Dalhousie Student Union
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Dalhousie Student Union is the official representative of students at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Student government at Dalhousie likely began in 1863, at the time of Dalhousie’s reorganization. The first recorded minutes of a meeting of students at Dalhousie are available from 1870. At that time there were ninety-nine students enrolled at the university.
[edit] History
On November 10, 1869 students accepted ownership of the Dalhousie Gazette from the founding editors.
A referendum was held February 18-19, 1960 regarding the question of a Student Union Building being built on campus. 90.2% of voters backed the idea. 83.2% of students turned out to vote.
November 8, 1968 the Student Union Building was opened. The cost of the building eventually was $3,700,000. The construction of the building was made possible in part by the province of Nova Scotia, which granted a loan of $2,766,600 to the Student Union. The SUB loan was retired in 1982.
The CRTC approves student operated campus radio station CKDU’s application for a FM broadcasting license in October 1984. The station’s first moment of FM radio broadcast was Friday, February 1st, 1985 at 3:30 p.m.
The Dalhousie Student Union was a founding member of the Canadian Federation of Students in 1981, but withdrew its membership in 1994. In that same year it became a founding member of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations.
In 2003, the DSU helped found the Alliance of Nova Scotia Student Associations, Nova Scotia's provincial student advocacy group.
[edit] Structure
The DSU is run by a council consisting of members elected by either the student body directly in open elections, or appointed by certain student societies. The council only meets every two weeks during the school year, and monthly during the summer. Council has the ability to approve budgets and expenditures on behalf of the student body.
Day to day operations of the DSU are manged by the Executive, which is deeded by the DSU President. For 2006-2007 the DSU President is Ezra Edelstein. The executive have the ability to execute their functions and spend their budgets as approved by council, but any new programs or substantial changes must first be approved by council.
The DSU is also responsible for representing students on the Dalhousie Board of Governors (BoG) and Senate, and to external organizations. The DSU is granted 6 seats on the Senate and 3 on the BoG. Traditionally one executive will fill one of these seats and the remainder are filled by students elected by the student body to fill those positions. Elected representatives to BoG or Senate would also hold a seat on the DSU council.
DSU elections are held annually, usually in the first week of March. They are preceded by a week of campaigning by the candidates. Out of the 15,500 Dalhousie students, on average only 20-25% of students vote in the elections.
The student union also employs fulltime staff to manage the Student Union Building, the Grawood (campus bar), research, communications and reservations for building facilities. Fulltime staff are managed by the Executive.
[edit] Finances
The DSU is funded by a levy paid by all students taking classes at Dalhousie. Part-time students pay a fee of $57.00, while full-time students pay $113.00 annually. These fees do not all go to the Student Union. Direct subsidies for student activities are taken directly off the top - including CKDU, Dalhousie Gazette, NSPIRG and the Women's Centre.
There is also a Student Union Building renovation fee that is levied for the maintenance and future growth of the SUB. DSU finances are monitored and controlled by the Union's Vice-President Finance and Operations, who in 2006-2007 is Chad LeClair.
For several years the DSU ran consistent deficits, but in the past few years the Union has been in surplus.
