For the past two weeks, I’ve had the honor to be the Chairperson of the “Vote Yes to QPIRG Concordia” referendum committee, and it’s been a privilege to meet with so many Concordia students during the campaign, and to realize how many people on campus care so deeply about a better world and building a more caring community.
I would like to take this opportunity, before campaigning ends and voting begins, to share some key messages of our campaign, and to urge students to turn out in large numbers and Vote Yes next week.
QPIRG Concordia, has been an important progressive presence on campus for four decades. QPIRG’s core mission is anti-oppression, and actively organizing to support mobilizing and popular education efforts. In an era with a troubling rise in racism, sexism and homophobia, enabled by far-right politicians like Donald Trump, unapologetic social justice organizations like QPIRG are needed more than ever.
Importantly, QPIRG Concordia provides a welcome and nurturing place for students, and community members, to get acquainted with issues, in a non-judgmental setting. It’s a place for growth, mentorship, and support. QPIRG Concordia has an amazing array of projects, initiatives and publications — School Schmool alternative agenda, Convergence undergraduate research journal, Study In Action undergraduate research conference, the Alternative Library, DisOrientation, more than 30 Working Groups — that in diverse ways support and sustain students who want to be engaged members of their community. All of these benefits are available for students for free, as a result of a fee levy.
It’s been almost a decade since QPIRG has had a fee levy increase, a reasonable time to again ask students for a modest 8 cents per credit increase to allow QPIRG Concordia to be an effective part of the progressive social and environmental justice community at Concordia and Montreal.
Next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, November 15-17, have your student card on hand, visit one of the polling booths on either campus, and be sure to VOTE YES to QPIRG Concordia, your campus-community link for progressive social change.
-Sima Youssef