Graduate tudents are voting on whether to dissolve their student union today. Graduate students are eligible to vote online until 11:59pm today.
This comes after it was revealed that the GSU is in debt to its health insurance provider Greenshield, to the tune of $1.6 million dollars.
Despite this, Memorial University’s Graduate Student Union (GSU) says it has secured health and dental coverage for its members for the 2026-27 academic year.
“We are extremely happy that we were able to work together with CFS, GreenShield, and Prosum to secure a path forward for the GSU without students losing health and dental coverage,” said Gaayathri Sukantha Murugan, GSU Executive Director of Communications, quoted in a press release by the Canadian Federation of Students.
This new plan will have no price increase, but with reduced coverage intended to repay Greenshield. According to a proposed benefit plan summary prepared by Prosum, a health and dental broker, which will serve as a repayment plan the debt will be repaid by year four.
Kieran Knoll, the president of the Teaching Assistant Association of MUN, says that this plan is not adequate.
“Graduate students are going to be cheated, and those 2,500 people who are at risk of losing insurance, including myself, will now be asked to pay 900$+ a year for a plan that students in other provinces pay a fraction for, with significantly limited coverage,” said Knoll via email.
Compared to the previous year, prescription maximum coverage will be reduced by $7500 per benefit year with the introduction of a 20% copay. Dental maximum coverage will be reduced from $1000 to $750 with the introduction of a 20% co-pay.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article referred to Prosum as the parent company of Greenshield. This is incorrect, it is a health and dental broker that is autonomous from Greenshield.
