It wasn’t that long ago that each student at Camosun College paid $2.25 a month to the Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) in membership fees for national and provincial student organizations. The CCSS would give half that amount to the national student organization the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) and half to the provincial student organization the British Columbia Federation of Students (BCFS, formerly Canadian Federation of Students-British Columbia, or CFS-BC). The money went to the student groups so they could, among other things, lobby government regarding student concerns such as lower tuition and accessible post-secondary education.
After years of disputes between the CFS and BCFS over, among other things, allegations of corruption in the national organization and withheld student fees, the CFS voted to expel all BC member locals from the CFS at a national general meeting on June 9 of this year. (Of particular interest to Camosun students is the $200,000 of Camosun students’ CFS fees that the CCSS delivered to the BCFS, which then refused to give it to the CFS, as the CFS owed the BCFS money—part of which was also Camosun students’ membership fees. The BCFS also claimed that as a provincial component of the CFS it was entitled to the money; the CFS claimed the BCFS did need to remit the fees to the CFS. The BCFS held the money instead of spending it.)
Despite the implications of expulsion, the two entities parted in a relatively amicable way. Expulsion is the only option in the CFS bylaws for members to defederate besides holding a referendum at the institution in question; however, a referendum cannot be held if a member local owes fees to the CFS. According to the CFS, Camosun students had outstanding fees, as the CCSS had remitted the $200,000 in CFS fees to the BCFS. Because Camosun students were unable to hold a referendum, according to the CFS, expulsion was the only way for Camosun students to no longer be a part of the national organization.
It’s a lot to figure out, so here it is in nine words: Camosun students don’t belong to a national student organization. However, on Monday, August 13, the CCSS voted to have a referendum in the fall (an exact date has not been set yet) where students can vote on whether or not to become paying members of the other national student organization, the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA). It’s a new day for the national student movement, and for Camosun students. But what does it all mean?
No one watching wallets
The idea of Camosun students paying fees to organizations like the CFS and BCFS is interesting. Every single one of you students busted your backs to be able to pay those fees, but the reality is that unless you’re involved with student politics or pay incredibly close attention to detail (the breakdown of Camosun student fees is available at camosun.ca), you probably didn’t even know the meaning of the term “national student movement,” let alone where your money went.
Put simply, the national student movement is a concentrated effort of student groups across the country who campaign to get student concerns heard at the federal level.
CCSS executive director Michel Turcotte says there is strength in students working together nationally.
“If students are not working together on the national front, students risk losing benefits that are provided by the federal government, or having it diminished,” says Turcotte. “It’s when students are not paying attention nationally that aggressive things happen in terms of federal policies.”
Turcotte says that even though education is a provincial responsibility under the Canadian Constitution, the federal government plays a key role in funding, student loans, and research.
“Without that, the institutions would suffer,” says Turcotte. “What the federal government does matters. If you’re working together nationally, you also know what’s happening in other provinces, and you’re better able to respond and effectively apply pressure to all governments in Canada to be fair and reasonable to students across the country.”
Turcotte says that he believes that if the CCSS joined CASA, it would show that the CCSS supports students working together across the country. However, Turcotte also hopes that the CCSS will still be able to work with the CFS on certain things, such as issuing International Student Identity Cards (ISIC)s, which is done through the Canadian Federation of Students-Services (CFS-S), a branch of the CFS.
“I would still like the student society to be able to issue ISIC cards, and to be able to make a deal with the Canadian Federation of Students in that regard,” says Turcotte. (A spokesperson for CFS-S declined to speak for this story but told Nexus in an email that ISICs are available to all CFS members through membership and to any other students who are not members of the CFS for an annual fee of $20.)
CASA executive director Manjeet Birk says CASA welcomes new members, and that she is open to working together with other student organizations.
“I think we’re in a new day and age,” she says. “I’m a new executive director here at the organization, and I’m very keen to see how we can be more supportive to students, and I think part of that is ensuring that all organizations who do advocacy for students are working together, and being on the same page so that we can provide the best, most coherent advocacy when we head out to Parliament Hill every year.”
However, CCSS external executive Fillette Umulisa says that the CFS and CASA working together would not be a good idea, considering the history of the national student movement.
“It turns out the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations was actually born from the CFS; it was members that were displeased with the CFS that formed CASA,” says Umulisa. “The idea of them working together as a collective organization, it’s kind of not clicking for me. It doesn’t click at all.”
Umulisa admits that what the future holds is anyone’s guess, but she says that for her, right now, the CFS and CASA are not compatible.
“As much as I can see, these organizations would not work as a collective; not in the near future, at least,” says Umulisa.
Birk says it was apparent from a brainstorming session at CASA’s last conference, held in Vancouver in July, that student needs these days are different than they have ever been.
