By Victoria Surla
On September 21, the SAGBC’s board of directors passed a motion to refund/credit $26.56 of its student fees for the Fall 2020 semester. Among the waived fees is its SafeWalk fee, which funds a walk-accompaniment service provided by the SAGBC. A full refund/credit will soon be issued to full-time students who have paid the Student Association fee, according to Manisha Punjabi, GBC’s director of communications and internal.
“We are not reducing, we are giving back and deciding to fund these services on our own for the time being,” Punjabi says.
The amount of $26.56 will be reduced from the regular SAGBC student fee of $114.78 for the Fall semester only, according to a memo from Shemar Jordan, George Brown College’s director of operations.
The SAGBC funds the Dialog.
The decision was finalized at Monday’s board meeting, where members analyzed fees relating directly to the use of SAGBC spaces and programs that require on-campus presence from members. Based upon the substantial decrease in the number of students visiting campus to attend in-person classes, the same rate of SafeWalk operations is no longer required.
“Very few students are coming in and they are only staying until about 4:00 or 5:00 p.m.,” Punjabi shared. “Previously, we had students on campus until as late as 10:00 p.m.”
According to Jordan, only about 10 registered SafeWalk employees are currently providing walk-accompaniment services, a number substantially lower than usual.
The SAGBC will continue operating SafeWalk through reserve revenue, which is a result of underestimating last year’s budget.
“This doesn’t mean the SafeWalk program isn’t going to continue,” says Jordan. “We will be funding the SafeWalk program through our general operations account, so no staff members will be terminated.”
According to both Punjabi and Jordan, SafeWalk will also be launching a new virtual program called SafeTalk, where students can access online safety tips pertaining to their college experience.
“We don’t really have any in-person services at the moment… we want to do a little bit to help out our folks during this pandemic,” says Jordan.
SafeWalk continues to operate from Monday to Friday at Casa Loma, Waterfront, and the Hospitality building at St. James.
