Simon Fraser Student Society

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The Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS) is the students' union of Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. It was founded after the opening of Simon Fraser University in 1967 and has been affiliated with the Canadian Federation of Students since 1981. As of the 2008 General Election, the student society is no longer affiliated with the federation.

The SFSS consists of over 26,000 students, with an annual budget of over one million dollars.[1][2] Membership is mandatory, and all SFU students as members are charged fees collected by the university on behalf of the SFSS. The organization employs permanent and student staff, and is located on one floor of the Maggie Benston Center at SFU's Burnaby campus. The society also has an office and provides services at the satellite campus of SFU Surrey. The SFSS does not own a student union building.

The SFSS operates a bookstore and printshop, a soup bar, a coffee shop, a pub, a women's center, and a LGBT center on campus. It employs an ombudsman, distributes dayplanners, and provides legal clinics and funding for campus clubs, events, conferences, and political special interest groups.

Contents

[edit] Structure

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The Simon Fraser Student Society has two major decision-making bodies (Forum and the Board of Directors) and a variety of committees. [3]

Forum comprises the Board of Directors and elected representatives from Departmental Students' Unions and Graduate Caucuses. This body is responsible for the general direction of the Society, as well as advising the Board on a variety of issues relevant to students.

The Board of Directors is comprised entirely of representatives elected directly by students. The Board is responsible for, and exercises full control over the affairs of the Society. In addition, it is the only recognized medium of communication between its members, the University and the general public. The Board meets bi-weekly year-round.

Since the creation of the SFSS in 1967, it has represented graduate and undergraduate students with one Society. However, during the Spring 2007 election, Graduate Students voted to form their own society separate from the SFSS. [4] This is the Graduate Students Society (GSS) at Simon Fraser University. The expected start date for full separation is May 1, 2008.

Graduate students are able to participate in a Graduate Issues Committee that comprises graduate representatives elected from the Departmental Caucus. Two seats for graduate students are guaranteed on the Board of Directors with the Graduate Issues Officer and the Graduate At-Large Representative. However, graduate students may run for any position on the Board. There are seats on the committees of the Society specifically for representatives from the Graduate Issues Committee.

Like many student unions in BC, the SFSS also relies heavily on a permanent staff, who hold various bureaucratic positions and help assist board members and in some cases assist in the development of policy. SFSS staff are members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

[edit] History

Since its founding in 1967, the organization has been highly politicized, generally led by left wing leaders. Main campaigns have centered around opposing tuition fee increases and increasing student financial assistance. In addition, the Society has also campaigned for student-dominated university decision-making, academic freedom, improved student services, social democracy, women's rights, gay rights, First Nations, the disabled, and international students. The SFSS' membership in the Canadian Federation of Students has been an enormously controversial, and has been debated in almost every SFSS election to date.

In 2005, members voted in favour of a graduate health and dental plan. The Student Society began providing health and dental plan services to graduate students in September 2005.

[edit] Controversies

[edit] Student health plan

In 1996, the organization imposed a mandatory health plan to the student population after passing a referendum question during an earlier election. The health plan sparked much controversy on campus. A group of students started a campaign to dissolve the student society, drastically reduce the student society membership fees, withdraw from the Canadian Federation of Students, and to eliminate the health plan. A student petition resulted in having three referendum questions decided in the 1997 general election. Of the three referendum questions, only the referendum question on axing the health plan passed.[5]

[edit] Quorum

Until recently, a quorum of 500 members is required to make any changes to the Student Society's bylaws and constitution at the Society's annual general meeting. As the university has approximately 28,000 students, it means that only 2% of student population is needed to make wide reaching changes with regards to the SFSS. Despite this, quorum has been unattainable most years, [6] In 2005, the Society proposed to change the bylaw for quorum from 500 to 100.

In the fall 2003 semester, the Society spent $15,000 hosting a free dinner for students to encourage turnout at the annual general meeting to achieve quorum. Although the quorum of 500 was met, students left part-way through the meeting, causing the meeting to lose quorum. As a result no voting was done, and an outcry ensued from students for allegedly wasting student fees.[7] The 2006 special general meeting (see "Impeachment") marks the first time quorum has been effectively reached in 10 years.

On 10 October 2007, members of the Simon Fraser Student Society achieved the quorum of over 500 at the annual general meeting, three major by-laws changes occurred. Graduate students, who had previously voted for full independence in March, will as of March or September 2008 no longer be members of the Simon Fraser Student Socity. Graduate students were, throughout the meeting, the majority of attendees, and had an interest in the above amendment, shown by their higher than usual turnout (Graduate students represent about 15% of all students at SFU). A motion to lower quorum from 500 to 250 passed with 77%, and another resolution passed giving members of the society the ability to vote on future by-law changes by referenda as well as at General meetings, also passed. [8]

[edit] Impeachment

In July 2006, the Board of Directors directed seven full time staff members to go on leave with pay and benefits to complete an investigation into internal issues. The investigation lasted 5 working days. Society keys and email passwords were confiscated, and computers were searched. Staff were directed not to enter SFSS property until directed otherwise. [9] In August, a staff member was fired as a result of the investigation. Directors, in Board meetings on July 26, August 9, and 23, have outlined that they are bound by confidentiality in their collective agreement with CUPE 5396, and can not disclose the justifications for terminating the employee. However, they have iterated that they had just cause and that they are prepared to go to arbitration.[10]

An organisation called Students for a Democratic University instigated a petition for a special general meeting under the SFSS's bylaws and the Society Act of British Columbia that called for the impeachment of seven directors and two bylaw changes that would alter funding and decision making authority within the SFSS. The petition had signatures from 9.8% of all students, exceeding the 5% required to call a meeting, according to an SFSS bylaw. Despite this, the directors up for impeachment insisted the petition was insufficient, quoting the Society Act,[11] which says a meeting must be called if 10% sign a petition.

