This letter is to provide my opinions and recommendations about the situation of Students Association (SA) in George Brown College.

First, many of our 28,000 students look to the SA as their representative body and, with oversight of over $19 million of student fees, the SA has substantial responsibility for its performance, particularly in terms of accountability, effectiveness, and the students’ needs.

Together with the subdued Annual General Meeting on Oct. 30, and the statement given on Nov. 2 dealing with some disciplinary penalties against three main board directors, there are structural problems in our SA.

There is no real institutional stopgap in the current system to the risk of a consolidation of powers that are inconceivable in today’s democracy.

To repair the manifest deficiencies identified above, I would further propose the following:

Campus-based representation: The SA needs to be federalized and comprise of members from each campus. Thus, each campus provision is to have four board of directors with no hierarchical difference among the other campuses. It would not permit concentrating and sharing an unequal power; this will enable far fair decision making.

Independent Student Council: Constitution of a Student Council which would comprise of executive members from the SA board, executives of the student clubs and general student representatives elected for that purpose. This body would make sure that as far as the SA the finance budgets and college policies observed with much greater students affairs diversity on. A proper ratio could consist of three SA seats, 12 seats of students clubs executives, 12 seats of general students, including undergraduates and postgraduates, from annual election along with the SA Board of Directors elections and three invitational seats from the College.

Increased student club support: More than the present should be allocated to this category because this is an area where SA could fund programs that are directly organized by students. Today the student clubs get far below 0.0025 percent of the full $19 million budget even though the clubs are, in the broadest terms, crucial to the campus experience.

Financial transparency: The detailed and easily accessible reports should include financial expenditures for SA operations, board of directors individual expense and funding for student clubs and student communities. Assuming that the SA committee should have access to a more detailed version of finance spreadsheets. The finance statement published during the Annual General Meeting was over simplified and unclear to indicate any insightful figures. Such type of transparency is important in the development of trust and for the purposes of accountability.

These changes will ultimately make the organization more democratic, open, and equitable – in many ways that would reflect the complexity of our student population. We now have an opportunity for SA to transform itself so as to serve the needs of students.

Hermes Sun – GBC Student