Find out more about what these groups do, in their own words. Visit OurCampusOurCommunity to learn more about the ways these groups directly support student life and ties to the Montreal community here at McGill.
TVM – Student Television at McGill tvmcgill.com, Shatner Building Room B-23
Broadcasting online and on closed circuit televisions across campus, TVMcGill is the university’s outlet for student television and film media. Succeeding its role as a movie-making club throughout the ’90s, TVMcGill was officially founded in 2001 as a SSMU media service.
The organization has grown impressively over the past decade, acquiring a reputation for in-depth news coverage and innovative, exciting new programming. Winners of the 2003 and 2006 Service of the Year Award, as well as the 2005, 2006, and 2008 Website of the Year Award, TVMcGill has garnered numerous accolades for its work. It regularly publishes stories relevant to the McGill community, whether it is news, arts, series or features. TVMcGill also organizes an annual Fokus Film Festival to promote and showcase student’s films to the student community.
In the past, funding was mainly provided by SSMU, but after a student-initiated referendum motion that was successfully passed in March 2010, TVMcGill is now supported directly from its own student funded fee.
Midnight Kitchen – http://themidnightkitchen.wordpress.com
Shatner Kitchen (Room 301) and Room 302
The Midnight Kitchen fee supports the serving of pay-what-you-can vegan meals five days a week. They provide a healthy, affordable environmentally sustainable alternative to corporate food services on campus.
The Midnight Kitchen is a non-profit, volunteer-run collective dedicated to providing affordable, healthy food to as many people as possible.
We aim to empower individuals and communities by providing a working alternative to current market-based systems of food collection and distribution. We oppose privatization, corporatization and other processes that actively disempower people by obstructing their access to resources and independence.
We will provide education on food issues, both inside and outside of the collective, and provide a space for the exchange of ideas within the community.
We recognize that much of the politics surrounding food production and distribution are part of a larger system of oppression. By reclaiming control over the distribution of food in our community we are acting in the pursuit of social and environmental justice and we will support others who share these goals.
We will organize and act according to principles of anti-oppression.
Referral Services Fee
This fund funds three groups:
Queer McGill (QM) – queermcgill@gmail.com, Shatner Building Room 432
Queer McGill is a nonprofit organization under the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU), promoting both politically and socially, the well-being of queer people and allies. QM provides resources to this end and provides spaces in which to speak safely about queer identity and other topics. To read official QM documents such as its Constution and Mandate and other detailed information pages, you can visit QM’s wiki using the link to the right.
Union for Gender Empowerment – unionforgenderempowerment.wordpress.com, Shatner Building Room 413
The UGE is a service of the Student Society of McGill University (SSMU). Everyone is welcome to use our services! We coordinate an alternative lending library (with over a thousand titles!), a co-op stocking at-cost ecologically-responsible menstrual products, DIY sex toys, safer sex supplies, and gender empowerment items, and a zine distro. The UGE also runs Trans 101 and anti-oppression workshops for other organizations and projects, and has a resource binder with information about abortion services, counseling, and queer/trans friendly health services in Montreal. Our office and lounge space is located in room 413 of the Shatner University Centre. It is a safe(r) space for people of all genders, and is equipped with a microwave, dishes, a kettle, and lots of tea! Stop by to eat lunch and hang out!
You can find us in room 413, on the 4th floor of the Shatner University Centre at McGill University. During the Fall and Winter semesters, our office is open every weekday between 10am and 4pm. Summer office hours are more variable and will be posted to the blog.
Nightline – 514 398 MAIN
Nightline offers general information, such as restaurant phone numbers, health clinics, class schedules, etc.- and lends an ear for any trouble you may be having. All calls are anonymous and confidential. The line is open 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. throughout the school year.
Other Campus Groups Funded By Student Fees:
CKUT – 90.3 FM, ckut.ca
CKUT is a non-profit, campus-community radio station based at McGill University. CKUT provides alternative music, news and spoken word programming to the city of Montreal and surrounding areas, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Hear us at 90.3 MHz on the FM dial, 91.7 by cable, or listen on-line.
CKUT is made up of over 200 volunteers working with a staff of coordinators, not just to make creative and insightful radio programming, but also to manage the station. The station operates on a collective management system that includes volunteers in decision-making.
Want to get in touch with CKUT? Visit http://www.ckut.ca/contact.php for a comprehensive telephone, e-mail and fax contact list for CKUT’s coordinators and administration.
