Laperle wrote Newburgh: “I have a suggestion for you: there is no space on campus available for, but we can help you to prepare (MFDS with SSMU) a business case during the school year to open a kind of ‘Architecture Café’ inside. Kyle assured me that there was no such action being taken by the University, and that it was nothing more than a mere rumour.”Īccording to the correspondences obtained by The Daily, Newburgh was not involved in any Arch Café dialogue for the rest of summer, until August 27, when Director of McGill Food and Dining Services (MFDS) Mathieu Laperle proposed opening a similar cafe in Shatner. “I had met with Kyle Burrows in June to ask about the status of the Architecture Café after having heard a rumour that the University was shutting it down. “I am not aware of any such meeting,” wrote SSMU president Zach Newburgh in an email to The Daily. “The EUS seem to merely be interested in our female students and graphic design capabilities,” he added. It looks like the SSMU is the most likely route,” referring to re-opening the cafe in Shatner. Jemtrud wrote that ASA president Kyle Burrows “has spoken with the SSMU and EUS presidents.

The earliest records of SSMU and EUS entering the conversation are found in a June 15 email from Director of the School of Architecture Michael Jemtrud to Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Morton Mendelson. By mid-September, both organizations were lobbying to re-open the cafe under student management in its original space. SSMU entered the dialogue as part of a late-summer attempt to open an Arch Café-like space in the University Centre, and the EUS was drawn in as a potential solution to the cafe’s perceived financial problems.

Within the broader narrative of the Architecture Café’s closure, both SSMU and the Engineering Undergraduate Society (EUS) entered the game late. They include Director of the School of Architecture Michael Jemtrud, Director of McGill Food and Dining Services Mathieu Laperle, Assistant Director of Legal Services Vilma Campbell, Dean of Engineering Christophe Pierre and Director of Media Relations Doug Sweet. Several key administrators and faculty declined to comment for this article, referring The Daily to Deputy Provost Morton Mendelson. The document dump sheds light on the decision-making process surrounding the closure, detailing a coordinated media strategy on the part of the administration. The Daily has obtained a bundle of documents relating to the Architecture Café – including personal emails between administrators and student politicians, internal memorandum, and reports – after filing an Access to Information request.

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