam pus began in April and will contin ue until April of next year, the deadline by which all the money must be spent. Some of the projects are almost complete, while others have just started. Thus far, there have been structural repairs to most of the buildings on campus, as well
as repairs to electrical, plumbing and ventilation system s. Classrooms have had their floors fixed and new chairs and desks have also been added. As well, masonry on old buildings has been repaired, along with roofs and steps, and the McIntyre building will be receiving an entirely new facade. A major construction initiative has been to examine the problems with the balconies and fire escapes around campus, which Vivian says are “of questionable integrity.” An engineering firm has been hired to do a survey of the balconies and fire escapes and to determine what critical structural problems exist that must be fixed in the near future. The need for safer buildings on campus was made clear when Mr. Alfred E. Hirmke, the general manager of the McGill Faculty Club, fell to his death in June after stepping on a balcony that had been rendered off limits to users of that building. Vivian stated that “it was a particularly tragic event, because he knew the risks of the building, and we thought knowledge of the problems was sufficient to keep anyone from harm.” According to Vivian, the balcony was dead bolt ed and blocked by a desk when Mr. Hirmke decided to step outside for a moment and fell through the loose shale flooring. Although McGill has come a long way over the summer in terms of completing deferred m ainte nance projects, there is still mil lions of dollars of work waiting to be done. Vivian says that McGill is considering applying for a loan to put towards deferred maintenance. “The age of the campus neces sitates that we start addressing some serious structural issues that Continued on page 2
O ut w ith th e o ld — an a p a rtm en t building a t M cTavish a n d D octeur-P enfïeld is r a z e d to m a k e w a y f o r a n ew S tudent S ervices building. C onstruction w ill begin S ep tem b er 18.
Rebecca Catching
CFL’s Alouettes make McGill home By M anny A
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“If you build it they will come.” Without the resources to follow that piece of very expensive advice, the Montreal Alouettes decided to do the next best thing, which was to “Move and hope they come.” And come they have. Since their move to McGill’s own Percival Molson Stadium dur ing last season’s CFL playoffs, the M ontreal franchise has moved from a struggling team to one of the most talked-about entertain ment options in the city. Prior to their move, horror sto ries of how detrimental the “Great W hite E lephant” known as the
Olympic Stadium was to the viabil ity of a small market franchise were nothing new. The Alouettes, upon their return to the CFL, seemed to pick up where the Expos left off in blaming the Big O for their attendance woes. Although the stadium’s lack of charm is leg endary and its days as a viable venue long past, few outside of the team ’s management assumed an escape from the stadium’s crum bling confines would solve the seri ous problems the Alouettes were facing in M ontreal. That being said, what has transpired on our campus so far this summer is noth ing short of remarkable. Friday evening’s game versus
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the Calgary Stampeders attracted a crowd of 17,501 spectators, repre senting the biggest turnout for the team since their move to Molson Stadium. Crammed into the small est venue in the league, the crowd’s apparent size and enthusiasm were magnified considerably. However intangible, the bene fits of the change of address.were not lost on the players. “Since we began playing here there has ju st been a different atm osphere,” explained former McGill Redman M ichael Soles. “We just feel so close to the crowd that we seem to feed off of that Continued on page 22