About $300,000 of student money is sitting unused due to a dispute between the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) and the national and Ontario chapters of the Canadian Federation of Students.
Undergraduate students gave approximately $15 in levies for the CFS and CFS-Ontario (CFS-O) to the university in the 2012-13 academic year. These levies are handed over from the university to CUSA, which then transfers the appropriate amounts to each organization.
CUSA has been withholding those levies, because they said the CFS has not provided it with a “statement of dues.”
“It is just sitting there until we receive statements,” said CUSA president Alexander Golovko, about the CFS and CFS-O levies.
In 2012-13, Carleton had 19,380 full-time undergraduate students. This means about $300,000 in funds for the CFS and CFS-O were collected from them. To put this in perspective, CUSA spent about $200,000 on all its clubs and societies last year.
“We don’t actually know the amount of fees that are collected by the university on behalf of CUSA in trust for the Canadian Federation of Students,” said CFS national treasurer Gabe Hoogers.
He said the number of students varies so the CFS cannot estimate the total amount of money owed to it, and therefore cannot provide an exact statement of dues.
“We actually rely on member locals to provide us with a statement along with membership fees in order for us to calculate whether the fee was collected at the proper rate,” he said.
Hoogers said the CFS and CFS-O sends a letter every year to member unions, including CUSA, notifying them of the per student levy for that year.
Golovko said he has not received any such statement from the CFS for 2012-13.
However, Hoogers said via email “regardless of whether any such letter is received, a voting member, in this case CUSA, is most certainly aware that it is to remit fees to the Federation at the proper rate, established within the bylaws.”
Golovko’s executive team and the CFS had a patchy relationship last year.
In September 2012, the 2012-13 vice-president (student services) sent out a letter directing all of CUSA’s service centres to get rid of any CFS materials they may be using, such as posters and t-shirts.
Golovko’s team continued to voice their dislike for the CFS in public statements and council meetings. They have turned down CFS campaigns, not sent representatives to CFS events, and had a former vice-president announce plans to start a defederation petition.
Golovko said there are three ways CUSA can defederate from the CFS. One way is for the Board of Governors to do it on behalf of the student union, which CUSA can recommend if the levy money is not used properly.
CFS-O chairperson Alastair Woods said there has been no indication of why the dues have not been transferred.
“At this point I don’t think there’s any malicious intent, it might have been a mix-up,” he said.
Woods said fees were usually transferred in several instalments, starting in November of that academic year. Like the CFS, CFS-O has not received any dues since the last academic year.
Woods said moving forward he will be getting in touch with CUSA if he sees further delays with the fees.
Golovko said this year’s CFS levy is in the process of going through CUSA’s accounting department.
The per-student levy for the CFS was $8.40 in 2012-13, and is $8.52 this year. The levy for CFS-Ontario was $7 last year and $7.10 this year, according to the respective organizations.
