Policies & Platform

FEDS is the first place for students to voice their concerns and make policy which impacts us all. Major tenets of our promises to you, the students are:

Fiscal Responsibility

We believe strongly in financial responsibility. FEDS operates a budget of over $3 million CAD with a massive fluctuation in expenditure, but a fairly reliable and growing income pool.

  • FEDS 2016/17 budget expects to run a $5,300.00 deficit. We intend to increase the financial accountability of FEDS and require a greater responsibility of student money.
  • FEDS expenditure is growing at a rate that is not sustainable with current income levels. If services do not get back to the students, then the question needs to be asked, are we spending student money appropriately?
  • We believe that FEDS primary objective should be to provide resources for the students it taxes. Unfortunately, nearly 34% of all expenses are administrative in origin, meaning less is spent helping the students who pay into the system.
FEDS Budget

138% Rise in Employee Salaries

As can be seen from the above table, real salaries for employees have risen faster than the projected (budgeted) salaries in each fiscal year since 2014.

  • In the plot on the left you can see that the projected salaries for the 2016/17 year are dramatically higher than previous years.
  • Between 2014 and 2015 there was a 112.56% increase in fees, but from 2014 to 2016 there was a 137.67% increase.
  • If you want to think about this another way, that means that your student fees are growing at a rate of ~$3.26/year (per capita growth in administrative fees).
  • Meaning your administrative fees in the next year around $280 dollars (with a $56.62 FEDS fee & $272.96 in FEDS administered fees totaling FEDS fees ≳$330).


Cutting your Fees

The biggest obstacle facing reform campaigns are the difficulty in slashing FEDS bureaucracy firing redundant employees. Hiring & firing at waterloo must be done through the University HR, even for our FEDS Corporation, meaning to let someone go requires a big severance package, making it difficult to trim budgets for bureaucrats.

Part of the issue underlying expenditure increases are the pensions increase at triple the rate of Consumer Price Index (CPI).

One potential factor to stem the hemorrhage of your student tax money is attrition. Suspend new hiring by FEDS. By using current staff before hiring new staff, we can reduce wastefulness and increase the efficiency of our student government.

Transparency

  • The most essential question of any government is how well it serves the people. FEDS transparency is foggy at best; with huge resources and a layered bureaucracy, FEDS can be a confusing mess. We hope to increase student understanding of FEDS, increase student involvement, and check the powers of the FEDS executives.
  • By giving regular town-hall style meetings and participating in our engaged student community, we intend to hold FEDS accountable to you.

Local Governance

  • By sitting on the Science Society Board of Directors, we will hear the concerns of Science programs, social issues, and work on the issues most important to you.
  • FEDS Science Councillors are ex officio members of the Science Society Board of Directors (SciSoc BoD). Here we debate the best ways to spend science student funds for program initiatives and Science Faculty outreach.

Interfaculty Relations & Healthy Debate

  • We promise to work closely with other FEDS Faculty Councillors to ensure policies best for all Waterloo Students are enacted so FEDS can best serve you, the student body.
  • Across the Faculties, Councillors debate bylaws and implement new policies to better serve and protect the student body. Collaboration is the key to successful reform and transparency at the FEDS level.
  • We are a voice for Science Students at Waterloo. Your concerns are important to us, so please feel free to contact us and give us your feedback or concerns.