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1976 - 2007 (Creation)
- Creator
- The Society of the Students' Union of the University of Kings College
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3 m of textual records
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Administrative history
The King's Student Union is the governing student organization of the University of King's College in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and acts as the students' representative in improving academic and campus life experiences. It functions as a body of students elected to represent the interests of fellow students.
The King's Students' Union ("KSU") includes all students attending the University of King's College. Its purpose is to provide services for its members and represent them politically. The KSU has members on the Board of Governors and on University committees, and works with the University administration to improve the quality of education and student life at College.
The services provided by the KSU include a health insurance plan, Orientation Week, the Student Handbook, the yearbook, and graduation week activities. The KSU also funds many different societies and committees and King's athletics. The KSU operates HMCS King's Wardroom, the campus lounge. The KSU is governed by its members at general meetings, open forums where each member has an equal vote and right to participate in direct democracy. Between the two general meetings each year, Student Council acts as the governing body of the KSU. Council meetings are open to all KSU members, but the only people who may vote are the 17 elected-representatives.
Students have operated on a collective basis from the early years of the University of King's College, which was founded in Windsor, Nova Scotia, in 1789. In 1806, students presented a memorial to the Board of Governors soliciting assistance in meeting their living expenses, obliged, as they then were, to provide their own servants. This was one of many petitions drawn up over the years. Other student organizations that were formed for the furtherance of particular objectives have a long history at King's, as well: the Quintilian, a debating society, was founded in 1845, and the Haliburton literary society was founded in 1884. Both continue today with financial support from the KSU.
Almost four decades after female students were admitted to King's College in 1893, the Co-Ed Council was formed in 1932 to represent the interests of female students. (The Co-Ed Council should not be confused with the Co-Ed Club, also called the Co-Ed Association, that was active from 1913-1967.) In 1965, the Co-Ed Council merged with the Men's Students' Council, the modem KSU was formed, and the students elected their first President.
Custodial history
Scope and content
The series consists of records documenting the KSU's involvement with organizations outside of the King's community, including student movement and advocacy groups at national, regional and provincial levels, as well as communications with governments at each of those levels. This series also includes records of relations between the KSU and other Canadian students' unions.
Files may include correspondence, publications, dues notices and invoices, handouts, meeting minutes of each organization, policies, posters, campaign material, press clippings, etc. Records by scope of organization (national to local), then chronologically within each organization.
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General note
National student representation at King's has existed since the 1960s, when the Canadian Union of Students was represented at King's by a Chairman and Council. Members of this council also served on the KSU, but CUSK was a separate division.
The KSU has been a member of a number of national and regional student organizations. It belonged to the Atlantic Federation of Students ("AFS"), which was formed in 1975 as a union of students from 12 l;lniversities and colleges in Atlantic Canada. The AFS was associated with the National Union of Students (NUS), which emerged in 1972 from the previous Canadian Union of Students (CUS), formed in the late 1920s. Internal and external conflicts led to the AFS disbanding, and in 1978, student representatives from 11 Nova Scotia post-secondary institutions met in Halifax to found a provincial organization to replace it, the Students' Union of Nova Scotia ("SUNS").
Today, the KSU is Local 11 of the Canadian Federation of Students ("CFS"), and every student is a member of CFS. CFS works locally, provincially, and nationally toward the elimination of barriers to quality post-secondary education that exist as a result of finances, class, gender, race, sexual orientation, and regional disparity. Its activities include education and awareness campaigns, lobbying government representatives, and political actions. CFS is also affiliated with many other social justice organizations in Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and across the country.
KSU has ties to other student governments, exchanging correspondence with Dalhousie Students' Union and others.
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- University of King's College (Subject)
- Canadian Federation of Students (Subject)