UWSA delegates' mixed reactions may end CFS membership
By Michal Tellos
News Editor
February 3, 2010
After the UWSA sent a handful of delegates to the provincial conference for the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), council will have more to think about when they once again discuss membership this week.
The meeting, held in Markham, took place after some heated discussion at a recent UWSA council meeting where the group ultimately decided not to leave CFS just yet.
Faculty of arts and social sciences representative Thomas Sasso, a vocal critic of the CFS after the national meeting, said this time around there was a different tone.
“We were able to talk to delegates from many different schools to try and understand the motions, and we also took the opportunity to discuss our position in return,” he said, adding that he considered this conference more of a success than the national one, despite audiences still not being fully receptive to the UWSA’s ideas.
However, Sasso’s views remain unchanged, and he still deems the CFS “an ineffective organization that fails to recognize the concerns of some of its members,” adding that the negatives far outweigh the positives of remaining with the CFS.
Long-standing criticism of the CFS includes, primarily, a lack of transparency, but there are other issues as well.
“One of my main concerns is the fact that the organization is run by a large staff that, for the most part, have not been students for a very long time. While it is important to have institutional memory, I feel that most staff may be out of touch with what it actually means to be a student,” said Amanda Orr, another UWSA councilor that attended the conference.
Orr also dislikes the isolation that UWindsor experiences compared with other CFS schools, as well as the extreme difficulty that schools face should they choose to leave the CFS.
UWSA senator Patrick Lalonde, who also attended the conference, acknowledges the criticisms of the CFS, but says that they also reflect problems within the UWSA.
Lalonde composed a lengthy essay about his experiences in Markham, and in it he posits that the UWSA should remain with the CFS, partially because the UWSA is not, he argues, in a position to point any fingers.
“I feel that before projecting outwards, before critically examining our lobby groups, we should be focusing on fixing our own problems first. Students pay about $15 to CFS, whereas they pay $55 to the UWSA,” he said.
“So I think we have a duty to students to provide excellent service, and we need to make sure we do that before we criticize a group that is paid less by the students,” he added, noting that the UWSA has faced internal difficulties regarding executive accountability.
Lalonde also argues that while the UWSA and the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) hold contrary ideologies to the CFS, it is still important to stay with the CFS because not every UWindsor student agrees with the UWSA or OUSA, and they deserve to have outlets for their opinions as well.
“I think if we did leave them it would create a huge deficit on campus in terms of those students whose only access to the political system is CFS,” said Lalonde, adding that leaving the CFS disenfranchises many students.
Lalonde and Sasso do agree, however, that a straw poll regarding CFS needs to be conducted.
“My opinion is that right now we don’t have to jump into a formal referendum and make it legal at this point. I think we just need to do a poll of the students,” said Lalonde, adding that he is looking for a two-thirds majority or higher.
“Too often the UWSA fails to communicate with its constituents and act on their behalf. This will be our ability to get their opinion and act as they want us to. If there is sufficient support behind defederation, then we will use the legal advice to move towards a defederation campaign,” said Sasso, adding that the litigious nature of the CFS would make it wise to follow all proper protocol completely. |
