ESS separation puzzling

Image supplied by: Illustration by Emily Sicilia

This month Education Students’ Society (ESS) members will vote on whether to leave the AMS and join the Society of Graduate and Professional Students (SGPS).

The ESS council passed a motion during a closed meeting Nov. 19 for a referendum on the issue, although ESS President Amanda Leonard said the council will remain neutral.

Leonard said education students, who may be off campus for months during a practicum, don’t have the same concerns as other undergraduate students.

Previous ESS presidents have supported joining the SGPS, she said.

It’s disappointing the ESS isn’t prepared to take an official stance on the issue or explain why it’s bringing the question up now.

Leonard doesn’t adequately explain what education students’ interests are or how they would be better served by the SGPS than the AMS.

It seems unfair to make education students who complete their practicum outside of Kingston pay the same fees as students who stay on campus and have access to all of the resources their fees cover.

But if education students are interested in cutting their fees, the AMS’s health and dental plan, one of the priciest fees, costs significantly less than equivalent SGPS coverage.

AMS President Talia Radcliffe said the AMS could reduce other fees to save education students over $100. The ESS should be focused on working with the AMS to improve its constituents’ positions rather than simply threatening to jump ship.

If the AMS and the ESS are going to renegotiate student fees, it’s important for both societies to consider the impact of lost revenue on the services and the other undergraduate students paying those fees.

The AMS would also have to decide how to deal with education students who remain on campus.

These issues must be carefully discussed and explained before the ESS rushes into a referendum, leaving voters uninformed or confused. By simply pushing the issue, the ESS has forfeited its claim of neutrality.

The council’s flimsy reason that the vote is simply to follow through with a recommendation made by previous presidents reeks of a political cover-up of an ulterior motive or, if it’s true, just plain ineptitude.

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