Governance
The Founding of the Society (Born in Flames)
The Graduate Students’ Society was not always an independent organization. Indeed, graduate students were initially members of the Alma Mater Society (AMS), which represented all students at the University of Victoria. As part of this organization, graduate students found it difficult to have their particular needs and concerns addressed – in other words, they lacked a voice. It was in the hopes of addressing this lack of representation that The Committee for the Formation of an Independent Graduate Student Society was formed.
The challenge to this nascent committee came from an unexpected quarter – the Alma Mater Society itself, which favoured having a single student executive acting as representative to the University on behalf of all students. It was this view that was originally carried in a Faculty Council Meeting on September 22, 1966.
Graduate students, however, were undeterred and in a successful appeal to the Senate were authorized to immediately establish an independent Graduate Students’ Society on November 23, 1966.
The documents surrounding this appeal (including the carried motion and letters from both Couglan and Bigsby) are below.
- Appeal to the Senate by the Committe for the Formation of an Independent Graduate Student Society (including correspondence received by P.A. Couglan): Appeal to Senate by Cttee re forming GSS
- Briefing on the Appeal (including a letter from Bigsby urging the Senate to reject the appeal): 1966-11-14 Briefing to Senate re forming GSS
- Senate Minutes (including the carried motion to grant the appeal): 1966-11-23 Senate Minutes
Throughout the 1960’s and 1970’s, the GSS began campaigns to establish a UVic Childcare Centre and to unionize the TAs. The Childcare Centre opened in 1985 and the TAs unionized formally in 1998. Prior to unionizing the TAs, the GSS directly secured them a 14% wage increase in 1995.
In the 1980’s and 1990’s, the GSS became a more established centre on campus. Halpern Centre for Graduate Students opened in 1991. The GSS began a campaign to create a sexual harassment policy at UVic in 1994. In 1998, the GSS’ long campaign for the unionization of the TAs succeeded, following an earlier success to secure them a 14% raise in 1995. In 1999, the GSS launched the U-Pass and Health and Dental Insurance services, still our foundational services to this day.
In the 2000’s, the GSS took over management of the Grad House restaurant (2003), and expanded the kitchen (2008). Our governance and advocacy successes include securing the first supervisory policy for grad students and their supervisors (2004), increasing grad student seats on UVic Senate (2009) and securing seats on FGS Council (2009).
In the 2010’s, the GSS secured personal leave rights for master’s students (2011), launched a campaign for a BC Grad Scholarship in 2013 (BCGS was launched in 2018 but is not a permanent government program as of 2022), and started work on getting RAs rights as University employees (begun in 2013).
We secured a grad student seat on the Board of Governors (2016) and increased representation for students on FGS Council (2016). UVic updated their sexualized violence policy with consultation from GSS in 2017. The GSS also undertook a full renovation of the Grad House in 2017. Side Project Café was closed in February 2020 due to financial viability concerns.
In 2020, the GSS pivoted to providing online services in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Operational changes included taking the Health and Dental insurance plan to referendum to keep distance learners on our insurance plan and the closure of the Grad House restaurant and the GSS office in March 2020. Starting in 2021, when safe to do so, we have been working on service recovery and bringing back in-person events/services.
Our main campaigns in the 2020’s have been: advocating for the building of a graduate student dorm on campus; the extension and expansion of the BC Graduate Scholarship program; and continued work on campaigning for the unionization of Research Assistants across campus.