The following is an editorial piece by Meagan R. Miron and reflects her own personal opinion.
As the former President of the CSSA for the 2012-2013 year, I have taken issue with the new executive team electing to charge members to attend events, while providing what they claim is a free membership.
Events are an important resource to students and have been a standard part of club membership since its inception in 2005.
If events are now not part of membership, what does membership this year actually mean?
The event with George Stroumboulopoulos cited in last week’s Excalibur article has been a staple of the CSSA experience for the past two years. In the article it was suggested an exclusive interview was not included in last years’ experience but George spent well over an hour speaking to members exclusively at no additional cost – after the audience Q&A.
Students have been told they can attend on their own which excludes students from a beneficial social experience unless they are willing and able to pay.
Although the club had a previous $10 flat fee for membership, it included access to any event and was much less than the suggested $10 (now $5) fee for this year’s Strombo event. The fees were discontinued as of January 2013 to completely remove financial barriers to student engagement.
Additional fees could no longer be justified upon hearing student concerns and discovering the Department of Communications sets aside a $1000 grant for the club – a crucial part of information not passed on to me from the former president.
The CSSA is a ratified club through York Federation of Students and has access to $100 of base funding and up to $800 per event. In addition, the club is able to apply for funding from Winters College and the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies depending on the nature of the events they choose to schedule.
The majority of other important CSSA events including a tour of the Toronto Star, TV Ontario & Rogers TV have all been free.
How is the new team able to justify fundraising as a partial reason for their fees when they were notified these resources exist?
When I and other former members asked for justification on the group’s social media pages, we were censored and the team released an official statement stating,
“Negative or confrontational comments placed on social media will not be acknowledged in public space as it promotes a damaging label to a successful York student association.”
Our comments were intended to open up debate on a controversial issue and ask for further clarification. The comments were by no means confrontational and members should have had a chance to properly assess our comments on their own, not within the context of the executives’ opinions.
Club funding transparency is a public issue that affects all students on campus – it should not be dealt with behind closed doors.
I attended the first general meeting upon an invite from the Vice-President and when I attempted to voice my concerns, I was shouted over and prevented from continuing. Members of the executive stated everyone would have a right to speak, yet my voice of opposition was not afforded that right.
I was accused of being shady by one executive, and another stated I did not belong to the team anymore, which implied I did not have a right to comment. The team expressed a desire to privately deal with it and the current president chose to change the topic of discussion.
This team is a democratically elected body as per YFS ratification, and is there to represent the needs of all communication majors. Censoring my views highlights concerns over censorship and disrespected my vote in the election.
I am no longer an executive, but I am a student and every York student should have the fundamental right to respectfully critique the policies of any group on campus.
Executives of every club are in the public eye and should expect students to come forward addressing concerns.
Students should be able to voice concerns without fear of abuse, intimidation or censorship. I openly call on the university to use this case an example and re-examine club policies to ensure this experience does not happen again to any other student.
Meagan R. Miron
Contributor
