SU Elections 2025 Q&A: FAUnA Referendum

The University of Alberta Students’ Union (SU) 2025 election is giving students the opportunity to vote on the creation of a Faculty Association Membership Fee (FAMF) for the faculty of agricultural, life, and environmental sciences (ALES) by the Faculty Association for Undergraduate Students in ALES (FAUnA). 

The FAUnA FAMF will go toward funding opportunities for students in ALES. This referendum proposes a fee of $2 in the fall and winter semesters for all undergraduate full-time and part-time students in ALES.

Representing FAUnA in this Q&A is Melody Wu, a second-year animal health student.

The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

What is this referendum trying to accomplish?

Melody Wu: The referendum is trying to accomplish allowing ALES undergrad students central funding. We’ll gather $2 every semester from all ALES undergraduate students, and this fund will go 100 per cent back towards our ALES undergraduate students. None of it is going into FAUnA’s pockets or the faculty’s pockets. It’s just going straight back to our ALES students. It would go towards funding events for our ALES students, it would go towards funding initiatives. There’s funding for if students want to attend conferences that they might otherwise have financial barriers towards. It would go towards things like subsidizing first aid, kind of like what you see in the faculty of ALES. A portion of the money will be set aside for our student groups, because in ALES, our student groups are very strong. But we also want to have that extra funding in case they need it. Of course, in future years, we want to have even more initiative. If you have any ideas, you can also come to our office and we are willing to consult about this as well.

For students who don’t know, what is FAUnA?

Wu: FAMF is the Faculty Association Membership Fee. As FAUnA, we have the opportunity to sort of propose this fee. This fee would go 100 per cent back to our ALES undergraduate students. If you decide that what the FAMF brings for you is not necessarily valuable, you can opt-out.

If this referendum passes, how much will students be paying and how was that cost determined?

Wu: The students will be paying $2 per semester. It’d be just for the fall semester and the winter semester, so during summer there would be no fee. The cost was determined just to allow an entry level fee, because a lot of the other faculties associations have some bigger fees, like $10 or $20 every semester, and we think that transition would be too sudden for ALES students who previously did not have the fee. Because of the smaller fee, we can determine what we want in the future before we up the price for ALES students.

Will all students be paying this fee?

Wu: This fee would be paid by all ALES undergraduate students. You can opt-out if you’re not interested.

Why do you think students should care about the work being done by FAUnA? 

Wu: A lot of the time, being in university is very isolating. Having that central position in which you can reach the resources for your faculty and meet similar minded people — if you are facing financial barriers, having that in place would make you feel much safer and have greater access to the resources within the university.

– With files from Gabriella Menezes.