The UPEI SUN, January 23, 1982, page
Canadian Federation Of Student services
By John MacDougall
In early Decammar- of 1981, Terry Palmer and myself attended a meeting of the Board of Directors of CFSS (Canadian Federation of Student Services).
Terry is the treasurer
of the organization and
I am our provincial representative. The Board of Directors consists of a chairman,
a treasurer, and a representative from each province in Canada with the exception of Quebec and New Brunswick. P.E.I. and Ontario are in the unique position of having two members each on the Board. Since the Chairman is from Ontario and the treasurer is from PEI
an additional provincial rep. is allowed; therefore representation is strong.
CFSS is the newly inscrporated.name of the fonner AOSC (Association of Student‘COuncils).. CTSS is a non—share, non—profit Canadian corporation “owned” by most of the post-secondary student councils in Canada. Canadian Universities Travel Service - CUTS Travel-is our largest wholly—owned subsidiary.
CUTS Travel is designed to give the travelling student the best deals possible both at home and abroad. With the recent acquisition of a license to sell travel in Quebec, CUTS now has nine offices across CAnada. The services of , CUTS are wide and varied. Examples_range from the upooning ski trip to Mount Ste Anne to a program of trips to China will be set up this summer. Transatlantic flights are a strong product with CUTS due to the arrangements made with British Airways for r travelling students.
At this time, the closest CUTS office to serve Island students is in Halifax. However, attempts at establishing referral services, toll free numbers, and mail order business are being made and hopefully will be available very soon.
CFSS has many other services available to the Canadian student and I will briefly outline some of these here.-
In 1977, AOSC/CFSS
started to develop a r ~national student discount? program by talking to businesses that already offered discounts to students locally, and also soliciting’new “ discounts on behalf of all Canadian students. The medium used to obtain these concessions is the‘ International Student Identity Card (ISIC) ,
the only common card available‘throughout the country. The ISIC is issued in 45 countries
. besides Canada and the
benefits available in any country are applicable to every'Cardholder. CFSS is the only company in Canada with the rights to
“distribute the card.
Currently, there are approxnnately 1500 ‘ dsicounts available in Canada and a program has been initiated to increase this number tenfold in the near future. The card and a listing of discounts is available at the ‘ 'Student Union Office in the Barna' The card is, issued free of charge to students of an institution that is a full member of CFSS. At present, UPEI is a . prospective neuter'and to become a full member a referendum must be held within the student body and a majority vote of a quorum must be achieved. Discussions of this are underway and you will hear more about it later.
Other programs of CFSS include:
«-Student work Abroad
Program SWAP Last year approxi- mately 370 students participated in the four SWAP programmes. 265 of these went to jobs in Britain, 75 to New Zealand and 25 to Belguim. For this year, programmes in Australia and Mexico are also being investigated. Direct Mail Programme This operates as a" CFS information distribution service to keep the' members of CFS informEd of the happenings with— Debentures ‘ —_—_7fhi§_is an important part of capital financing for CFSS.. Student unions are encouraged to participate in this program to help CFSS maintain its current level of services and to initiate new ones.
These have been ’ some of the ongoing projects of CFSS. There are also new projects being developed some of which are in operation on a trial basis. Sons of these include:
“Entertainment Booking
This would include
ya national booking 'agency giving student
unions access to and information of more- groups, acts, *etc. Insurance ‘
CFSS is currently studying the possibility of setting up a national- insurance program for _students. This would _ include a comprehensive package covering such
things as healthq accident,
drug, life, fire, contents, tenant and legal needs. CQ~operatives .
Locally organized~ operations having' ' potential for supplying students with a variety of services e.g. food, books, clothing, appliances, and even. taxis.. Credit Unions
Offering a wide range of financial
‘ serVices to students.
Career Recruitment and Resume Distribution Studies are under way in this area to determine the neeed for ~services which are supplementary to those provided in this area
through existing placement centres. Translation Services
_ Could be provided through making use of the large body of bi— and—multié lingual ‘ students within our nrnbership.
Canadian Progr
V Service (CPS) is another_
program of CFSS worth .nentioning. CPS is a lecture bureau designed to develop and encourage Canadians to share their. expertise by becoming
‘.regular speakers aS*'
Well as providing ‘audiences with booking
. services in the area of
_speakers. CPS iS’
’ currently booking out
Speakers; from Maurice?
’Tugwell — an expert on
international terrorism -"
'to Dr. David’suzuki who needs no introduction.' This area should prove” to be valuable not Only to student associations but also to faculty associations'and to the general public as a whole. «
There are many more aspects to CFSS —'far_‘ too many to include here._ Terry and/or‘ myself would be very happy to tell you about them and to expand on those mentiOned.\ Please feel free to cOntact us through the Student ’ Unidn Office.r “ ».,
Mature .and' Part-time “Students
An Association has
been formed to promote the interests and , objectives of degree orientated part—time and nature students. The executive neubers, are Marjorie “bod as President,‘Nhriel
welsh as Vice-PreSidnet
; and Jewel MacDonald as Secretary-Tresurer.
' These members, as well\r
as all“nenbers of the' Advisory crmuattee,
are part-tine CELEBEUIE
students. 7- a 3 Some concerns an
ideas that were raised _
e and discussed at a'
January 20th meeting ’*
were: the need to. encourage academic excellence through greater use of course evaluations and the ‘
need for better planning ‘
of part-time academic degree programs. A Acyclic program for ‘
C program-
' 894-5224.
'evening-credithcourses
is seen as crucial if the student is.to ‘ logicalLy plan ahead.
~ Such planning-can'only ‘ be done by.knowing that
in ceuixuliyears,certain courses will be offered and that more core courses be part of the The Harris Report of UPEI notes» this need to "develop ”
'V coherent part-tine
academic progrannes". _ Other issues raised were: library hours, books
on short reserve, lack
"of eveing labs, r alla, real guxtflnme to the
student whose time on campus is limited. Anyone desiring ‘ infornation or input in future policy.and' ‘ direction can call
“Marjorie Wood at 569-4605,. Muriel Walsh at 566-2911, .
or Jewel MacDonald at 1jf