The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) is Local 1 of the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), a founding member of a national student movement that continues to ensure that students have a powerful, united voice in our collective fight for accessible post-secondary education.
As the question of defederating from the CFS arises at Carleton, I urge students to educate themselves on the CFS, what it does and what it has to offer to students and our campus. The CFS is a valuable resource for campuses nationwide, and as Local 1, we are at the forefront of this. CUSA’s membership in the CFS is integral to the successful operation of our students’ association, and it is for this reason that Local 1 should not defederate from the CFS.
So what exactly do we get in return for the $14.96 in membership fees that we pay per year? Cost-saving services and representation at all levels of government. The CFS equips executives and service centre co-ordinators with the skills to be student leaders on our campus.
We get ethically produced merchandise for orientation week, service centres and clubs and societies. Those “F*$% Tuition Fees” T-shirts that have become a campus staple are produced in a single mother’s co-operative in El-Salvador, not by the hands of children.
The CFS provides its members with a free International Student Identity Card (ISIC) — a card that recognizes full-time students internationally and provides us with discounts worldwide.
As students face the burden of ever-increasing costs of education, cost-saving services are one way of alleviating financial stress.
The CFS, both nationally and provincially, fights for affordable and accessible post-secondary education for all students as part of the Education is a Right campaign.
The campaign saw provincial versions which accounted for provincial post-secondary realities, such as Drop Fees in Ontario or Education Shouldn’t be a Debt Sentence in British Columbia. While education is a provincial mandate, funding for colleges and universities comes from the federal government.
Targeting the federal government with a united voice ensures that we are effective in our quest for a post-secondary education act, which would ensure that transfers to the provinces are specifically earmarked for post-secondary education.
Collective student action has historically created positive social change. The fight for accessible post-secondary education in Canada is no different.
The student movement has seen its fair share of victories, including a two-year tuition fee freeze in 2004 and the first-ever national system of needs-based grants from the federal government in 2008.
Most recently, in this fall’s provincial election, students ensured that post-secondary education was made an election issue through the Take it Over campaign.
On top of conducting research on post-secondary education and mass mobilization, the CFS and its provincial components also organize federal and provincial lobby weeks where student union representatives have the opportunity to discuss our policy recommendations with decision-makers.
As students, our collective strength lies in our numbers and our ability to creatively engage and mobilize.
As members of Local 1, we should be proud to know that our students’ union is at the forefront of a nation-wide student movement that represents the interests of students. As one campus we are strong, but as a nationwide movement we are a powerful force.
The incoming executives and student representatives should focus on reuniting the campus and restoring their constituents’ faith in their association.
With another tuition fee hike expected in the fall, the executives should be focusing their energies on ensuring that student concerns around tuition fees and student debt are heard at all levels of government instead of engaging in divisive politics.
— Ruty Skvirsky
CUSA councillor
