Funding withheld for Dalhousie University social justice group

Social justice society’s funding pending

Daniel Boyle, DSU vice-president (internal) and chair of NSPIRG committee, makes the recommendation to the DSU council to ratify NSPIRG (Photo: John Packman).

After more than eight months of financial limbo, the Nova Scotia Public Interest Research Group (NSPIRG) at Dalhousie University may soon be getting the money it needs. Members of the social justice society still aren't sure whether they will be getting the $55,000 from Dal students to make up about 85 per cent of the budget.

The major contention around the society came around having a board of directors that has three out of 10 voting members who are not Dalhousie students. The Dalhousie Student Union (DSU) found this violated the original purpose of NSPIRG, saying it should be student-run.

Asaf Rashid, campaign co-ordinator for NSPIRG, says its community board members give important context to the body, particularly since many student members leave once they graduate.

In order to comply with society policy, NSPIRG's community members are no longer allowed to vote but still sit on the board. Rashid sees this as "more tokenistic," but said NSPIRG had to make the move to be ratified and receive financial footing.

"We're now thinking practicality," says Rashid. "What's the fastest way to get ratified and still be able to do the kind of work we do?"

Rashid says while NSPIRG usually hires two full-time staff members, the financial insecurity only allowed them to hire one person full-time and one part-time.

NSPIRG originally hoped to put the question of whether it should allow community members to vote directly to students through a referendum but found it would take too much time and planning.

On Oct. 19, the NSPIRG board of directors sent an e-mail to the DSU council saying they would comply with the recommendations of the committee the DSU struck to help ratify the society.

Daniel Boyle, DSU vice-president (internal) and chair of the NSPIRG committee, has been working on resolving the issue since May. At last week's DSU council meeting he brought forth a recommendation to ratify NSPIRG based on the letter to accept the recommendations. He says he imagines the council will pass them as he suggested.

"If there are any modifications, it would be surrounding the wording more than anything else," says Boyle.

At the DSU council meeting, about 15 people involved with NSPIRG came hoping to see their society ratified before their annual general meeting on Nov. 4.

But since council still needed two weeks to speak to their constituent students, they couldn't approve the society at that meeting.

They instead approved the recommendations in principle to give NSPIRG some direction for its annual general meeting. Council also added the requirement for NSPIRG to pass another audit by Matt Golding, DSU's vice-president (finance and operations).

Angela Day, resource co-ordinator for NSPIRG, says she's perplexed as to why the DSU wants to redo last year's audit since Golding never mentioned this in the last nine months.

"We're just wondering why it's an issue for ratification," says Day.

Golding says he wants to get a look at NSPIRG's books so he can give them feedback without slowing down the ratification process. Golding says he generally he doesn't approve the books for about half the societies he reviews until they bring him more information or can answer questions he has.

"If it ever came up that they were ratified and everything went through with their constitution and then I held their money because of something wrong with their books, it's going to create this huge controversy," says Golding.

Because last year's review of NSPIRG books had insufficient notes, he feels he'll need the extra time.

NSPIRG is also the last student society at Dal that receives money directly from students not to have its own specific section in the DSU's new society policy.

Once it has received its audit, been ratified and society policy has been updated to accommodate it, NSPIRG can be sure it will receive their money, Golding says.

The earliest that can happen is at the next DSU council meeting on Nov. 5.

Comments on this story are now closed