UTMSU announced a referendum in which students enrolled in the Mississauga Academy of Medicine will vote on joining the student union as paying members.
The referendum will be held from January 25 to 27 in the Health Sciences Complex. Only Mississauga Academy of Medicine students will be eligible to vote.
The referendum will consist of two parts covered under one vote. The first part asks whether the students wish simply to be a part of UTMSU. Currently, our student union represents all full-time undergraduate UTM students. Representation in the student union would give MAM students access to services such as the U-Pass and the student tax clinic.
The second part of the referendum asks whether the students approve of UTMSU’s fee schedule, which they would pay for as part of their tuition.
The fees and levies, which all full-time UTM students pay, covers the U-Pass, the Student Centre, UTMSU administration, the Blind Duck Pub, On-Campus Emergency Response, clubs, academic societies, the food bank, the refugee program, The Medium, and CFRE (UTM’s radio station). Last year these fees and levies came to $198.14 for the September to April academic year. For students stay through the summer term, additional summer fees apply.
Current MAM student fees cover the use of the UTM shuttle to and from the St. George campus and will not be affected by the referendum.
The fees and levies are an “all or nothing” agreement. If MAM students wish to be part of UTMSU, they must pay for all the services, regardless of whether they will use those services. The Blind Duck fee ($6.50 yearly) is refundable, but all other fees and levies are mandatory.
At UTMSU’s Annual General Meeting last semester, a seat was created on the union’s Board of Directors for a MAM representative before the referendum to approve their membership.
The first class of students was inducted into the MAM at the Health and Sciences Complex this August. The school is one of four of U of T’s medical academies for the education and training of medical students.
Although the students will spend all four years of their medical training on the UTM campus, MAM students’ primary affiliation is with the St. George campus. All medical students apply directly to the St. George campus and are then placed at one of the four medical academies.
MAM currently has a student society, MedSoc. MedSoc elected representatives for the Mississauga academy in October. Regardless of the referendum results, UTMSU will continue working with MedSoc.
MAM expects to reach an enrolment of 216 students by 2015.