A special general meeting (called by Forum) of the SFSS was held on October 25, 2006 in the school's Convocation Mall. 1028 students attended overall (up to 760 at the same time) the Special General Meeting, and voted in favor of motions to impeach the seven directors (Shawn Hunsdale, Wei Li, Margo Dunnet, Vanessa Kelly, Erica Halpern, Marion Pollock, Glyn Lewis) and to two amendments to the bylaws of the society.

In response, the seven directors claimed that the special general meeting was invalid by claiming the Forum meeting used to call the special general meeting itself was invalid, and issued guidelines to the staff of the society.[12] They asked the Supreme Court of British Columbia to declare the impeachments invalid.[13] The bank account of the SFSS was frozen due to the controversy over who were the legitimate directors of the SFSS.[14] This issue was resolved on November 23, 2006 with a court order enforcing an agreement between the impeached directors and the remaining directors.[15]

While President Shawn Hunsdale has resigned after his impeachment, he maintained his claim that the special general meeting that impeached him is invalid.[16] The President of the University itself, Michael Stevenson, stated that until the Supreme Court of BC made a decision, students, as well as the impeached directors, should respect the SGM.[14]

In December 2006, the BC Supreme Court[17] ruled that the special general meeting and impeachment were legitimate and there was no issue with the Forum. The court also stated that in the event that there was a problem with the Forum, the petition was sufficient and should have been followed, and assigned all costs to the individual impeached directors.

[edit] Canadian Federation of Students

In the past few years, staff from the BC branch of the Canadian Federation of Students have been alleged to have given advertising help to selected slates running in SFSS elections[18]. One such slate included 6 of the 7 impeached directors.

Partly in response[19] to the actions of the impeached directors and BC-CFS interference in SFSS politics, the following non-binding referendum question was posed to voters in the 2007 elections:

Do you agree that the Simon Fraser Student Society should do the following:
i. Cease to be a member of the Canadian Federation of Students and the Canadian Federation of Students- British Columbia Component, as well as cease to be a member of the Canadian Federation of Students- Services;
ii. Cease collecting student fees for the Canadian Federation of Students and the Canadian Federation of Students - British Columbia Component (at present $7.50 per full-time student per semester; $3.72 per part-time student per semester: $23.50 for a full time year; $11.16 for a part-time year; for a total of $435,204.72 for 2006);
iii. Instead, collect $7.50 per full-time student per semester and $3.72 per part-time student per semester, and put said fees towards improving student services such as departmental student unions, club infrastructure, online student services, affordable student housing, staffing at satellite campuses, a publicly-accessible indexed archive of SFSS documents, and lobbying the government for SFU student interests.

Unofficial referendum results[20] indicate that students voted in favour of separation from the CFS (78% in favour of leaving).

Since then, referendum the Canadian Federation of Students has reacted by increasing its visibility. It has bought advertising space at prominent Skytrain stations in the Lower Mainland, including the Skytrain station closest to Simon Fraser University. Radio ads have also been played on local radio station CFOX, and the Federation has posted multiple ads on Craiglist for television ad acting and canvasser positions. [21]

Despite the referendum, the Canadian Federation of Students has also declined to accept the Simon Fraser Student Society's withdrawal request.[22]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Fact Book. Simon Fraser Office of Analytical Studies. Retrieved on 2006-04-18.
  2. ^ Annual General Meeting. Simon Fraser Student Society (September 28, 2005). Retrieved on 2006-04-18.
  3. ^ Simon Fraser Student Society: About Us. Retrieved on 2007-10-10.
  4. ^ "Campus: Incumbents Dominate Election", The Peak, March 26, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-09-02. 
  5. ^ "Students axe health plan", The Peak, April 1, 1997. Retrieved on 2006-04-14. 
  6. ^ "SFSS releases AGM plans, agenda", The Peak, July 25, 2005. Retrieved on 2006-04-25. 
  7. ^ "Lack of students stalls democracy", The Peak, October 27, 2003. Retrieved on 2006-04-14. 
  8. ^ "Motion Reduces Quorum", The Peak, Oct 15, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-10-16. 
  9. ^ "Campus Fiasco: Seven SFSS staff sent home", The Peak, July 31, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-08-01. 
  10. ^ "Campus: Contentious August Board meeting fires students up", The Peak, September 5, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-09-05. 
  11. ^ BC Society Act. Retrieved on 2006-12-27.
  12. ^ SFSS memo (2006-10-26). Retrieved on 2006-10-27.
  13. ^ Court notice (2006-10-26). Retrieved on 2006-10-27.
  14. ^ a b Earl Tapia. "Campus: University supports SGM, Society bank account frozen", The Peak, 2006-11-06. Retrieved on 2007-09-10. 
  15. ^ Earl Tapia. "Campus: SFSS bank accounts unfrozen", The Peak, 2006-11-27. Retrieved on 2007-09-10. 
  16. ^ Shawn Hunsdale Open letter of Resignation (2006-10-31). Retrieved on 2006-10-31.
  17. ^ 2006 BCSC 1873 Simon Fraser Student Society v. Gregory. Retrieved on 2006-12-27.
  18. ^ e. Peak (6/11/2006) opinion: The Harder Line: Federation blues. Retrieved on 2007-03-25.
  19. ^ Referendum questions. Retrieved on 2007-03-25.
  20. ^ Simon Fraser Student Society Independent Electoral Commission. Retrieved on 2007-03-25.
  21. ^ Campaign and Services Coordinator Position. Retrieved on 2007-09-02.
  22. ^ e. Peak We Want Out. Retrieved on 2007-09-02.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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