Skip to McMaster Navigation Skip to Site Navigation Skip to main content
McMaster logo

Engineering Graduate Society

Fee Referendum

Overview

The Engineering Graduate Society (EGS) is holding a referendum to implement a society fee of $12.00 per academic term for all Engineering Graduate Students. If the referendum were to pass, the fee would be implemented starting September 2023.
This fee will aim to support and enhance a variety of initiatives the EGS has introduced over the past few years, in part due to excess funding accrued from our current budget. We are looking for your support to make these initiatives permanent!

When would the referendum happen?

The referendum will be held from January 25th at 10 AM (ET) to January 27th at 12 PM (ET). Results will be announced on January 30th!

For the referendum to pass, at least 10% of the population must vote, of which over 50% of the votes have to favour the referendum.

What would happen if the referendum passed?

If the referendum were to pass, the EGS would receive roughly $40,000 based on our current student population. The EGS aims to use these funds to enhance/establish the following:

  • A $20,000 increase to the EGS Travel Award, allowing us to award more people and increase the minimum award amount to $500 and the maximum to $1500 per awardee
  • Formally introducing the EGS professional development award, valued at $4000, which aids students’ development in furthering their education outside of their academics in the form of online courses, certifications, and other professional development opportunities
  • $4500 to promote student life and department-focused professional development: This is to be utilized by graduate department societies or student representatives in lieu, with a maximum of $500 per department
  • $5000 to the EGS operational budget to help fund the EGS’ largest events, including enhancing the programming (workshops, panels, etc.) of our graduate conference, METRIC, to improve the overall experience of graduate students and to fund EGS’ Canada-wide competition (ideathon) which allows students to apply their teamwork and problem-solving skills to solve society’s largest problems in a multi-disciplinary setting
  • $3000 towards welcoming new graduate students at McMaster, including welcome week and EGS merchandise
  • $2700 towards supporting recreational fees for graduate engineering teams for McMaster Intramurals or the GSA leagues, with a maximum of $300 per team or department. Only applicable if over 70% of the team are graduate students in Engineering

Depending on demand, the remaining $400 will be used to enhance any existing initiatives proposed above.

Referendum FAQ

What is a referendum?

A referendum is a general vote by the electorate on a question that has been referred to them for a direct decision

 

What is the fee being proposed?

If the referendum were to pass, the fee would be $12.00 per term.

 

 

Who would have to pay this fee?

All graduate students in Engineering would have to pay this fee, with the exception of students on co-op, on leave, or visiting students.

 

Why should I vote?

Whether you agree or disagree with the idea of a fee, we want to hear from you! This is a proposal to enhance graduate life for everyone in an Engineering program at McMaster so knowing how many people agree or disagree with the fee is valuable information for us to edit or adjust the fee amount going forward. If you have any feedback about how a fee should be allocated, please email egs@mcmaster.ca.

 

How will the referendum pass?

For the referendum to pass, two criteria must be met:

  1. 50% of voters + 1 ballot must be in favor of the referendum

  2. 10% of the population participating in the vote

 

When would this fee be implemented?

If the referendum passes, this fee would be implemented starting September 2023.