Muse, 2001-11-02

              Volume 52, Number 8
Memorial University of Newfoundland's Student Newspaper
November 2,2001
MUNSU begins financial recovery
Student union $1.6-million in debt
By KAREN FOLLETT
Despite successfully creating
IIbudget this year, Memorial's
student union is $1.6-milIion
I Aaron Kennedy, MUNSU's
ident finance, says
that the organization is working on the situation. "We're
• insolvent, 1 guess that's the
word... we owe more money
than we have. We're not bank-
jrupt," he said.
•■"We're working on changing
I that right now. We're talking to
L the university about certain
I bills that we have to pay, and
Iwe're cluing up accounts re-
Iceivable that are outstanding."
I   This   current   budget    is
first step in their
o cut back on what they
;[The budget] helped pay
some of our loans,"said
inedy. "We actually did have
ilus, and that surplus was
ideally put into paying
our huge loans."
The document, which is bro-
into the various areas and
services of the union, is effective for the year. It explains, in
detail, how student money is
divided up and spent, each
term, by the union.
MUNSU struck up a committee, early this term, to look at
the budget in depth. "[The
budget] would have been
passed the middle of September, but council decided to
elect a committee to sift though
it for almost three weeks. Otherwise, I'm extremely happy
with it," Kennedy said.
"Thei
l't
uch
money as I'd hoped for student
services. Hopefully that will
change next year . . . but I was
a little upset that we didn't
have as much money for student services, but that's all you
can do."
Overall, Kennedy says that
he is happy with this year's
budget. For him, and many
members of MUNSU, it is a
definite improvement over last
year, when the union operated
without a budget and consequently ran into a few prob
lems.
Kennedy feels that, this year,
the budget was looked at very
closely, and those who worked
on it tried to counteract problems ofthe past. "It's tight, because we have no money, but
it's very good," he said.
Kennedy also talked about
how he worked some newer
services into the finances. "The
biggest step [was] getting
Walksafe extra time and
money," he said. "Walksafe and
Safedrive . . . there is a $15 to
$16,000 cost there . . . and it
was one of those services that
we really made sure that we had
enough money to start up and
keep going."
MUNSU has also hired two
new staff members, with extra
money from the budget. Working within their office now are
a new resources coordinator
and a financial assistant.
"Other than that, the services
have been pretty standard,"
said Kennedy.
Another area getting more
Please see We, 11
Student groups
seek federal funds
Martin emphasizing security over social programs
y STEVE DURANT
if the country's major stu-
: unions are fighting hard to
lire that post secondary edu-
benefits from the federal
nment's fall budget.
Responding to the drastic
to Canada's economy in
ewakeof the September 11 atthe United States, the
federal government has an-
I nounced it will table an early fall
news 1
opinion
feature
national news
sports
arts & ent
classifieds
,3-5,11
6-10
12-13
15
16, 17
18-21
22,23
i www.mun.ca/muse
Finance Minister Paul Martin
insists that the budget will focus
strongly on national security, says
an official from the Department
of Finance. She says that no other
aspects of the budget will be released until it is tabled.
This has not stopped student
organizations from lobbying,
however. Liam Walsh, Newfoundland chair of the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), thinks
that education is crucial if the
government wants to get the
economy back on its feet.
"As much as [the budget] is
going to be narrowed in terms of
military and whatnot, which has
been thrown upon us, you still
have to make sure we keep the
necessities of society going, and
that's our social programmes," he
said.
"I think that even though there
are problems going on in the
w.orld, we have to keep going and
make sure that our country runs
at its full potential."
Liam Arbuckle, President of
CFS's rival, the Canadian Alliance
of Student Associations (CASA),
agrees.
"[CASA thinks] the federal
government needs to realize that
education is one of those fundamentals that you can't ignore, despite whatever situations are occurring around you," he said.
"Because an educated populace is
far better suited to deal with the
upcoming concerns of our country than a non-educated populace."
In their upcoming presentation
to the House of Commons Committee on Finance, CASA will ask
the federal government to put
more money into the maintenance
of universities, says Arbuckle.
They will also seek funds to
lower interest rates on Canada
Student Loans, and to establish a
program to fund the indirect costs
of research at universities.
The CFS has also put together
a list of proposals for the federal
government, says the organization's National President Ian
Boyko.
These are more radical, calling
for the government to scrap the
Millennium Scholarship Fund and
Registered Education Savings
Plans (RESPs), which Boyko de-
A car flipped over in front of the clock tower last week.
There were no serious injuries.
scribes as "not working" and "targeting the wrong population."
In addition, the CFS wants the
government to reverse changes to
the Bankruptcy Act, which requires students to wait ten years
after graduation to declare personal bankruptcy, as well as to the
way retraining programs are administered.
Both unions are lobbying the
government to negotiate a federal-
provincial accord on post-secondary education. Such an accord
would be similar to the Canada
Health Act, which legislates national standards and defines governments' responsibilities.
Please see Rivals, 11
Remember our true heroes.
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