“We need to approach things in a unique way to build upon the advocacy that we already do,” says Birk.
The July meeting focused on many things, including disability and access issues, access to meaningful employment through apprenticeship programs, and reducing tuition. Birk says CASA is looking to use a grant-based model to help lower tuition for students.
“We’re still in the research phase,” says Birk. “The board of directors, the membership, and our home office staff continue to research and determine what the best leveraging point will be to go to Advocacy Week [where CASA members meet with government officials] this year.”
Birk adds that it will be a couple of months before she will be able to verify how much CASA is aiming to get tuition lowered by, but students from coast to coast, she says, have very similar concerns.
“We got to see [at the meeting] some of the ways in which their college concerns mimic each other across the country and the ways that they are very similar in different places and then the ways that they are dissimilar,” she says.
One concern Nexus has heard from students is the fact that there is no governing body or board that oversees the organizations that make up the national student movement.
“We aren’t formally observed by anyone else,” Birk confirms. “We don’t answer to any other organization or association.”
A spokesperson for the provincial government’s ministry of advanced education told Nexus that the government does not typically intervene in situations of conflict between student organizations. The spokesperson said the government has no oversight or authority on the matter.
Birk says that CASA is “strictly in compliance” with the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act, which ensures that financial statements are available online; CASA provides its statements through an external auditor.
“There have been some concerns around how finances are used in organizations such as this one, and we are absolutely transparent in that, and support the continued transparency in that for both us as well as any other organization that is using student money to advance federal advocacy. Right off the bat, that would be my number one priority: to ensure that student funds are not being misused,” says Birk, adding that she would not be opposed to having a governing financial body or federal agency in place.
A matter of fees, a matter of focus
Turcotte says CASA’s student fees are “considerably less” than any student organization the CCSS has been a member of.
“Joining CASA would be affordable,” says Turcotte. “You join organizations like the Canadian Federation of Students or CASA or the BCFS because you want to engage in that political work and engage in advocacy.”
Birk says CASA’s membership fee structure is very different from the CFS’, as it’s based on the student enrolment rate and on the size of the institution.
“We have a cap,” says Birk. “No member association ever pays more than $55,000 [per year].”
According to the CASA website, CASA has a fee of $2.89 per student per fiscal year for institutions with enrolment numbers between 12,001 and 20,000 students (for the last fiscal year, Camosun’s enrolment was 18,650, according to a college spokesperson).
Camosun students remain part of the BCFS despite the fact that they were expelled from CFS. BCFS chairperson Aran Armutlu says the CFS expelling member locals in BC doesn’t affect how the BCFS operates in the province.
“We will be operating basically the exact same way as we have been,” says Armutlu, “and providing all of the member locals in BC the representation, services, and the advocacy that we do.”
Armutlu says the BCFS will also be advocating for student issues at a federal level; this is done, he says, in similar ways at a provincial level.
“That’s meeting with the federal MPs, the provincial MLAs, and taking the time to be giving our feedback,” he says. “That’s things like submitting to the Select Standing Committee on Finance [and Government Services] so that our submissions are being heard when the federal government is making their budget.”
Armutlu says there are a lot of student issues beyond the cost of tuition and interest rates on student loans. One concern that has been raised to Nexus is the CFS’ increasing focus on identity politics over student issues.
“‘Student’ is such a term that’s encompassing in so many ways,” says Armutlu. “So many different types of people can be a student. The principle of our organization is to advocate for accessible, high-quality, public post-secondary education. That’s what we do.”
But “accessibility” can mean a wide variety of things, says Armutlu, from cost to safe spaces for students on campus.
“We have our campaign work against tuition fees, and working to see more grants in BC, and wanting more funding to our institutions—looking at textbook costs and those things. We also work on issues like equity and consent culture, because they are important issues,” he says. “There is a balance that needs to be struck there, and I think—at least for our organization—we’ve been pretty good at being able to find that balance.”
Armutlu says the BCFS will continue to operate the way they have in the past.
“You can’t just do work on tuition fees,” he says. “Accessible education means more than just the cost of education.”
Armutlu says he would like the national student movement to focus on fighting for post-secondary education.
“What their priorities are going to be is up to them. I think a lot of how we do our work—and how a lot of other student organizations do their work—a lot of that is brought up by the membership,” says Armutlu. “We have our general meetings where the business of the federation is discussed, and it’s really set and mandated by the members. In my eyes, I hope that the national student movement is also operating at that level, where it’s students and the members of those organizations that are really helping prioritize what those organizations are working on.”
Camosun fourth-year Accounting student Caitlin Le says that as long as student organizations help students get what they are promised, then paying to be members of those organizations is a good idea.
“If it’s actually helping, then we should be paying for it,” she says. “But if it’s not that effective, then, no, I wouldn’t pay for it.”
