Student organizations at Carleton have concern over the Ontario government’s introduction of an opt-out option for any university fees outside of tuition.
The opt-out program gives students the choice of whether or not to pay certain ancillary fees that have so far been automatically added to the university tuition fee.
This includes the fees students pay for student-run organizations such as the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA), the Carleton Academic Student Government (CASG), the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) and the Charlatan.
As of the 2018-2019 school year, undergraduate students pay a total of $119.64 in levies managed by CUSA that help support a wide variety of clubs and societies and charitable organizations at Carleton. Of this amount, $44.60 is used by CUSA for its own programming.
The remaining $75.04 is divided among 16 other organizations, including the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), the Ontario Public Interest Research Group, the Sock ‘n’ Buskin Theatre Company, CKCU, and the World University Service of Canada.
CASG receives $1.16 per student each year.
The Charlatan receives $5.74 per undergraduate student each year.
The GSA also issued a statement across social media on Jan. 23.
“Student unions are under attack,” the statement said. “The Ford government is introducing student opt-out for their student union dues. This will reduce the ability of student unions to represent and service their members.”
According to Matt Pelletier, CASG’s vice-president (internal), the new policy will make it difficult for student-run organizations to implement programming.
“If people are not aware of the services of- fered by groups such as CASG, they may opt out of paying us, and as a result of that, our ability to deliver services could be compro- mised,” he said.
According to David Oladejo, CUSA’s president, the opt-out policy will affect all aspects of the association.
“We are independent of the university, and we operate in the best interest of students. Without the levies that make up our operational budget, it’s really hard to plan, and to offer the services that we do,” he said.
“The new policy affects everything we do—from providing peer-to-peer support, providing walking service on and off-campus, our businesses and hiring students,” he added. “If that money is taken away, we won’t be able to provide the same services year to year, because there will be less money to do so.”
“We’re in a limbo with things—the health plan being one and the U-Pass program being the other. We don’t know how they’re going to be administered moving forward.”
Emily Grant, CASG’s president, said she is hoping CASG is not subject to the opt-out policy because the organization helps students with academic issues.
“From what we understand, academic support is not a part of the opt-out, so we’re hoping that we’re able to slide in under that
classification because the services and support that we offer students is extensive,” she said. “Seventy-five per cent of our budget goes back to our students directly through funding to clubs and societies as well as scholarships, so we do play a critical role in that sense.”
Grant also said that it’s difficult for student organizations to address the policy right now because no details have been provided by the government so far.
“It’s really difficult to fight something that doesn’t exist yet—this is just a proposed legislation—it hasn’t gone to a vote, it hasn’t become practiced yet,” she said. “The only thing that I think we can do right now is collect as much information as possible, and answer questions so we can form a full picture, and get a better understanding of what’s going to happen.”
Oladejo said the next step is a letter to the government that student unions across universities in Ontario are working together to draft.
“It shows our unified stance,” he said.
—With files from Jasmine Bhimani
