About 2,500 graduate students at Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN) face losing their health and dental insurance after their union accumulated nearly $2 million in debt to two creditors.
The Graduate Students’ Union (GSU) owes roughly $1.6 million to insurance provider GreenShield and $355,000 to the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), according to a statement issued to members. The GSU has since paused several financial services, including professional development grants, membership grants, and conference funding. Bitters Pub and Restaurant, operated by the union, has also closed.
GSU executive director of communications Gaayathri Sukantha Murugan told CBC Radio’s The St. John’s Morning Show that the consequences of losing coverage would be immediate and severe.
“[They] would lose access to health insurance almost immediately,” Murugan said. “Students would be really suffering, especially those with disabilities, student parents, (and) international students.”
Murugan also warned of broader institutional losses, saying dissolution would strip graduate students of their seats on university decision-making bodies.
“It would mean a huge loss of graduate student representation on all decision-making bodies such as the Senate, the Board of Regents, all the councils and committees that graduate student representatives sit on,” she said.
The GSU acknowledged in its statement that previous executives had “inconsistently remitted” fees to GreenShield over the years, while CFS fees went unpaid from fall 2021 to winter 2025. The union said it could not determine exactly where the money went “because of insufficient financial supporting documentation from previous years” and announced plans for a forensic audit.
CFS-NL chair Nicolas Keough told CBC News that student fees intended for CFS were collected separately through tuition payments, but the union failed to forward them. “From what I can understand, that money was unfortunately used elsewhere,” he said.
The debt has drawn calls for the GSU’s dissolution. Teaching Assistants’ Union of MUN (TAUMUN) president Kieran Knoll submitted a petition that has gathered 47 signatures, arguing that the union has failed its members.
“We have not heard of any members who actually feel that GSU has contributed to their actual graduate student experience,” Knoll said.
Keough noted, however, that forming a new union would not erase the existing debt and warned it “will be very difficult” to guarantee student representation and services in any replacement body.
The GSU said it is close to finalizing a repayment plan with GreenShield.
Budget documents from the GSU’s semi-annual general meeting in October 2025 show the GSU carried $1,475,965.82 in total debt during the 2025-26 fiscal year, though a payment of $1,003,227.29 was made on Oct. 29 toward health and dental liabilities.
Anonymous sources cited by independent journalist Matt Barter alleged that approximately $600,000 was invested into Bitters Pub and around $700,000 was spent on staff salaries. The GSU also faces thousands of dollars in legal fees related to a lawsuit by its former general manager, who alleged wrongful termination.
