Another students’ union pushes for independence

The University of Calgary Graduate Students’ Association is the latest students’ union to consider leaving the Canadian Federation of Students.

According a report in the The Gauntlet, the GSA is collecting signatures to force a vote on their membership in the CFS.

"Our members feel, as well as the executive this year and last year, that for the amount of money that we’re putting into CFS -- we’re giving $40,000 per year -- the benefits have not weighed equally to the amount that we’ve provided,"GSA president Rithesh Ram told The Gauntlet.

Last year, three students unions voted decided to leave the CFS: Cape Breton University, Simon Fraser University, and graduate students at the University of Victoria.

If graduate students at UCalgary leave, the CFS will have only one member union in the province of Alberta. The 1100 students at the Alberta College of Art and Design are members of the Federation.