Executives from both Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) and the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) sent delegates to the annual Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) Skills Symposium on May 22-24.
The symposium, held at the University of Toronto, provided workshops on understanding budgets, dealing with the media, and the general responsibilities of a student union, according to GSA president Michael Bueckert.
“People come in with different ranges of experience. Not everyone will get out something of every single session they attend, but overall you learn a lot,” Bueckert said.
CUSA president Fahd Alhattab, who attended the symposium, said the undergraduate student union sent 10 delegates to Toronto.
“We are members of the CFS currently and so going there and checking out what they have to offer is always good,” Alhattab said.
However, Alhattab said some workshops came off as biased and not objective.
“It’s unfortunate, I think, that some of the workshops come off extremely biased towards CFS’s views on certain issues,” he said.
A CFS report presented to last year’s CUSA council on Oct 16 recommended that students be asked whether they want to defederate.
The report was compiled over three months and evaluated how the CFS and its Ontario counterpart, the CFS-O, utilize student fees, to determine the value of the federation’s programs.
Although the committee recommended a defederating referendum, Alhattab said asking the question requires a long process.
“The bylaws of the CFS require that 20 per cent of the student population sign off on a nomination sheet to allow us to ask the question,” Alhattab said. “I think it’s a bit much.”
Alhattab said the process is demanding, and the defederation process would take away from CUSA’s ability to deliver value to students as a union.
Alhattab added he thinks the near $300,000 annual fee CUSA pays to the CFS does not match the value of services they get in return, and “that money could go back to students’ pockets.”
However, Alhattab said a CFS referendum is unlikely in the 2015-16 school year and added CUSA will continue producing local student issues campaigns.
