Yes, we are back!

by thisisourumsu

Hello, and welcome again to our site. Although we haven’t been active in the past 8 months, this doesn’t mean that Jeremiah Kopp as UMSU President has changed and everything is great at UMSU. In fact, we have a whole list of issues to discuss in the coming weeks and months. Issues that relate to accountability, transparency and the wasteful spending of our student money. Issues that relate to spending tens of thousands of dollars without Council approval and hiring friends on contract without any sort of hiring process. Issues that relate to democracy within the student union, such as drastically changing UMSU governing documents with little to no student input, but instead paying thousands of dollars (also unapproved) to their outside consultant friend from Montreal to write everything for them to give the executive and president even more power and control. How about the UMSU President dismissing or squashing any sort of questioning or reasonable requests to have adequate discussion in Council and to allow for enough time (and perhaps a student referendum) to actually consult students, particularly as it relates to drastic increases in student fees. And how about that Health and Dental Plan? Did we not say that the private company raking in significant profits from our money would ask for an increase in our premiums after Jeremiah Kopp as Vice-President Internal last year locked UMSU into a five-year contract? And it was a huge increase at that, over $45 per member. In fact, the largest increase in premiums ever seen by the Plan since it started back in early 2000s. And from what we’ve been told by previous Council members, also was illegal as the amount was much greater than the percentage increase allowed by UMSU Bylaws and the original referendum question. We were able to confirm this through Board of Governors minutes and the Manitoban archives. More on this shady health plan deal and how it came to be in a future post. For now, we want to put it out there to you, what do you want us to talk about and share with members of UMSU? What’s going on in your corner of campus that you want to share with us? Send your suggestions our way through the comment link on our site. We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Your Our UMSU team