Social Justice Committee: Letter of Support | Hart House

Social Justice Committee: Letter of Support | Hart House

March 23, 2015

Dear Provost Regehr,

We are the Hart House Social Justice Committee.  We believe that the
University of Toronto administration’s policies on graduate student
funding have created a crisis, and have provoked the current strike by
the members of CUPE 3902. We write in support of the union’s demand that
the funding packages for graduate students be raised.

In our view, the guaranteed funding package is wholly inadequate. As
has been widely noted, this sum is significantly below the poverty line
for Toronto. Moreover, the sum has remained static since 2008. This has
created real financial hardship for many graduate students, and
increasingly functions as an obstacle to the recruitment of excellent
graduate students.

The Hart House Social Justice Committee seeks to provide broad-based
programmes that engage the entire student body. We aim to introduce many
different issues and opportunities for participation around Social
Justice. We cannot stand by while part of this student body is being
marginalized and ignored by the University administration. Furthermore,
the current funding policy stands in direct contrast to our Committee’s
pillars of equity and sustainability. The funding package is neither
equitable, nor sustainable for our university’s graduate students.

Members of Unit 1 of CUPE 3902 are supporters of and contributors to
our social justice initiatives at the University of Toronto and we stand
in solidarity with them. We urge that you act quickly to settle this
strike before it causes any more damage to the university, its students,
and its reputation as a leading institution for teaching and research.

We would be happy to meet with you to elaborate on these points.

Sincerely,



Hart House Social Justice Committee