On Friday, November 30, the Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) was officially accepted into the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA), a national student organization based out of Ottawa.
CCSS external executive Fillette Umulisa and CCSS executive director Michel Turcotte attended CASA’s lobby week in Ottawa, during which a plenary took place where the CASA board of directors agreed to accept the CCSS into CASA.
“I felt like I was seeing history being made,” says Turcotte. “It was surreal to me to be there for that moment.”
Turcotte says that he never thought the CCSS would join CASA; the CCSS were members of the other national student organization, the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), for years until being expelled from the CFS in June of 2018.
“The Camosun College Student Society was in need of a way of representing itself nationally, and [CASA] is effective in making sure that the federal government hears its message,” says Turcotte.
Turcotte says the culture of CASA’s lobby week was very professional.
“This one was a little different than any that I had been involved with in the past in that it was professionally done,” he says. “We were using an app, essentially, so if things changed we got updates all the time.”
The CASA lobby week reception was held on Tuesday, November 27 on Parliament Hill, and consisted of CASA representatives as well as MPs and senators.
“[This] was the first time I’ve been in a lobby session where that has happened,” says Turcotte.
The CCSS gave CASA $20,000 for fees during the trip; the money was collected from Camosun students as part of their student fees. The $20,000 is for part of what the CCSS owes CASA for membership fees, says Turcotte. CASA charges for membership based on total institution enrolment, which is calculated on a full-time equivalent basis.
“Once we get the numbers we need from the college, eventually, we will be reconciling that amount and making sure that CASA gets all the money that’s due under its bylaws,” says Turcotte.
Camosun students voted to be members of CASA in the fall CCSS elections, which happened from Monday, October 22 until Thursday, October 25. Camosun students will start paying their monthly CASA fee at some point between January and September 2020; until then, the fees are being taken from the CCSS campaigns and advocacy fund, which is made up of CFS fees the CCSS collected from Camosun students after they were no longer CFS members.