The AMS will likely not add a referendum item on whether to pause the collection of its resource group student fee after pushback from the Pride Collective.
According to meeting minutes, the AMS had been considering putting forward a referendum in this year’s AMS elections since late October 2021 due to resource groups not using most of the money they’re allocated from the fee, according to November 8 Finance Committee meeting notes.
The AMS has five resource groups: the Social Justice Centre (SJC), Pride Collective, Disabilities United, Colour Connected and UBC’s Women Centre. The Pride Collective expressed concern over the proposed fee collection freeze and met with AMS execs about it on January 17. The SJC was also in attendance.
At the October 27 Executive Committee meeting, VP Finance Mary Gan said the changes could collectively save students $90,000 over a year. In the 2021/22 fiscal year, the AMS collected $98,129 in fees for the five resource groups on campus.
AMS President Cole Evans proposed pausing fee collection for these groups until their funds’ balance reaches below $100,000 at the December 1 Executive Committee meeting. But the executives weren’t united on this — VP Academic & University Affairs Eshana Bhangu said she is “very much against” such a proposal because “some resource groups do great work.”
The resource groups currently have over $500,000 in reserve funds, which equates to over five years worth of collected fees.
In a January 14 statement sent to The Ubyssey, Evans said the AMS was talking with its resource groups to determine how to effectively spend their reserve funds, including a potential fee collection freeze.
But, in a statement sent on January 17, Evans the AMS would likely not pursue this proposal anymore following conversations with resource groups.
“We are looking forward to working closely with the resource groups to find good solutions on how to spend money more effectively from the fund,” the January 17 statement read.
‘We make do with what we have’
The Pride Collective complained that they felt the AMS was proceeding with altering the resource groups’ funding without consulting these groups. They also said any changes to its funding would impact its ability to support students who depend on its resources.
In his January 14 statement, Evans said the AMS would not make any changes to the resource group fee without the groups’ consent.
“There's never enough money for all of it. But we make do with what we have,” J Shokeen, the treasurer of the Pride Collective, told The Ubyssey in December.
The AMS allocates money to all five resource groups as one budget line item, which the groups then divide amongst themselves equally. This means that even if the Pride Collective spends its share of the money — which Shokeen said it did last year — there could still be funds leftover from other groups.
The Pride Collective offers 2SLGBTQIA+ students educational and social services, including gender affirming resources (clothing and accessories), free food for those experiencing food insecurity and events such as dance workshops led by Queer dancers.
While Shokeen said COVID-19 restrictions on serving food at events have cut back on costs, the Collective’s critical services still require more funding.
“People are definitely in need of more socialization and events and more pressing supplies like food [and] the gender empowerment store,” Shokeen said.
The gender empowerment store sells gender affirming resources such as binders and breast forms to those in need. Students who want to use these resources pay for as much as they can and the Collective pays for the remaining cost with money from its AMS account.
“That requires a massive amount of funding so that we can provide these relatively expensive products at a subsidized cost,” Shokeen said.
When first contacted in December, Shokeen criticized the AMS for the lack of communication over this proposed change.
“This [was first brought up on] October 27. We have since then not received a single word of communication from them regarding any of this, and the only reason this was brought to our attention was because someone tipped us off anonymously.”
They also expressed frustration with the AMS’s reasoning for the potential fee collection freeze.
“We don't care for that accusation of us wasting $100,000 or $90,000, whatever you want to call it,” they said in reference to Gan’s comment that a freeze would save students $90,000. “We actually made sure this money ends up doing something for the people on campus as much as we are afforded. What are you doing with yours?”
Shokeen was eventually invited to attend a meeting with the SJC and Gan to discuss the AMS’s plans around funding for its resource groups on January 17.
Shokeen confirmed that no changes were coming to the Pride Collective and other resource groups’ funding — they gave credit to the SJC’s advocacy — but said that the two sides had yet to reach a resolution on how to proceed with the reserve resource group funds.
They said they will meet with Gan to discuss a better proposal to access and use the resource group fund. Meanwhile, the SJC and Pride Collective execs are working to find ways to make use of the existing funds.
“The procedures aren’t well-understood by everyone … but we intend to go through those and propose changes to make it more accessible,” they said.
This article has been updated to say that the resource groups have $500,000 in reserve funds.
This article has been further edited to clarify that the Social Justice Centre did not complain about this proposal, but was simply in conversation with the AMS on it.
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