A dollar increase in student ancillary fees is currently being considered by the Office of Student Life in an effort to offer more support to campus clubs and organizations.
“Every year, I am approached by student groups asking for money,” said Lucy Fromowitz, Assistant Vice-President, Student Life. “In every case, their case is compelling and the work they are trying to accomplish admirable… I always had to say no because I have no money to draw on for this purpose, and it would be unfair to make money available only to those who happened to find me.”
The University of Toronto Students’ Union presently funds up to 50 per cent of a club’s budget, while the other half must come from fundraising and other external funding like the Hart House Good Ideas Fund.
The Office’s current support for campus clubs includes website hosting, training seminars, and office space. But should the fee increase go through, it would seek to supplement UTSU’s contribution to clubs, allowing the Office to more directly support student organizations. Fromowitz said she wants to have a “designated sum of money” and a “transparent process in which to distribute it,” but some students wonder if it’s appropriate for administration to be funding student groups.
Michael Scott, Trinity College’s UTSU director, questioned whether Fromowitz’ plan will create an adversarial framework in which “the administration will have to prioritize some groups over others.” He worried about how the proposed system would work with partisan clubs or clubs dedicated to issues the university doesn’t support.
The proposed plan, according to him, “speaks to a very controlling administration interfering with student discourse” if not properly executed. “I really think there is a need for more [club funding] on campus; I mean a lot of clubs have a lot of difficulty finding sources of revenue, so this could address those needs and improve student life. U of T does need to increase its student life, and this could be a beneficial step in the right direction, so long as there is student direction,” he said.
To avoid these concerns, Fromowitz plans to create an annually-chosen student committee to oversee the fund’s allocation and distribution.
“I see the students as the owners of the process,” said Fromowitz, explaining that the committee would follow the principles set out by a student working-group and would annually post information on how the money was distributed.
Other students wonder if creating this new fund is a move to break UTSU’s hegemony over clubs, but Fromowitz doesn’t see UTSU’s role changing.
“[UTSU] offers support, as does Hart House through its Good Ideas Fund. This would be one more fund available to students,” she said.
Fromowitz began to establish this new fee last October 31 by speaking with the Chair of the Council on Student Services, whose committee has final say over any increase in student fees. With the committee’s schedule, discussions should begin sometime in January, and a decision will likely be made around the winter reading week, according to Fromowitz.
The COSS consists of the university president, two members from the Association of Part-time Students, two members from the Graduate Students’ Union, four members from the UTSU, a member each from the University of Toronto, Mississauga and the University of Toronto, Scarborough, and six members appointed by the university.
In the past, UTSU has voted down any fee increase sought by the administration. Since UTSU can generally wield a voting majority on the committee, previous attempts to increase student fees to allow the administration to fund student groups have failed.
Danielle Sandhu, UTSU president, did not respond to enquiries about her opinions on Fromowitz’s plan.
Aware of the situation, Fromowitz herself noted that the Office has not had “an overall successful vote at [the committee],” but she remains optimistic for the plan’s success. “The proposal I will be presenting around creating a fund to support student group activity is new and has not been presented in the past,” she said.
