Universities, including UWO, and TravelCuts reach deal
EDMONTON (CUP) -- After a more than decade-long legal battle, it took just over a month for the four students' unions involved in the Travel Cuts lawsuit to finalize the settlement and establish a holding corporation for their shares in the company.
At a meeting in London, Ontario last week, representatives from student governments at the universities of Alberta, British Columbia, Western Ontario and Queen's formed the Canadian Student Horizons Group (CSHG) as a holding organization for the 24 per cent stake in Travel Cuts they and other student unions acquired in the settlement.
The shares, in addition to two seats on the Travel Cuts Board of Directors, were part of a settlement agreement between the schools and Canadian Federation of Students Services (CFS-S) that resolved a protracted lawsuit about ownership of the company after the transfer of assets from the Association of Student Councils-Canada (AOSC) to CFS-S in the late 1980s. The settlement went through despite controversial comments by U of A SU President Graham Lettner in February that violated its terms.
“The money that was invested in the lawsuit is money paid out; there's no more money invested in it,” said Ryan Dunn, President of the University Students' Council (USC) at the University of Western Ontario. “Now, [the USC] is just talking about investing money into Student Horizons. The lawsuit funds and the lawsuit is over and done with. ... We've eaten our legal costs and moved on.”
While they're still in the early stages of the creation, with plenty of issues needing to be resolved—including how to divide Travel Cuts profits amongst members—the parties involved in discussions last week did create a five member Board of Directors to oversee and set up the corporation. The settlement agreement had previously named the general managers of the four student associations as the provisional board, but Kevin Keyston, the President-elect of UBC's Alma Mater Society, was named as student representative.
“The logistics of getting everyone together to talk about these things is difficult because we've got UBC, Alberta, Queens and Western, and we're not exactly next-door neighbours,” said Students' Union Vice-President (Operations and Finance) Jason Tobias. “It's tough to do these things over e-mail or over conference call, but we've got a Board of Directors set up to manage some of this stuff.”
“We have to remember that this is just a holding organization, nothing more,” added Dunn, explaining that CSHG has a very loose structure. “I'm quite happy with the structure we have right now and I look forward to seeing it strengthened.”
At a meeting in London, Ontario last week, representatives from student governments at the universities of Alberta, British Columbia, Western Ontario and Queen's formed the Canadian Student Horizons Group (CSHG) as a holding organization for the 24 per cent stake in Travel Cuts they and other student unions acquired in the settlement.
The shares, in addition to two seats on the Travel Cuts Board of Directors, were part of a settlement agreement between the schools and Canadian Federation of Students Services (CFS-S) that resolved a protracted lawsuit about ownership of the company after the transfer of assets from the Association of Student Councils-Canada (AOSC) to CFS-S in the late 1980s. The settlement went through despite controversial comments by U of A SU President Graham Lettner in February that violated its terms.
“The money that was invested in the lawsuit is money paid out; there's no more money invested in it,” said Ryan Dunn, President of the University Students' Council (USC) at the University of Western Ontario. “Now, [the USC] is just talking about investing money into Student Horizons. The lawsuit funds and the lawsuit is over and done with. ... We've eaten our legal costs and moved on.”
While they're still in the early stages of the creation, with plenty of issues needing to be resolved—including how to divide Travel Cuts profits amongst members—the parties involved in discussions last week did create a five member Board of Directors to oversee and set up the corporation. The settlement agreement had previously named the general managers of the four student associations as the provisional board, but Kevin Keyston, the President-elect of UBC's Alma Mater Society, was named as student representative.
“The logistics of getting everyone together to talk about these things is difficult because we've got UBC, Alberta, Queens and Western, and we're not exactly next-door neighbours,” said Students' Union Vice-President (Operations and Finance) Jason Tobias. “It's tough to do these things over e-mail or over conference call, but we've got a Board of Directors set up to manage some of this stuff.”
“We have to remember that this is just a holding organization, nothing more,” added Dunn, explaining that CSHG has a very loose structure. “I'm quite happy with the structure we have right now and I look forward to seeing it strengthened.”
