A four-year saga may be coming to an end at next week’s annual general meeting of the Students’ Administrative Council, the undergraduate student government on St. George campus.
SAC members voted to join the Canadian Federation of Students in Nov. 2002, but the organization was unable to starting collecting the yearly CFS levy fee, of around $7 per student, until last summer. During that time, SAC racked up just over $1 million in unpaid back fees.
On Nov. 16, SAC members will decide whether to pay off this debt. But the move would also mean that SAC’s would run a deficit of nearly $1.1 million this year, according to unofficial 2006 budget estimates. (SAC VP internal and services Andrea Armborst was unavailable for comment at press time.)
“SAC is accounting for the unpaid dues owing to the fact that U of T’s administration refused to levy those fees, for the first couple of years of membership,” said CFS Ontario chairperson Jesse Greener.
Also on the agenda is a name change, from SAC to Central Students’ Union (CSU). If approved, the change will take effect on May 1, 2007.
“We felt that including the name student union in the name would better reflect the history of the organization,” said SAC chairperson Jen Hassum. SAC was founded as the University of Toronto Student Union in 1901, she said.
Throwing the word “central” into the mix is to indicate that “we’re an arena for the student population of U of T to come together,” Hassum said.
