Could something similar be going on here at McMaster? It would explain why the MSU lead by the, not elected by the student body, Vice President Education is in favour of the University’s proposal to increase student fees. We all know the MSU is in the University’s backpocket on this issue here.
Pruden accused of buying off CSU
Graduate students say CSU kept silent over fee increase for $50 000
By Giuseppe Valiante
A letter sent to the Link by dean of students Keith Pruden last week has ignited a debate about CSU-administration collusion over this year’s fee increase and $50,000 earmarked for the seventh floor student lounge.
Pruden wrote his letter in reply to another letter by Veronique Allard, former Graduate Student Association vice president, where she accuses the CSU of staying quiet about a fee increase in order to get $50,000 to pay for furnishing the seventh floor.
“Collusion between the admin and the CSU has reached truly outrageous proportions,” she wrote to the Link on Nov. 7.
Last semester, graduate students representatives complained that they were not properly informed about a student service fee increase until the very last minute—leaving them no time to effectively inform graduate students.
Bianca Mugyenyi, who sat on the Concordia Council for Student Life—the body that motioned for the student services fee increase—as a grad student representative said she found out about the fee increase “seconds before” she was supposed to vote on it.
She, along with the president of the GSA at the time, David Bernans, maintain that the undergraduate student reps knew about the fee increase in advance and deliberately kept the information from the graduate students. They also suggest that there was not any real effort in mobilizing undergrads or to inform them about the increase.
In his letter, Pruden admits to a request of $50,000 by the CSU to pay for the furnishing of the seventh floor lounge being “approved” by the special project funding subcommittee of CCSL, which he chaired.