GSA members approve autonomy agreement
Association plans on changes to fee and executive structure, pending Board of Governors approval
TESSA VANDERHART STAFF
The Graduate Students’ Association moved closer to autonomy on Jan. 12, when members attending the GSA Annual General Meeting voted to approve the terms of an autonomy agreement with UMSU.
“We’ve finally come to a point where we’re actually bringing concrete changes forward in this meeting,” said GSA president Meghan Gallant.
The terms of autonomy, as well as financial and staff changes to accompany the separation, were all approved by GSA members, who filled the GSA Lounge to capacity.
It won’t be official, however, until the UMSU Act, a provincial statute that incorporates the students’ union is changed and the university’s Board of Governors approves the change. Currently, the Act states UMSU is “the sole representative of students” at the U of M, though the GSA has been attempting to separate since it was incorporated into UMSU in 1966.
Autonomy is now possible because the GSA is “friendly” with UMSU, Gallant noted.
“Autonomy allows grad students to be the sole voice of grad students on campus,” she said, adding that autonomy will allow the GSA to focus on issues like international students’ differential fees and continuing fees (an amount grad students pay on top of a flat tuition rate to extend their studies).
A number of changes will be required to both organizations as a result of autonomy, beginning with the elimination of UMSU-GSA councillors — UMSU and GSA presidents or a designate will sit in non-voting capacity on the respective councils.
Beginning May 1, 2007, graduate students will no longer pay fees to UMSU. Instead of $137.76 in UMSU operating fees and funds (of which $47 went to the GSA), graduate students will pay $111 for equivalent GSA services, a $26.76 decrease not including the student-services and health plan fees that all students pay.
GSA members will no longer contribute to the UMSU Capital Fund, which mortgaged space in Helen Glass or have ownership of UMSU businesses, but will still be eligible for the UMSU Health and Dental plan.
With autonomy, the GSA will see its budget “double,” estimated GSA vice-president (finance) Matt McLean — up from $130,000 in 2006-07 (plus $40,000 supplemented by UMSU).
UMSU will transfer 14.1 per cent of its assets to the GSA as a result of the separation, based on the average proportion of graduate students in UMSU. From the more than $600,000 that UMSU transfers to the GSA from its restricted funds, like the UMSU Endowment Fund, the GSA will create parallel funds — a GSA Endowment Fund to provide scholarships and fund travel, a GSA Operating Fund to provide student services and pay the executive, and a GSA Capital Fund, with the aim of establishing a pub or grad house.
At the AGM, one student asked how the GSA will be able to afford providing travel funding and other services for graduate students who attend more academic conferences and are consequently more “expensive” than undergrads.
McLean replied that the GSA Endowment Fund would generate $28,000 interest in its first year.
In addition to the financial changes, the GSA bylaws committee passed several constitutional changes in anticipation of autonomy.
Meeghan Gavin, a former president of the Brandon University Students’ Union and CFS-MB provincial chair, has been hired as GSA office manager.
GSA vice-president (student services) Jason Kelly explained that this hire made the vice-president (finance) position unnecessary, and led to a larger executive restructuring.
The current executive structure of three vice-presidents — finance, student services, and health sciences — will be changed to four: vice-presidents internal, external, academic and health sciences. This brings the GSA in line with the executive structure typical of CFS-member unions (like UMSU, which moved to the current system of vice-presidents internal, external, student services and advocacy for the 2006-07 year).
In addition, GSA senators will be required to keep office hours, and the executive-at-large position will be the permanent chair of council. The honoraria for these positions will increase with the new responsibilities, from $100 to $150 per month.
During the frenetically paced AGM, one student attempted to amend a motion just before it was voted on, but was deferred until after the motion was passed. GSA members have expressed a desire for an autonomous union in four referenda, the first in 1973 and the most recent in 2000. In the 2000 referendum, graduate students voted 92 per cent in favour of separating from UMSU.
Gallant noted that graduate student unions across the country have separated from “undergraduate” unions once they reach a “critical level” of students.
The GSA was included in UMSU in 1966. In 1999 and 2002, the GSA attempted to separate from UMSU through the Board of Governors, but was unsuccessful.
UMSU president Gary Sran noted that UMSU council unanimously passed a motion supporting GSA autonomy on Dec. 7, 2006. “It’s finally an agreement that came to fruition, that should have a long time ago,” he said.
Now that GSA members have approved the agreement, autonomy depends on Board of Govermors approval.
“At this point, the university leaves matters of student representation entirely up to students to work out, and we’ll leave it at that. It’s not something that we would interfere with,” said John Danakas, the university’s director of communications.
