By Thereasa Ebden

Despite Ryerson students voting to remain within the Canadian Federation of Students, the RSU has its eye on a fledgling national student lobby group.

CASA (Canadian Association of Student Alliances) was started two years ago when an ex-CFS president joined forces with schools that were pulling out of CFS, including Waterloo, Queens and Western.

RSU executive assistant Frank Cappadocia has been attending CASA meetings for a year, to see what the group has to offer.

“From Ryerson’s stand, CASA would be a better organization to be a part of,” Cappadocia said, adding that Ryerson is not a part of CASA because of strict CFS rules about single membership.

Also, joining CASA will not be feasible at this point because of the organization’s $17,000 annual membership fee with students already forking out $98,000 for CFS.

“If you have the money it must be nice,” Cappadocia said. “The reality is we are in CFS for at least another year…but I wouldn’t rule CASA out for the future.”

Cappadocia admits that CASA is strictly a national lobby group and cannot compare to CFS in terms of services offered. “Ryerson would have to take care of a student things ourselves if CFS were not around,” he said. “I wish we could keep CFS services and adopt CASA’s lobbying.”

However, RSU-elect Paul Cheevers is in favour of CFS. “With one national organization, we’re very much more powerful,” he said.