The Daily Gleaner, Published Saturday March 21, 2009
http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/cityregion/article/610384
berry.shawn@dailygleaner.com
A student group calling for an immediate moratorium on construction in the University of New Brunswick woodlot says it’s encouraged after a meeting with university president John McLaughlin.
Students delivered a petition with 650 signatures to the UNB president’s office Friday, and they were invited in to speak to the president.
They emerged confident they will be consulted in the future on development decisions.
“He has pledged to include students in meaningful consultation by setting up a structure while he is still in his position as president to start to include students, faculty and community in the way the development is done, so we thank him for that,” said Kerri Krawec.
The students have called for:
* a moratorium on development until the university and Fredericton communities can be included in meaningful consultations;
* faculty and student expertise tapped to create an innovative development process;
* a full environmental impact assessment for the entire UNB Woodlot;
* and adherence to a university promise to protect wetlands and 80-metre buffers.
Costco is the next big-box store expected to be built on the woodlot property.
Development in the areas has raised plenty of opposition from those who want to see it preserved.
Incoming UNB president Eddy Campbell will also be apprised of the discussion, Krawec said.
“So far, the student representation on this issue has not been satisfactory for us,” she said.
“There has not been any student voice in this process.”
Krawec said the group is agreeable to being part of discussion about development in the woodlot.
“Absolutely, this group has never been against development, in the sense that there is recognition that the university is in need of revenue,” she said.
“The provincial government at this point is unable to provide it, and we don’t want students’ tuition to go up. But there is certainly a concern for how that development takes place and its very reasonable to suggest that environmentally sustainable development is sustainable, especially with all the expertise in house.”
Krawec said it’s a question of better development.
“I think that that’s something the UNB community is deserving of and that this university is fully capable of,” she said.
The desired result would be to have students and faculty use their expertise to create something that would stand up as an ideal, she said.
“We’re approaching this from as diverse a perspective as we can, but … if UNB is going to have sources of funding such as the woodlot, we need it to be in as sustainable a manner as is possible. And not by just looking at the economic circumstances, but by looking at the overarching circumstances of the environment and also the social implications of putting stores like Costco and Home Depot in what is a weltand area,” Krawec said.
In recent months, some have come out to say that the UNB woodlot was always intended to be a source of income for the institution.
UNB student Jens Ourom, who served the petition on McLaughlin, said the land grant is open to interpretation.
“We’re talking about a document that is literally hundreds of years old,” Ourom said.
“It (the land) was given to the university… It basically says it’s for the benefit of the university community and you can interpret that essentially any way you want to.”
Students say the university has a responsibility to make the best practices it teaches students a reality on the lands it stewards.
“At UNB, I’ve been learning how to develop responsibly for the future, to optimize social, environmental and economic variables,” said Marc Girard, who is a graduate student in UNB’s environmental management program.
“It is troubling when I see that the institution responsible for teaching me is not applying any of its own lessons.”
