The Concordia Student Union is launching a referendum campaign to ask students to reject the university’s new bad debt fee, which would cut 1.61 per cent off all current funds destined for student associations.
“[The levy] is totally unethical, totally immoral. It’s a disgusting move [by the administration],” stated interim CSU President and VP finance Patrice Blais.
At Concordia, the administration collects all student fees for student
associations and clubs and then transfers the money to the respective groups.
What is transferred, though, does not always reflect the amount the
administration ends up collecting, said Bram Freedman, the Assistant
Secretary-General and General Counsel for Concordia University. Since the administration gives out the transfer based on the projected amount to be collected and not the actual amount it receives, very often it ends up taking a loss.
“What’s been happening is that the university has been providing interest free loans [to student groups] for the last several years,” stated Freedman.
According to a letter from Vice-Rector Services Michael Di Grappa in this week’s Concordian, last year that loan amounted to $783,241, or 1.61 per cent of the amount billed to students. The university decided that it needed to take action now because of the rapid growth of the loss, which was only $221,372 in 1995-1996.
That action was outlined in a memo Oct. 26 from Concordia’s Chief Financial Officer Larry English. First, the administration has enacted a bad debt fee to be reviewed yearly in order to recuperate any lost money. Second, instead of transferring the entire year’s fees first semester, the funds will be transferred on a per semester basis.
According to Blais, the fact that the administration made this decision half-way into the semester is bad news not only for the groups expecting this money, but also the students who use their services. “[Student groups] have already hired their staff. The only thing that can be cut now are services.”
Smaller groups like Q-PIRG and the Link will be affected the greatest, said Blais. But he added that large organizations like the People’s Potato, who have already spent most of this year’s projected budget, will end up suffering financially as well.
Blais admitted that English had approached the CSU this summer about
implementing the bad debt fee, but said English left the impression that there would be further discussion before the administration took action. Those discussions never took place though.
For some groups, the issue is not so much money, but the way the university proceeded. For Cristelle Basmaji, president of the Commerce and Administration Student Association (CASA), the fact there was no warning or consultation with students is what is most upsetting. CASA should be able to deal with the shortfall, she said, but they could run into problems if a loan becomes necessary.
Furthermore, Basmaji is still not sure exactly why these fees are being imposed.
Andrea Lee, the administrative co-ordinator for the Concordia Women’s Centre, echoed this feeling. “Its really confusing to figure out what’s going on,” said Lee, adding that she wonders if this money could have been recuperated somewhere else.
English has been away for the past week, but, according to Di Grappa, is
returning later this week when he will resume meetings with student groups to discuss ways to deal with the impending financial difficulties. Also, an announcement to be made at this Friday’s Senate meeting will clarify all questions concerning the new policies, said Di Grappa.
In the meantime, though, Blais is not optimistic that the problem will be
resolved before the referendum dates of Nov. 27, 28 and 29. The motion calls for not only the removal of the fee, but for the new CSU executive to take action to recuperate the fee within a week should the motion be passed. “I’d like to be able to take [the motion] off the ballot,” said Blais. If he can’t, though, he hopes that students make their dissatisfaction heard at the polls.
“[The levy] is totally unethical, totally immoral. It’s a disgusting move [by the administration],” stated interim CSU President and VP finance Patrice Blais.
At Concordia, the administration collects all student fees for student
associations and clubs and then transfers the money to the respective groups.
What is transferred, though, does not always reflect the amount the
administration ends up collecting, said Bram Freedman, the Assistant
Secretary-General and General Counsel for Concordia University. Since the administration gives out the transfer based on the projected amount to be collected and not the actual amount it receives, very often it ends up taking a loss.
“What’s been happening is that the university has been providing interest free loans [to student groups] for the last several years,” stated Freedman.
According to a letter from Vice-Rector Services Michael Di Grappa in this week’s Concordian, last year that loan amounted to $783,241, or 1.61 per cent of the amount billed to students. The university decided that it needed to take action now because of the rapid growth of the loss, which was only $221,372 in 1995-1996.
That action was outlined in a memo Oct. 26 from Concordia’s Chief Financial Officer Larry English. First, the administration has enacted a bad debt fee to be reviewed yearly in order to recuperate any lost money. Second, instead of transferring the entire year’s fees first semester, the funds will be transferred on a per semester basis.
According to Blais, the fact that the administration made this decision half-way into the semester is bad news not only for the groups expecting this money, but also the students who use their services. “[Student groups] have already hired their staff. The only thing that can be cut now are services.”
Smaller groups like Q-PIRG and the Link will be affected the greatest, said Blais. But he added that large organizations like the People’s Potato, who have already spent most of this year’s projected budget, will end up suffering financially as well.
Blais admitted that English had approached the CSU this summer about
implementing the bad debt fee, but said English left the impression that there would be further discussion before the administration took action. Those discussions never took place though.
For some groups, the issue is not so much money, but the way the university proceeded. For Cristelle Basmaji, president of the Commerce and Administration Student Association (CASA), the fact there was no warning or consultation with students is what is most upsetting. CASA should be able to deal with the shortfall, she said, but they could run into problems if a loan becomes necessary.
Furthermore, Basmaji is still not sure exactly why these fees are being imposed.
Andrea Lee, the administrative co-ordinator for the Concordia Women’s Centre, echoed this feeling. “Its really confusing to figure out what’s going on,” said Lee, adding that she wonders if this money could have been recuperated somewhere else.
English has been away for the past week, but, according to Di Grappa, is
returning later this week when he will resume meetings with student groups to discuss ways to deal with the impending financial difficulties. Also, an announcement to be made at this Friday’s Senate meeting will clarify all questions concerning the new policies, said Di Grappa.
In the meantime, though, Blais is not optimistic that the problem will be
resolved before the referendum dates of Nov. 27, 28 and 29. The motion calls for not only the removal of the fee, but for the new CSU executive to take action to recuperate the fee within a week should the motion be passed. “I’d like to be able to take [the motion] off the ballot,” said Blais. If he can’t, though, he hopes that students make their dissatisfaction heard at the polls.
