GSA Fall By-Elections 2024-2025

The CSU Advocacy Centre (AC) is a confidential and essential service for students at Concordia that provides students with independent student representation in Disciplinary Proceedings, Investigations and Tribunal Hearings at the University under the Academic Code of Conduct and/or the Code of Rights and Responsibilities. It also provides independent consultation and support through unfair obstacles/barriers to academic endeavours, including assistance in drafting complaints, in conflicts with professors or departments, in special requests and in readmission applications, and assistance in understanding the university’s various policies and procedures. Graduate student cases in particular are longer and more complex as they typically involve problems being compounded, especially with regards to immigration in the case of international students. Lastly, the CSU AC reports overarching patterns in student problems to elected student officials.

For close to 20 years, the CSU AC has been supporting undergraduate students at Concordia. Starting in 2016, the CSU AC has been supporting graduate students as well, with GSA through their own fee-levy contracting and paying the CSU for access to the AC, until 2022. And since Fall 2022, graduates students have been directly paying a fee-levy to the CSU AC so that graduate students, like undergraduate students, can have continuous and regular access to the services offered by the AC.

The proposed fee levy increase from $3.00 to $4.00 per semester, starting in Winter 2025, aims to maintain and enhance these services. The additional funding would help extend support hours and improve accessibility to these resources. The fee would also be adjusted annually according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to account for inflation. Students are encouraged to evaluate the potential benefits of this increase and how it may impact the support services they might need. The decision to approve, reject or abstain the levy rests with each student. This adjustment aims to ensure that the services continue to meet student needs effectively.

“Do you agree to implement a fee levy of $2.50 per semester from all GSA members to support the CSU Daycare services? The fee levy would be implemented with the Winter 2025 semester in accordance with the university’s tuition refund and withdrawal policy and, aims to equitably reflect Graduate student utilization of the services in proportion to the current undergraduate contribution of $0.25 per credit.”

Background information:

The proposed fee levy is a charge of $2.50 per semester for all GSA members, starting in Winter 2025, to support the CSU Daycare services. This initiative aims to equibly reflect the contribution of graduate students towards the daycare, matching the current $0.25 per credit contribution made by undergraduate students. The fee levy will be billed with tuition fees, in accordance with the university’s refund and withdrawal policies.