On Campus

Gateway editorial: Recession, unions screw universities

The federal budget has something for everyone but students, are students getting anything from their lobbying dollars?

An excellent editorial in the University of Alberta campus paper The Gateway this week questions if students are getting value for their federal lobbying dollars:

But what’s perhaps more disappointing than the lack of results from Mr Flaherty for Canadian students is how small of an impact their pleas have actually made. The Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA) and the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) exist for this sole purpose. So when the U of A Students’ Union rushed through a motion in council over the summer in order to budget $50 000 towards rejoining CASA, Vice President (External) Beverly Eastham was confident that it would produce results.

Instead, it looks as though that $50 grand is bound to be yet another addition to the SU’s budget line of “wasted expenses,” even higher than the cost of all those red scarves that made such a huge difference during the Restricted Access campaign.

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