Student Services administrators to discuss students' unions

At the upcoming national conference of the Canadian Association of College and University Student Services (CACUSS), the following workshop will be held:

Bridging Accountability and Autonomy: The Impact of Poor Student Leadership, Management and Accountability within Student Societies

Frank Cappadocia, Director, Centre for Student Community & Leadership Development, York University
Blaine Jensen, Vice President Educational Services, Douglas College, New Westminster, B.C.

SASA

As student unions continue to grow, so do the levies they draw from their members and the creation of significant enterprises on campus. These organizations are largely controlled by a handful of young individuals many with little or no financial, business or operational experience.

The development of student societies has gone from a leadership development model to that of big business. In most universities and many colleges student societies’ annual budgets are in excess of $1M and staff will exceed some medium sized businesses. The complexity of business operations are often challenging to those with graduate degrees let alone a second or third year undergraduate student. Yet legislation and other factors have created a situation where “autonomy” has become “unaccountability”. Whether through temptation, personal benefit, naiveté, or sheer negligence, some individuals, and indeed entire councils, have used their funds and positions for purposes beyond the benefit of their membership.

Through the exploration of two actual case studies – one from York University’s Glendon College and the other from Douglas College in B.C. – this session will provide Student Affairs practitioners with an advanced review of what can happen to a student organization when self-interest and benefit override the By-laws, the needs of members and, longer-term the validity of student unions themselves. Session participants will be invited to share their experiences and recommendations through an interactive dialogue following the presentation of the case studies.

Though I would disagree with certain assumptions inherent in this description (including the claim that students' unions were originally formed for the mere purpose of "leadership development"), this sounds like a very interesting workshop indeed.

(Hat tip: Jeff Friedrich)

York U Protests

York University was again subjected to a clash between students over the Israel-Palestinian dispute. The Excalibur reports that what started out as a tabling session by the Grassroots Anti-Imperialist Network (GRAIN) turned into a "major demonstration" marked by "a yelling match between students from two campus groups." GRAIN is a working group of OPIRG-York. The 'two student groups' identified were GRAIN and Hillel@York, though Adam Hummel, President of Hillel@York, stated that "From Hillel's point of view, we didn't have an official protest or response against it. There were members of the community there and there were members of Hillel there voicing their opinions and talking to people."

Takeover? What Takeover?

The Canadian Congress of Student Associations (CCSA) is an interesting bird. For many years, it functioned "in name only." The host student association would have almost total control over the details of the conference itself - the speakers, the workshops, the length of the conference, etc. Due to its ephemeral nature, many student associations (such as my own) had never even heard of the CCSA. Near the end of the conference, the assembled student leaders would vote for the new conference site, after hearing presentations from potential host student associations.

And for years, the CCSA functioned well without any constitution, bylaws, or other framework.

Until now that is. The CCSA is now a registered corporation under the Canada Corporations Act, as of August 8, 2005. Its registered head office is in Winnipeg, Manitoba, which ought to prove convenient for at least two of its three directors:

• Amanda Aziz, President of the University of Manitoba Students' Union (UMSU) and Manitoba Representative on the National Executive of the Canadian Federation of Students. In 2005, under Aziz' presidency, UMSU voted to affiliate with the Federation in a referendum.
• Sarah Amyot, General Coordinator of the University of Winnipeg Students' Association (UWSA) and Women's Representative on the National Executive of the Canadian Federation of Students. In 2004-2005, Amyot was the President of UWSA and Manitoba Representative on the National Executive of the Federation.
• Jeremy Salter, who raised eyebrows in 2005 when it was revealed that he was running for an executive vice-president position of the Centennial College Student Association at the same time that he was president of the Continuing Education Students' Association at Ryerson (CESAR). His priority "had always been Centennial" he told the Eyeopener, Ryerson student newspaper. While at CESAR, Mr. Salter guided that organization towards the loving arms of the Canadian Federation of Students, and fired the editors of NightViews, the CESAR-published campus paper. Mr. Salter's other priorities over the years have included being President of the Lakehead University Student Union in 2001 and acting as Chief Returning Officer of the 2006 York Federation of Students elections (and allegedly acting in biased fashion in that capacity).

And with eminent folks like that running the show, this editor wonders why any student unions might possibly want to pull out of participation in the CCSA....

Incidentally, readers might be interested in knowing that the registered office address of the CCSA, 249 Southbridge Drive, Winnipeg, is being sold. And it happens to be a residential home. Whose? That, dear readers, will have to be left to another post....