UdeM Students Split from FEUQ

NewsMichelle Pucci — Published March 28, 2015

Student associations at Université de Montréal voted unanimously to leave the provincial university student organization Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec (FEUQ).

At UdeM’s annual student congress, the 83 departmental associations representing 40,000 students voted to leave the FEUQ. The Fédération des associations étudiantes du campus de l’Université de Montréal (FAECUM) will discuss the possibility of creating a new province-wide student association in the coming weeks.

No new information will be available until a committee of student representations makes a decision. FAECUM says they’re speaking with student associations across Quebec,

The Concordia Student Union is one of the remaining member associations of the FEUQ, which now represents 85,000 students—Concordia makes up a solid part with about 35,000 undergraduates.

The FEUQ has been criticized for not being transparent or democratic. Some argue the provincial organization doesn’t represent issues faced by its smaller member associations or those out of Montreal.

The decision at UdeM was made based on resolutions at general assemblies and is being criticized by the FEUQ and the CSU for not following the referendum process. Campaigning for and against disaffiliation began last month.

“At this point I will say we are disappointed in the process the FAECUM took to pull out of the FEUQ,” said CSU president Benjamin Prunty. “It isn’t conducive to a constructive student movement, and it makes us extremely hesitant to work with them any time soon.”

He added that discussions on CSU’s representation within a “largely francophone provincial landscape” will happen before the new leadership takes over in June.

In February, education students at UQAM voted to disaffiliate from the FEUQ through a referendum. The association has decided to work with education students in other schools to focus on campaigns relevant to their departments.