Summary
The SU’s current fee structure is disproportional in its assessment of the SU general fee for full time, part-time, co-op and internship students. The SU proposes updating its fee structure as outlined in the table below by assessing MD full-time students at the full-time student rate while part-time, co-op and internship students will be assessed to pay two-thirds of the full-time student rate. The aim of this proposed update is to keep up with inflation and to ensure its services can cater to the 10,000 new undergraduate students the university seeks to add to the student population by 2030.
Background
The SU exists to advance and support the needs of undergraduate students at the University of Calgary. As an organization, one of our key priorities is to advocate for students’ interests to the university and all three orders of government. We also provide essential services, programs, and events curated to enhance the student experience, both in and out of the classroom. All undergraduate students are active members of the SU; they benefit from all advocacy initiatives of the SU and can access all SU benefits and privileges (i.e., scholarships and financial awards, the Clubs systems, advocacy efforts, Campus Food Bank etc.). While SU events are primarily accessed by students most frequently on campus, they too are open to all undergraduate students who are interested.
The SU has operated on a differential general fee assessment structure over the past few decades. This structure was created because the SU’s past offerings were largely events-focused, and the SU could not provide remote access to SU services because the internet was not a widely available utility until 2004. Furthermore, students on satellite locations found it difficult to access SU benefits and privileges on main campus due to limited transit connections as the City of Calgary was still expanding its fleet of buses and trains and its transit routing network to meet the teeming population growth in the city.
At the time, the SU’s differential fee assessment was an equitable tool adopted to ensure students were charged general fees that reflected their accessibility to SU benefit and privileges. These concerns are less applicable today as the SU is primarily advocacy-driven and provides unfettered remote access to almost all SU benefits and privileges, thus making the SU’s general fee differential assessment structure out-dated.
Question
Given the background provided above, do you support the proposed update to the SU General Fee structure, starting Fall 2025?
- YES
- NO
A REFERENDUM FAQ is available for more information.
