By Winie Coulanges

Contributor

Since the implementation of the new healthcare plan, the curiosity we feel towards our student union’s finances is not only natural, but it’s also justified. In the past twenty years, several Canadian student unions have been accused of financial mismanagement and fraud. In 2019, Global News reported that Toronto Metropolitan University’s union suspended some of its executives after credit card statements revealed fiscal mismanagement. Four years later, CP24 reported that union executives embezzled 250,000$ to spend on business class flights, Toronto Raptors tickets, virtual reality headsets, and to make payments to third party vendors. In 2011, CBC broke the news that the head of McMaster University’s part-time student association was not only getting paid a salary of 126,151$ but also received a 12,000$ bonus and 101,116$ in retroactive pay. University of Toronto’s student newspaper, The Varsity, covered Dawson Student Union’s 2008 embezzlement scandal wherein an executive stole 29,000$ and the union couldn’t account for the 840,000$ it spent since 2005.

The absence of bookkeeping, executives having personal access to the union’s credit cards, and the withholding of financial statements from the public for three years were aggravating factors. Since then, all those things have been rectified, thanks to the Union taking accountability for its indiscretions and students expressing their concerns at general assemblies. 

     However, looking over the DSU budget for the 2023-2024 school year, I was shocked by how much money our union had at their disposal and how much of it remained dormant year to year. Last year’s budget left over an astonishing 221,027.50$ that was then funnelled into this current year’s budget, totaling 677,900.75$. The more research I did, the more inconsistencies were revealed to me. For example, the 2021 referendum proposed a 3$ increase in student union dues to keep up with inflation. 

     “The DSU will essentially continue to grow poorer over the years with its current fee. Over time, the union will be able to do less with its budget since costs associated to employment, accounting, legal and of goods will continue to increase. This could result in the union having to offer less to its membership and student groups”.

     Yet, the audits from 2017 to 2022  reveal that there are always several thousands of dollars in surplus. More specifically, 192,615$ for 2017, 180,093$ for 2018, 75,001$ for 2019, 23,781$ for 2020, 236,789$ for 2021 and 151,950$ for 2022. How can you grow poorer over the years with money like that? 

     Continuing to dig deeper, there seems to be huge gaps in the proposed spending and the actuals from the previous year. For example, 555.49$ was spent for team building last year, yet this year’s budget for that category comes out to 2,000$. Another example is found in the meetings category, which saw 733.50$ being used last year and upgraded to 4,000$ this year. 

     How can these gaps and constant large surpluses be justified?

     With this information, I emailed the President of the DSU, Isabelo Beli-En David, on March 25th with a list of all the questions stated above, asking for an in-person meeting to clarify the concerns I had. He emailed back on April 4th with written responses to each question instead and ignored my wish for a meeting. 

     Prompted with my questioning on the validity of the fee increase, he responded:

 

     “The increase in dues was necessary for the student insurance plan (DSU Health & Dental Plan) which was also voted on in the same year. After pushback from the College, we were finally able to implement the insurance beginning in Fall 2024. The change in the constitution increased the DSU membership fee from $19 to $22 and added a clause for the membership fee to automatically increase in accordance with CPI every two years. The change was instituted because the Dawson Student Union had and continues to have some of the lowest student fees among the CEGEP student associations, which makes it difficult to use our funds in a way that the around 10,000 students of Dawson can benefit. “

This answer offers completely different reasoning than what is stated in the official document detailing the questions and objectives of the 2021 referendum. With conflicting information, it’s hard to decipher what exactly is the truth. If this 6$ supposedly helped pay or paid entirely for the healthcare plan, why doesn’t the union absorb that cost themself when they have so much surplus, instead of passing that cost onto students? 

When I asked why some categories are overinflated when their actual spending was low the previous year, he answered with this : 

“Budgets are not necessarily representative of the amount of money which will be spent. If you look at this year’s budget, you will see from last year’s revenue projections compared to their expected spending, they planned to spend around 95% of their projected revenue ((564,800.00/594,091.22) 100 = 95.07). Their actual spending ended up being around 57% of their actual revenue ((323,942.57/567,602.22) 100%= 57.07%). There are many reasons teams allocate money in certain areas where the money won’t necessarily be spent. The legal entry, for example, has a lot of money set in case legal threats or proceedings occur. Travel expenses are not usually completely used because the need for them varies greatly from year to year based on many external factors. Same for hiring fees, staff training, etc. Large surpluses aren’t planned for, but they mean more available funds for the next team. Financial responsibility requires responsible accounting and keeping money for next year’s team is often a preferable alternative to spending it on needless things or on overpriced products/services we don’t have time to research or properly account. We are students like you after all.”

This “save for a rainy day” attitude held towards this huge budget is frankly uninspired. The evidence shows that the “future” team of DSU executives rarely spends the surplus they have and thus the cycle continues. I’m left wondering why Dawson students are forced to scramble for money to fund initiatives that benefit us, while our money sits idly in a giant piggy bank. Is it absolutely necessary to leave the succeeding team enough money for a down payment every year? 

I find it interesting how the Union anticipates going over budget so often that they end up not only allocating way more money than needed, but neglect the fact that they have a dedicated category for contingencies if all these emergencies were to happen. Considering that last year with a budget of 10,000$ for contingencies, they only spent 238.50$, it’s not very clear why they feel a need to over-inflate their expected spending.

Regarding his statement on not wanting to spend money on “needless things,” and not having the time to properly research or account for overpriced things – the use of the word “needless” is very interesting here, as it implies that the DSU has met every need a Dawson student could possibly have, and that there’s no room for improvement. It’s a weird opinion to hold when there’s a fundraiser every day in the upper atrium. In rebuttal, I would like to offer the following suggestions of things the surplus could be used for, that would greatly benefit students: grants for those doing unpaid internships, a bi-monthly edition of the Plant, daily free breakfast, daily Dawson Dinin’ and free one-time STM passes available to students in case of emergencies.

Student unions are accountable to their constituents and they have a duty to work in their best interest. Therefore, I don’t believe paid executive members should be able to hide behind excuses when it comes to using the resources they were given. I understand that we are all students, but if the Union has bitten off more than they can chew, it’s worth reconsidering if this budget is being used to its fullest potential and adjust the following year’s fees accordingly. In the meantime, I can only encourage us to read the fine print and to stay informed on what our elected representatives do with the power they hold.