National Union of Students (Canada)

The National Union of Students, Union nationale des étudiants (NUS/UNE) was a national university and college student organization in Canada from November 1972 to May 1981. The Union represented over 350,000 students in post secondary education. Donald Thompson, Sidney Shugarman, Pierre Ouellette, Myron Tiechko, Daniel Palmer, Dawn Hassett, Doyle Brown and Ian Boothe are listed as the first directors.

As stated in its constitution, the NUS/UNE was created in order to defend the interests of its members and all post-secondary students, coordinate operations, provide a forum for debate and discussion, and to "act as an agent of social change." In a standing resolution, the philosophical underpinnings of the NUS/UNE are revealed. Education is considered a right in order to achieve a goal of serving "… society by developing the full potential of all citizens as free, creative, thinking and acting human beings and there-fore to serve society by helping achieve equality of the essential conditions of human living."

With its head office located in Ottawa, Ontario, the NUS/UNE had a democratic structure in which elected delegates put forward, debated and decided policy through an Annual General Meeting held between April 30 and May 15 of each year. AGM locations were held in each province on a rotational basis. The Union recognized individual student unions and provincial organizations as members pending a two/thirds majority vote by Central Committee. Each member organization elected one delegate to represent on Central Committee which was made up of three national directors, one treasurer, one executive officer, one chairperson, one women's commissioner, one bilingual member-at-large, one representative of the Association of Student Councils’ Board of Directors, and up to ten provincial representatives. Regional or provincial organizations elected their representatives to Central Committee and all other Central Committee members were elected by the membership at large at each AGM. In addition to the Central Committee there were several standing committees and a caucus: Budget Committee (oversaw finances and controlled where dues were spent), Women's Caucus, and a Small Institutions Caucus.

NUS/UNE was created by students in 1972 as a response to looming post secondary education cuts from the federal government. The federal government instituted a ceiling on Post Secondary Education matching grants to provinces and territories. The prospect of reduced federal transfers for universities, increasing costs, and an all-loan student aid plan proposed by the Council of Ministers of Education, compelled students to reorganize where the Canadian Union of Students had left off in 1969.

...
Wikipedia