SU Elections 2026 Q&A: Interdepartmental Science Students’ Society Plebiscite

The University of Alberta Students’ Union (SU) 2026 election is giving students the opportunity to vote on a faculty association membership fee (FAMF) renewal for the faculty of science by the Interdepartmental Science Students’ Society (ISSS).

The FAMF is a $7 per semester opt-out fee that applies to all faculty of science students.

Representing ISSS in this Q&A is ISSS Co-President Christene Saji.

The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

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

Christene Saji: ISSS is the faculty of science association for undergraduates. It essentially is a program that provides to all faculty of science students, because there is a fee that they pay called the SCI5, and this fee provides initiatives, resources, services, and grants to students. This can be scholarship opportunities, professional development opportunities, opportunities to interact with research across campus and the faculty of science.

We ensure that there are community engagement events to ensure that their life within their degree and within the university experience, and the faculty of science, is as optimized as possible. We also ensure that across institutional levels within the university, so be that your Students’ Council, students through General Faculties Council (GFC), their voices are advocated for, and our leadership is able to ensure that their concerns are addressed to the faculty of science. The ultimate purpose of our faculties is to act as a liaison between the faculty of science student body and within the faculty of science staff body, and ensure that there is [as] optimal [of a] academic experience within campus as possible. ISSS provides a whole bunch of opportunities for students to get involved in the university and their campus life. 

What is this plebiscite trying to accomplish?

Saji: For the past 14 years, faculty of science students have been paying a $5 fee. This fee is meant to accommodate for all of the initiatives that ISSS offers, be that through scholarships, we currently offer about $20,000 in scholarships that any faculty science student can apply for to get paid out, and all the other grants and opportunities that we provide. With that, we have taken into account that for the past 14 years, this $5 fee cannot accommodate for all the increased initiatives that we want to provide for students. We have an array of things that we want to accommodate for, be that with our consultations that we’ve done to even propose a $2 increase, a lot of students have vocalized an increase in work integrated experiences, so that being through the Science Internship Program (SIP), and an increase in research opportunities.

There’s a career fair that we’re hoping to start up this March. This will be the first career fair the faculty of science has ever offered. So it’s a great opportunity for students to understand that whatever money that is increased by $2, it goes back to their pockets, and these scholarships go back to their pockets, because there’ll be an increase in that scholarship aspect, professional development, grants aspect, and work-integrated experiences.

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

Saji: Students will be paying an additional $2 per semester, and this cost wasn’t random. We looked at inflation over the past 14 years, the rising costs of programming, and funding gaps that we’re currently facing. Council of Student Associations (COSA) groups are the heart and soul of ISSS … and these are departmental and program groups. Within these groups, they offer specialized programs and mentorship opportunities for their own constituents within their departments and programs. And, considering that, a lot of these groups have localized to us, they would love an increase in their funding so that they can have specialized events for their departmental students and programs and interest groups as well.

So considering this, this current $5 fee just simply didn’t stretch as far as we wanted it to, and so we calculated the minimum increase that we could have to fund increase in scholarships, COSA group funding, career fair programming, and a professional clothing drive as well, and keep it as affordable for students as possible. The huge consideration here is that it has been $5 for the past 14 years. So we’re hoping to accommodate for that with the increase and with an announced increase in student population within the faculty of science as well, considering that we already are the largest faculty at the university. So this $2 increase from $5 to $7 is as affordable, and we were very intentional with selecting this amount as well and to ensure that it accounts for the affordability crisis that students are facing, and to ensure that the ultimate goal is to optimize their experience in the faculty of science and the university.

Will all students be paying this fee?

Saji: All faculty of science students will be paying the fee, and it’s an opt-out fee. All students within their tuition, it’s in their SU fees that they already pay, and so it’s accounted for there, and they can opt out. And this is just so that all faculty of science students are members of ISSS, so they can utilize every program, every initiative, every resource that ISSS has to offer and that we will continue to offer for years to come.

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

Saji: ISSS is, once again, meant to advocate for students. ISSS has worked tirelessly to ensure that our resources and our initiatives and our grants and scholarships account for the student experience. Students have talked a lot about feeling lost within their community, and ISSS acts as the liaison between the entirety of faculty of science, but we support our COSA groups, as we’ve said, and this is to ensure that there is specialized services that are catered to specialized students, that are catered to honour students, that are catered to each department, program and interest group.

The faculty of science also this year has utilized its leadership to ensure that our voices are advocated towards the Students’ Council and towards the senate and towards GFC. These are huge bodies within the university, and we’ve been able to speak with our dean about issues that students have been facing throughout campus, so work-integrated experience, research opportunities that a lot of students have been very concerned about, considering that this is a part of their program and their degree. And a lot of students don’t have this opportunity, but they want to increase in their field and their life beyond post-grad. ISSS is working to ensure that all of this can be accommodated for, a life beyond the faculty of science at the U of A and a life within it and to ensure that there is integration amongst it all. The purpose of ISSS is to support every single faculty of science student, but it’s not just isolated to that. Every faculty of science student is also a student at the U of A, and so we are meant to accommodate for that all and to ensure that their voices are heard throughout the university and our larger community as well. So this fee is meant to ultimately support that. 

CORRECTION: A correction was issued at 12:27 p.m. on February 24 to correct that the ISSS fee is a plebiscite, not a referendum.