Spring Referendum to Decide
Future of CFS at SFU

An 8-7 vote at the October 4 meeting of the SFSS Forum mans that SFU students could be deciding their future with the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) as early as next spring. The vote approved a call for referendum during the last week of the upcoming spring semester, at which point students would be asked to decide if they want to remain a part of the Federation or if they want to pull out.

The Canadian Federation of Students was established in 1981, through the merger of two existing national student organizations, in order to “defend the rights and interests of Canadian post-secondary students” (according to the SFSS almanac). The CFS is primarily involved in advocacy and lobbying in regards to student issues, but also provides services such as Travel CUTS, the Studentsaver card, the Student Work Abroad Programme, and the Students Health Plan which has been the subject of so much controversy at SFU. Most recently, the CFS has been involved in lobbying against the changes to the student loan program. The Federation was also responsible for the organization of a National Student Strike against cuts to government funding of post-secondary education in January of this year.

A decision to leave the CFS could mean that SFU will follow a trend set by Langara College and other universities in eastern Canada. Richard Bell, a member of the Langara College Student Society, suggests that Langara left the CFS, “because it does not fulfill the goals that it sets up for itself.” He says that the college supports the goals of the Federation, but not the way they are being carried out under Executive Officer Philip Link. Bell believes that organization under Link is significantly less than it could be: time and money are apparently bound up in internal bickering, and the organization is apparently too bureaucratic, with too little student involvement, to accomplish progressive change.

SFSS President Lee-Anne Clarke also views the CFS as too slow to act on crucial issues, and suggests that this was one of the main reasons why she recently resigned from her CFS position as women’s liaison. Clarke also feels that the Federation is perhaps, “not as democratic as it should be.” She believes that decisions were often made without the input of the entire CFS board, including the last year’s acceptance of a $15,000 grant from the provincial government to fund a series of speak-outs on social policy review -- a decision that Clarke personally opposed.

Yet not all schools are removing their support from the CFS. The University of Victoria Student Society’s (UVSS) Director of Student Services Theresa Sabourin suggests that relations between UVic and the CFS have been very positive. The UVSS has been quite involved in CFS campaigns, and Sabourin cites the appearance of over 5,000 students in front of the B.C. Legislature buildings in Victoria during last January’s National Student Strike as evidence of broad-based student support for the CFS and its programs. Sabourin also suggests that the UVSS experience with the CFS has been consistently positive due to the perception that the CFS is not an external organization. Rather, the Federation is seen as a group of schools working together as a more effective means of change than could be accomplished individually.

The referendum at SFU next spring could have repercussions for the rest of the CFS. President Lee-Anne Clarke suggests SFU students contribute the most money ($6.00 per student per semester) to the provincial and federal components of the CFS of any school in B.C. Funds from SFU’s fees currently represent one-third of the provincial CFS component’s budget, and Clarke suggests that at least this portion of the CFS may collapse if SFU decides to pull out.

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