U of T spent $4.1 million on the encampment

 

Scott Mabury — U of T’s vice-president operations and real estate partnerships & vice-provost academic operations — told the Business Board that the student protesters’ 63-day encampment on King’s College Circle had cost the university $4.1 million. The protesters demanded that U of T disclose its investments, stop investing in companies providing weapons and services to the Israeli military, and cut ties with Israeli universities.

Direct costs such as hiring lawyers to secure an injunction permitting U of T to remove the encampment and paying for increased security and repairs made up $3.8 million of the sum. The remaining $300,000 was the revenue that the university didn’t receive, either from parking at King’s College Circle Garage or cancelled events. Mabury said that the $4.1 million sum encompasses most of the costs, although U of T might have to pay a few more legal bills. 

The university declined to respond to The Varsity’s question about how much U of T spent on lawyer fees.

In U of T’s submission to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on May 29, U of T’s Chief Operating Officer of Property Services & Sustainability, Ron Saporta wrote that as of May 22, the encampment cost the university more than $300,000 in property damage, security costs, health and safety, and reorganizing events. 

According to Campus Safety Community Liaison & Support Team Assistant Director Ryan Dow, approximately two-thirds of the cost resulted from paying for increased security. Justice Markus Koehnen cited the “unrecoverable costs” to the university in his ruling in favour of the university.  (more...)

U of T spent $4.1 million on the encampment