By Tara Mills
Editor, the Gauntlet,
Re: "Nowhere to worship," Mar. 11, 2004,
The current issue surrounding the Muslim Students’ Association brings up an issue that I feel needs to be looked at.
I am sorry to hear about the ongoing struggles the MSA has had regarding finding space, and by no means am I comparing the following issue with the obvious history between the MSA and the Students’ Union. I do, however, want to raise the awareness of the difficulties on-campus groups have when booking facilities.
I feel student activities should be supported by the SU, especially in respect to having a smooth process and access to facilities.
However, the opposite appears to be true.
Not only are there incredible delays in getting back to groups regarding booking confirmation, but in my view the costs are appalling. I recognize that we have these nice new facilities, and someone has to pay for them, but to charge student groups full costs for bookings is wrong.
Recently, when booking an event, we were going to be charged upwards of $1,875 for the use of MacEwan Hall for the day (not including equipment or food/drink). We were grateful when they ended up giving us a fantastic price (comparatively speaking) for all of the rooms we needed for the day, but it wasn’t without extreme struggle.
I don’t believe using our own facilities should be such a production.
Not knowing if or when you will find out if you have space is not helpful when trying to put on events that will improve the lives of students. I am not saying that things should be free, but rather a better system must be set up to communicate with the student groups, and perhaps a better assessment of funds charged should be in place.