The Trent Central Student Association and the Trent Graduate Students’ Association have submitted a formal request to Trent Lands Plan officials to extend the comment period for the Trent Lands Plan. The draft Trent Lands Plan is available for review and comment, prior to final approval by the Trent University Board of Governors, and the University is collecting feedback online until Monday, January 4, 2021.
Our student associations feel that this deadline does not allow for adequate feedback from students and community members, and we are asking that the deadline be extended until March 1, 2021. Currently, we have created a student feedback survey to gather student opinions. This survey can be accessed here and is available until Tuesday, December 22, 2020.
We hope that with this letter, we can achieve more transparency from the Trent Lands Plan, and ensure that students and community members have more opportunities and time to submit feedback about the plan.
If you would like to see the current draft of the Trent Lands Plan and learn more about what it entails, click here. Any questions about the Trent Lands Plan or the student feedback survey, you can reach out to TCSA Environment & Sustainability Commissioner, Jocelyn Whalen, at jocelynwhalen@trentu.ca.
Please see below for our request that has been submitted to Trent Lands Plan officials on behalf of the TCSA and the TGSA.
On behalf of all undergraduate and graduate students at Trent University, we are writing to request an extension of the period for public input for the draft Trent Lands and Nature Areas Plan (TLNAP) until March 1st, 2021. Our student body is concerned that the current comment period ending on January 4th, 2021, does not provide the necessary time to thoroughly review the draft plan and supporting information, and to give meaningful input on this framework that will guide the future evolution of our campus over the coming decades.
We, the Trent Central Student Association and the Trent Graduate Students’ Association, are in agreement with you that the overarching goal of the TLNAP should be to combine the enhancement of our learning environment with advancing community needs, building our financial sustainability, and reflecting our leadership in environmental and Indigenous studies. Individual students, student organizations and groups are concerned regarding how these goals will be accomplished in the current draft version released in mid-October 2020. Major concerns arise from the transparency of the consultation and information sharing process, the availability of easy-to-interpret information, and a missing resolution process. Moreover, a period of less than three months is widely perceived as an inadequate period of time to provide input for a framework that will determine our campus development over the course of decades. There is a particular concern that this process is taking place during a time of widespread social isolation with its added stress and responsibilities due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the overlapping factors of major public holidays when most individuals intend to take a well-deserved break from university and work-related issues. We are concerned that these factors will make it impossible for our students to provide meaningful input to the TLNAP.
We would greatly appreciate your timely response regarding our request.
Sincerely,
Ann-Majella McKelvie
President
Trent Central Student Association
Sandra Klemet -N'Guessan
President
Trent Graduate Students' Association
Jocelyn Whalen
Environment & Sustainabilty Commissioner
Trent Central Student Association
Verena Sesin
Environmental Commissioner
Trent Graduate Students' Association
Jordon Williams
Vice President of Student Affairs
Trent Graduate Students' Association
Sebastian Johnston-Lindsay
Vice President of Internal Affairs
Trent Graduate Students' Association
Melissa Miller-Gerrard
History Program Representative
Trent Graduate Students' Association
Autumn Jordan
BEMA Program Representative
Trent Graduate Students' Association
Andrew Brown
Science Representative
Trent Graduate Students' Association