On April 30, 2008, the UTSU and UTMSU drew up the Associate Membership Agreement (AMA) in the hopes of improving services for both UTSG and UTM students. In UTSU’s Bylaw XIII, “Relationship with the UTMSU”, it states the UTSU shall “take reasonable steps to avoid duplicating or overlapping services, advocacy, and representation to their members registered at the UTM campus that are provided by the UTMSU.” It follows a requirement in the AMA that prohibits the UTMSU and UTSU from having ‘duplicating or overlapping services’ so as to avoid competition and service conflicts.
This would mean that, following the separation of the two unions, the UTMSU will have the freedom to pursue and provide services the UTSU currently offers at the St. George campus. UTM students will no longer have to travel to the St. George campus to receive the services they pay annually for.
A domestic full-time undergraduate UTM student pays a total of $1,710.34 in incidental, system access and ancillary fees for an academic year. As UTM students are currently represented by both unions, they also pay fees to both unions. From the non-tuition incidental fee, UTM students pay a total of $344.02 per semester for services from both unions ($688.04 per academic year).
Following the separation between the UTSU and UTMSU, “The membership fee that was paid by every UTM full time undergraduate to the UTSU will now be fully transferred to the UTMSU. We are working with the Vice Provost Students office to make sure this becomes a reality.” says Atif Abdullah, Vice-President External of the UTMSU. The following cost breakdown contains the fees UTM students have been paying for per semester to the UTSU. The UTSU represents the following services and will thus either be removed from UTM student’s accessibility or will be re-negotiated and included in UTMSU’s fee for the following year.
The following chart is a breakdown of the non-refundable and refundable levies and fees currently paid by UTM students.
The Medium will continue to investigate what will happen to the UTSU services come June 31, 2019.
This article has been corrected.
- January 18, 2019 at 5 a.m.: The article previously stated the UTM students will not be paying UTSU fees anymore. This was corrected to state that any fee paid by undergraduate students at UTM to the UTSU is in the works to be transferred over back to the UTMSU.
Notice to be printed on January 21, 2019 (Volume 45, Issue 15).