For first year Nursing student Fatuma Abdullahi, membership in national organizations comes down to keeping post-secondary accessible.
“Yes, I think we should pay it,” she says. “I believe they should be paying for more accessibility.”
Second-year Business Administration-Accounting student Christine Comrie says that she definitely feels the CCSS should be part of a national student organization.
“It’s extremely important for student-organizing lobbying efforts,” she says, “but, given our history with the CFS, I would say no [to joining the CFS]. I don’t know much about [CASA], but I’d be very interested and excited for them to possibly pursue that option.”
Speaking of fees… they’re going up
Armutlu says the BCFS membership fee will be changing; he says the new amount will include the amount that Camosun students previously paid to the CFS. The new amount of a maximum of $9.14 per semester came about, says Armutlu, from a resolution passed at a January 2016 BCFS general meeting (according to those meeting minutes, available online, the increase will take effect no later than December 31, 2019). As mentioned above, the CCSS collects $2.25 per month (scheduled to go up to $2.29 per month as of September 1, 2018) from each Camosun student; they split that money in half, and half goes to the BCFS for membership fees, while the other half went to the CFS for membership fees. The full amount will go to the BCFS when their fee increase comes into place. Armutlu says that the fee change will result in a net zero change for students, as the amount they pay per month will stay the same.
“That fee increase is due to the members recognizing that we want to continue doing a lot of this work that we’re doing, and also there’s new work that they want us to be doing, so that fee increase is sort of reflective of that,” says Armutlu, adding that the BCFS has always done federal work. “It’s a combination of continuing to do that work, but then also because the BCFS now are able to operate on our own, and we can take on new things that members want us to take on, and it gives that freedom to do that.”
However, Umulisa says that it doesn’t make sense for the BCFS to receive the combined amount of CFS and BCFS fees collected by the CCSS, considering that the BCFS is going to keep working the same way it always has.
“To me, I feel like it’s a rushed decision,” she says. “Just because you think unions have money that should be spent on something else doesn’t mean, ‘Oh, give it to us!’”
Umulisa says that the fee raise would be fair if the BCFS were bringing students new services or plans to justify it. She says that if there were a conference or if the BCFS were expanding, it would make sense to raise Camosun students’ membership fees. But Umulisa says that the BCFS’ services, to her knowledge, are remaining more or less the same.
“As of right now, in my knowledge, it’s like, ‘Oh, this is the money you were paying to the CFS; it’s not being put to use, so we’re just going to double our fee.’ Right now I feel like even if they double their fee, everything’s going to be the same.”
CCSS board members voted on the BCFS fee increase at the aforementioned 2016 BCFS general meeting.
“That [January 2016] bylaw change was supported by the majority of the delegates from the Camosun College Student Society that attended the meeting,” says Turcotte.
Turcotte adds that it would benefit students if the national movement developed in such a way that it became normal for the CCSS to work with both the CFS and CASA, and that breaking down those barriers comes down to a cultural shift.
“I don’t think that students should be siloing themselves in terms of who they work with, and I look forward to a day where students can break down those various barriers between various groups and find ways either for those groups to work together, or for students within those groups to work together in order to protect the interest of students both nationally [and] provincially,” he says, adding that an international student movement is not out of the question.
As with all things in this world, the national student movement is forever changing; CASA’s fees are quite a bit lower than CFS’ fees, but if the CCSS does join CASA, it remains to be seen what differences or similarities will be in store for students at Camosun.
Right now, most students—a group of people who are typically smart and hard working—stare blankly when asked about the national student movement. Allegations of corruption are behind us, rising fees are ahead of us, and the future of the movement is about to take a turn, but no one knows which way just yet.
Although Umulisa is opposed to the national student organizations working together, she says that both the CFS and CASA could benefit Camosun students if they work separately from one another.
“As much as we’ve been expelled from the CFS, I would personally love to work with those guys on some of their campaigns because they match our needs as Camosun College students and the student society.”
If differences could be put aside, says Umulisa, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal to work together toward achieving a common goal, which is why the CCSS will be having a referendum in the fall on whether or not to join CASA.
“As a student union,” she says, “it’s best to work collectively to achieve our common interests.”
As an example of the unpredictable tides of change, Turcotte looks at what’s taken place just this year with the national student movement and Camosun students’ place in it. He says that times and politics can change, often with unpredictable results.
“I never thought that the Camosun College Student Society would not be a member of the Canadian Federation of Students,” he says. “I never thought that I would live to see that day.”
Correction: We originally reported in this story that BCFS chairperson Aran Armutlu said the BCFS fee is being increased because Camosun students are no longer members of the CFS. We also reported that Armutlu said the aim with the fee change was to have a net zero change for students; he in fact said neither. We apologize for the mistakes.