QPIRG qpirgmcgill.org, 514 398 7432
The Quebec Public Interest Research Group at McGill (QPIRG McGill) is a student funded, autonomous, non-profit organization that strives to raise awareness and motivate grassroots activism around diverse social and environmental justice issues. QPIRG McGill is run by a student volunteer Board of Directors, elected through campus wide elections each March. The Board of Directors is responsible for all decisions pertaining to the operation of the organization.
Aside from QPIRG’s own events, collaborations and projects, QPIRG serves as an umbrella organization with many autonomous organizations and projects working with us. These projects range from radical frosh to school schmool, from working groups to summer research stipends just to name a few. Furthermore, QPIRG actively promotes research opportunities for students on campus and in the community. We offer summer research funding and the CURE (Community-University Research Exchange) project for students interested in linking their classroom research with community organizations and projects. The QPIRG Library offers students and the general public hundreds of books, films, zines, and magazines that you won’t find at university or public libraries.
We encourage you stop by QPIRG, or visit our website www.qpirgmcgill.org, at any time to find out about the many more things we have to offer!
Campus Life Fund
The Campus Life Fund supports dozens of projects and events held by clubs, services, faculty associations, and other interest groups every year. It is the primary and thus most essentially source of funding for on-campus events, projects and Tier III Athletic Teams.
Here are just some of the diverse projects and groups CLF has funded in the past year:
McGill Journal of Law and Health, SynthesAsia, Francofete, Broomball, Nuit Blanche, Red and White Ball, Women in House, BASIC, Caribbean Student Society, Indo-Pak, Debating Union, Global AIDS Coalition, NSBE, Desautels Business Conference on Sustainability, McGill International Case Competition, Eng Games, McGill Mini Baja Design Team, Martlet Squash, Marlet Field Hockey, McGill Rowing, McGill Waterpolo, McGill Rugby Football…..
Without CLF, none of these groups, events, or projects could have happened. Campus Life Fund is an essentially support to a continuing thriving campus life at McGill.
Green Fund
The Green Fund of the SSMU was created to fund sustainable initiatives by student groups and promote a culture of sustainability on campus. Past projects and groups the Green Fund has supported include:
Campus Crops, Chem E-Car, Gorilla Composting, ECOuture SUS, Frostbite, Hillel, Greening McGill, McGill Food Systems Project, Plate Club, Red Herring, Sustainable McGill Project, Tapthirst and more!
SSMU Library Improvement Fund
Libraries are priceless assets to any university; they are the loci of student life and learning. McGill students depend on their libraries for innumerable resources. Libraries are where students study, research and often spend a good deal of their lives.
Recognizing this, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) initiated the Library Improvement Fund (LIF) 11 years ago. Since 1996, McGill Undergraduate students have donated over $5 million to McGill Libraries through the LIF. Through student funding, LIF committees have created and maintained excellent, highly-used services, facilities improvements and expanded collections. Funding has facilitated much-needed 24-hour study space, improved collections for McGill Libraries, and substantially improved the physical appearance of the Humanities and Social Sciences Library (HSSL).
The funds have been used to
- provide longer operating hours
- improve collections
- improve study space
- purchase computers
- and provide student employment.
This fund is essential to maintaining the high quality and long hours of McGill’s libraries, which all students benefit from.
The Library Improvement Fund fee, charged to all undergraduate downtown campus students, exists to provide additional support to the McGill University Library Network. All funds collected by this fee are matched by alumni dollars.
SSMU Bursary Fund
Students at McGill have acknowledged financially accessible education as a priority for decades. Unfortunately, low government funding to post-secondary education restricts the amount of financial aide McGill is able to offer to students who are experiencing difficulty paying for their education.
Seeing this as an issue, the SSMU created the McGill Undergraduate Student Fund in 1999. Among other things, the MUSF created a Bursary Fund to provide assistance to students in financial difficulty. The Bursary Fund is essential to maintaining a diverse student population and ensuring education is accessible to everyone.
Currently, full-time students pay $8.50 towards the Bursary Fund as a part of MUSF. Each student dollar paid into the Fund is matched by the University, providing over $750,000 dollars in financial aide to students every year. By providing millions of dollars to Student Aid Services, the Bursary Fund has provided for hundreds of students to attend McGill over the past 10 years.
Undergraduate students can apply to the Bursary Fund through Student Financial Aide Services.