{"id":14548,"date":"2017-09-05T09:00:08","date_gmt":"2017-09-05T16:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=14548"},"modified":"2017-08-29T10:32:16","modified_gmt":"2017-08-29T17:32:16","slug":"ccss-further-distances-itself-from-cfs-with-new-student-handbook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2017\/09\/05\/ccss-further-distances-itself-from-cfs-with-new-student-handbook\/","title":{"rendered":"CCSS further distances itself from CFS with new student handbook"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every month, each Camosun student pays $2.25 for membership in the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) and the British Columbia Federation of Students (BCFS); the fee, which is collected by the Camosun College Student Society (CCSS), is split between the two organizations. However, the CCSS is taking deliberate steps to not advertise student membership in the CFS. The CCSS logo on its 2017\/2018 student handbook does not contain a reference to the CFS, as it has in years past.<\/p>\n

CCSS student services coordinator Michael Glover says the CFS was not involved in the making of the book, and that the focus for the CCSS is now more on the BCFS instead than on the CFS.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve sort of been focusing on our membership in the British Columbia Federation of Students rather than in the Canadian Federation of Students due to our ongoing concerns,\u201d he says. \u201cWe haven\u2019t gotten proper responses on the issues that we\u2019ve brought up with the national organization.\u201d (See nexusnewspaper.com for our ongoing coverage of the national student movement.)<\/p>\n

Glover says removing references to the CFS in the handbook was a decision made by the CCSS student board of directors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing binding us to advertising that in those ways,\u201d says Glover in regard to the use of the CFS logo in the handbook. \u201cThe board has directed me to not do so, and so I have to follow through with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
This year\u2019s handbook (top) doesn\u2019t reference the CFS on its cover (photo by Greg Pratt\/Nexus<\/em>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A representative for the CFS said that CFS chairperson Coty Zachariah was \u201cnot interested in giving a comment\u201d on the matter.<\/p>\n

Glover says that the CCSS no longer trusts the CFS\u2019 ability to deliver the services it previously did to students; one of these services was making the handbook. (The BCFS is now making them; the costs of making the handbook are additional costs above and beyond membership fees for either organization.) The CCSS board is focusing on membership in the BCFS, he says, \u201cbecause that is what is having the impact directly on the members at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about students being informed about where their money is going, or being directly informed about the fact that they are CFS members, Glover says the CCSS still distributes International Student Identity Cards (ISIC).<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is the only place where our members really have a realistic interaction with the Canadian Federation of Students. That\u2019s still a benefit of membership they get,\u201d says Glover.<\/p>\n

The CCSS has also taken references to the CFS off its website. Camosun Marketing student Rahul Gill says that he didn\u2019t know he pays CFS fees as a Camosun student, and he feels that students should be told that they pay those fees. (A partial breakdown of fees is available on the Camosun College website.)<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents should know where their money is going,\u201d says Gill.<\/p>\n

Arts and Science student Gregory St-Cyr doesn\u2019t \u201ccare too much\u201d about the CCSS not communicating that students are members of the CFS but feels it\u2019s important that students have a way to find out fee details.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how much detail they should get into, but I do think there should be an area where you can research on your own where your money is going,\u201d says St-Cyr.<\/p>\n

Glover says the CCSS has been questioning the value of CFS membership to Camosun students for a number of years due to, according to the CCSS, the CFS\u2019 lack of financial transparency and lack of ability and willingness to deliver services to students.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve asked [the CFS] to solve those problems and, as you have reported time and time again, we\u2019ve not gotten satisfactory answers. So there\u2019s nothing we can do instantaneously to get our members out of that fee,\u201d says Glover. \u201cSo at this time we\u2019re exploring what we can in terms of trying to get value for our members out of the organization by advocating for change within the organization. In the meantime we\u2019re sort of in limbo about what to do about the organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Glover says the CCSS is in a delicate spot as it tries to respond to what he says is the desire of many students to leave the CFS.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard for us to advertise our membership in an organization that has not answered for some of the very undemocratic things that it\u2019s done,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Approval was made at a May 29 CCSS meeting for a $16,730.70 payment of Camosun students\u2019 money to the BCFS to cover printing costs of the handbook.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every month, each Camosun student pays $2.25 for membership in the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) and the British Columbia Federation of Students (BCFS); the fee, which is collected by the Camosun College Student Society (CCSS), is split between the two organizations. However, the CCSS is taking deliberate steps to not advertise student membership in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,197],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-september-5-2017"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14548"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14551,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14548\/revisions\/14551"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}