BUSU Campaigns Begin

The BUSU General Election in March will contain a vote on whether the WUSC fee every student pays as part of their tuition will be increased from $4 to $10, BUSU confirmed on their February 3rd meeting.

The decision was added to the ballot after a petition circulated by WUSC was handed in to the student union, and met all the requirements in the guidelines. The wording for the proposal, as stated on the petition, said that the WUSC fee would be “increased to $10 a year, with 2010 as the base year.” BUSU added “...and be indexed to inflation” to the wording after consultation with the petitioners.

Every student has a WUSC (World University Service of Canada) fee of $4 as part of their tuition. With the additional funds that would come with the increase, the petitioners hope that BU WUSC will be able to help more student as part of WUSC’s Student Refugee Program, allowing them to bring two students to BU per year rather than one.

The WUSC fee had been increased from $1 to $4 in the 2006-2007 General Election. According to BUSU, the majority of students supported the increase, with around 86% voting yes. They also noted at the meeting that BU’s WUSC fees are relatively low compared to other campuses, citing the University of Lethbridge (which they say has a WUSC fee of $7) as an example.

Previous discussion between the petitioners and BUSU included the possibility of changing the fee to fifty cents per credit hour instead, which some thought would likely get more support from students. However, the petitioners declined, and BUSU will be respecting the specifics of the proposal.

Although there was some concern that students voting on the matter would not know enough about WUSC or the benefits provided by increasing the fee, BUSU had decided to let WUSC campaign for the increase and inform students about it, and said that, in general, “Students support WUSC.”

BUSU also expressed hope that this referendum will help increase voter turnout.