The Martlet

The UVic Students’ Society (UVSS) has voted to “not currently” recognize Access UVic as the constituency group for students with a disability at UVic. The UVSS made the decision at their Aug. 23 board meeting after a four-hour long in-camera session on the matter.

“What the board has done is say that Access UVic does not fill the role of the constituency group because they have not held up their end on the Memorandum of Agreement — they’ve been a non-performer. Specifically, they hadn’t gotten a chartered accountant to do their financial statements on an annual basis or do accounting records,” said UVSS Chairperson James Coccola.

The Memorandum of Agreement was signed in 2007 “to acknowledge that the UVSS and Access UVic are separate, distinct and equal entities with the common goals of organizing and advocating for students and to pledge a spirit of collaboration and mutual support in pursuit of those goals.”

Coccola says that, since 2007, Access has been filling the role of the UVSS constituency group Society for Students with a Disability. But Access’ Executive Director Rose Mariana Robb disagrees, saying that Access and the Society for Students with a Disability are not distinct groups.

“Perhaps [the UVSS] thinks that the name change happened at the time of incorporation [in 2007] but in fact the name change happened several years earlier in 2004,” said Robb. “So we are the Society for Students with Disabilities. We are not a separate organization.”

Robb also says that the Agreement “in no way sets out the criteria by which they decide to recognize, or not, an organization as a constituency organization of the UVSS.”

According to Robb, no one at Access realized that their professional accountant was not the same as a chartered accountant.

“It was quite inadvertent that it wasn’t a chartered accountant,” she said. “We’re quite happy to have the financial statements redone by a chartered accountant. They haven’t asked us to do that but we’re quite happy to do that.”

Coccola says there are other issues, however, including the fact that the UVSS wants to see an audit go forward after questions surrounding Access’ finances arose last February.

“It’s been an excruciatingly long time for everyone involved … this is really a reaction to the fact that we haven’t seen any cooperation as far as we’re concerned,” said Coccola.

He says that an audit is integral to Access once again becoming a constituency group.

“We are waiting for interviews to happen from a number of people involved in Access UVic,” said Coccola. “They can again fill [the constituency] role. But an audit needs to get done … there are questions about the finances … we need to know if there was anything wrong. If there’s nothing wrong, then fine. If there was something wrong, then things need to change before we can begin to reevaluate how our relationship looks with Access UVic.”

Robb says communication between the UVSS and Access has been lacking, both in terms of direct communication and communication through legal channels. She says that at the time of the Aug. 23 motion, Access had not received a request for interviews for the audit, though a letter did arrive afterwards.

For now, the board’s non-recognition says that Access is not currently a constituency group of the UVSS, meaning that they do not have a spot on the board.

As well, all funds for Access that the university collects from students are being held in trust. According to Coccola, the university has said that if they don’t see an audit, they will stop remitting funds at all.

Coccola notes, however, that Access continues to function.

“They still exist. They are a non-profit society. We don’t control the non-profit society,” he said. “But them, as a constituency group, is completely different.”

Currently, keys to the Access office can be signed out from the general office.

“It’s meant to be a safe space for students with a disability,” said Coccola.

He says that students with a disability looking for resources can go to the Resource Centre for Students with a Disability or the ombudsperson.

Coccola doesn’t see any other group filling the constituency group role for students with a disability at UVic.

“I don’t expect any constituency group to be established before any of this gets sorted out,” he said. “We’d need to know what’s going on with the funds from last semester before we went anywhere in that direction. Until an audit’s done, that’s not an option on the table.”

For now, Robb says Access will continue to do what they’ve always done.

“One of the hallmarks of disability culture is that people with disabilities have a tremendous amount of patience, are very resourceful people and we hope that we have those positive characteristics at all. And we’re continuing with our work,” she said.

The group is currently working on several projects, including a good-bye party for S Hut and a lecture and discussion series called Engaging Disability.

Robb says Access anticipates a “fair and reasonable resolution” of the non-recognition.

“Hopefully sooner rather than later,” she said.

Coccola agrees that a timely resolution is needed.

“This has been a very long and painful process,” he said. “It’s my least favourite issue that I’ve had to deal with all year and I’ve had to deal with a number of very divisive issues. I think that every person on the board would like to see this resolved as quickly as possible.”