By Chris Rands
After a week of frenzied lobbying by both the RSU and the Canadian Federation of Students, Ryerson will remain a member of CFS.
The referendum on Ryerson CFS membership passed by a 129-vote margin. However, the second part of the referendum, asking for a membership fee increase from $8 to $11 was defeated by a vote of 1093 to 300.
“We’re really happy that the students have decided to stay in, especially given the long history of Ryerson in the movement,” said CFS-Ontario Chairperson Jason Hunt. “At the same time we can’t take this as an excuse to avoid addressing the concerns that the RSU had with the structure of the organization.”
The RSU expressed various concerns with CFS structure and operation, especially at their semi-annual general meetings. RSU VP-Education Greg Thomas, who was re-elected last week, said the meetings were marred by group voting. “With the block voting you get things failing by marginal votes. So basically half the country is disassociated with the decisions that are being made on their behalf.”
President-elect Paul Cheevers supported CFS during his campaign. “I’m really glad that Ryerson students told the RSU that they wanted to remain part of CFS.” However, Cheevers agrees that the complaints about CFS need to be addressed. “It’s time to do a little rebuilding in the organization and to find out what the other schools who had or are having referenda think; then we’ll know who’s in and who’s out.”
Thomas had proposed that Ryerson join the four-year-old Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA), a University of Ottawa-based organization of schools dissatisfied with CFS. Membership now includes 15 schools in every province except Newfoundland. “I don’t really want to get involved in strikes and demonstrations and pickets in front of the Royal Bank or the Toronto Stock Exchange,” CASA’s interim national director Paul Estabrooks said. “Rather than sitting outside and looking in, we want to be involved in the process of defining the future of education in this country.”
“The message is quite clearly that the students believe in a national student movement but I still believe there is room for discussion on the issues of structure that the RSU has had with the organization,” Hunt said. “Students believe in the fundamental values of (CFS) but that structural issues aren’t enough to pull apart the organization.”
This was true in the past when CFS was the only game in town. With the rise of CASA things could change.
Leave a Reply