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TechnoratiPost-secondary institutions bail out of Canadian Federation of Students
Emily Kreiberg
In recent months, a host of Canadian universities and colleges, such as British Columbia’s SFU and UVIC have successfully extracted themselves from the Canadian Federation of Students.
Student bodies from 13 post-secondary institutions across Canada – including the University of Calgary – are trying to bail out of the diminishing student collective.
The CFS formed in 1981 to provide students with a united voice to lobby at the national and provincial levels for student concerns like lower tuition fees and better student aid.
At present, 84 university and college students’ unions across Canada belong to the federation. If the members of the petitioning universities and colleges get their way, that number won’t be so high in the future.
Students organizing the petitions allege a variety of problems with the CFS, including questionable finances, ineffectiveness and vicious litigation.
As quoted in The Gauntlet, “the fact that there are 13 organizations across the country looking at leaving should raise alarm bells with everyone else involved with this organization,” said Matt Musson, a student spearheading the petition at the U of C.
SAIT Students’ Association belonged to CFS at one point, but not for years. SAITSA is a member of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, a different national student lobby group.