The Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) said it is ready to mobilize its members if Carleton senior administration does not respect last month’s referendum results, said GSA president Christina Muehlberger.
The GSA is currently waiting on a response from the university following Carleton administration’s decision to withhold the University Centre fee from the GSA.
The GSA plans to organize a protest campaign against the administration if does not allow the GSA to move ahead with cancelling the fee and adding the money to its operational levy.
“We’ve been given a very concrete mandate from our membership and if it means mobilizing our membership to get the results, that’s what we are willing to do,” Muehlberger said.
Muehlberger said the details of the campaign are not set in stone but said the GSA is “organized enough that phases in the campaign can start right away.”
Muehlberger said it would likely “involve some on-the-ground mobilization.”
Graduate students voted overwhelmingly to transfer the money collected from the $25 University Centre fee to the GSA’s operational levy on Sept. 23-24.
At the GSA council meeting Oct. 17, Michael Bueckert told council that while British Columbia and Quebec have legislation that protects student unions from having their fees withheld, no such laws exist in Ontario.
“We would like to sit down with the Minister of Training Colleges and Universities and Yasir Naqvi as well as the CFS executive to discuss both the actions of Carleton related to our funding but also to stress the importance of legislation that would protect student unions in this province,” Bueckert said.
Carleton is withholding the University Center fee, freezing the transfer of fees due to the ongoing dispute between the GSA and Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA).
The money previously went to CUSA to pay for graduate student usage of CUSA service centres, among other services.
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