The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU)’s Board of Directors (BoD) debated fee increases for the Union for Gender Empowerment (UGE), purchasing access to a grammar service, Antidote, for more students, and proposed changes to the executive committee roles at their Feb. 18 meeting.
The meeting began with a public report from Parliamentarian Jessica Bakar regarding the hiring for the Nominating Committee’s Alumni Representative position.
Following the report, Director of Clubs and Services Hamza Abu Alkhair presented the Motion Regarding the Increase of the Referral Services Fee—an opt-outable semesterly fee split among the UGE and four other SSMU services. This change would increase the total referral services fee from $6.03 CAD per semester to $7.28 CAD, with the UGE’s share raising from $0.75 CAD to $2.00 CAD. The UGE expects this would result in a $45,000 CAD increase in revenue, allowing the group to offer a broader variety of products and keep up with rising costs.
Director and Arts Undergraduate Society President Sofia Garofolo asked why the UGE fee was going up when the Menstrual Health Project fee was also being increased. Keith Bellec-Warrick, a post-graduate member of UGE in the Faculty of Education, responded, explaining the difference between the two services.
“There are a couple differences that are fundamental to our functioning that differentiate what the UGE offers as services and supplies versus what the Menstrual Health [Project] does,” Bellec-Warrick said.
While the Menstrual Health Project focuses exclusively on providing menstrual health products, the UGE also provides gender-affirming products, safe sex supplies, workshops, and educational resources. Bellec-Warrick also called attention to the rising cost of menstrual health products since 2020, further justifying the fee increase.
General Manager Maya Marcus-Sells voiced her support for the motion, as well as her concern that it could be too late to include it in the Winter 2025 referendum. SSMU President Dymetri Taylor noted that there was “no guarantee” that the motion would meet the deadline even if approved.
Abu Alkhair motioned to approve the motion and send it to McGill “expeditiously.” The motion did not, however, appear in the Winter 2025 referendum.
The meeting also saw the approval of the purchase of an additional 800 subscriptions to the French version of Antidote—a bilingual grammar software. Taylor reported that SSMU had hit the cap on the number of seats in this service, leaving about 1,600 students who had registered for Antidote barred from access.
Taylor thus proposed buying the remaining 800 additional seats for a total cost of $22,400 CAD, pulled from student support fees. Abu Alkhair added further support for the purchase.
“It’s especially worth noting that Antidote was founded and headquartered in Montreal, so it’s a Canadian company, and it always feels good to support local tech.”
The motion passed unanimously.
VP External Hugo-Victor Solomon then brought forward a two-part motion from the Legislative Council. This motion would reduce the Executive Committee from seven positions to six by assigning the duties of the VP Operations and Sustainability to the VP Internal, and make the role of VP Finance a hired position as opposed to an elected one.
Solomon clarified that even if the VP Finance role was appointed, the candidate would have to be selected by a hiring committee and approved by students through a referendum. Director Fawaz Halloum said that he had reservations about making the VP Finance position an appointed role, citing the difficulty in finding a sufficiently qualified candidate. The motion to add this question to the Winter 2025 referendum passed.
Moment of the meeting:
The BoD also approved the addition of the SSMU Musicians Collective (MUSCO) fee increase for the Winter 2025 referendum ballot. Abu Alkhair noted that this fee increase would also go towards subsidizing instrument rentals to make instruments more accessible. This motion ultimately did not appear on the referendum ballot.
Soundbite:
“To have someone who’s already familiar with accounting principles, you’re looking for someone who’s in their third or fourth year, and it’s just going to be a very narrow slice of students, and we already struggled to have people run.” — Director Fawaz Halloum regarding the process of finding a qualified candidate for the VP Finance position.
