Social Informative Aspects Of York University As A Social Economic Institutions

In this essay, I shall argue that York University is a social economy institution due to its administrative aspects such as unions, student governments and clubs, appointment of the senate and the members of the board of governors, and funding and salaries, which relate to social economy characteristics defined by Quarter and McMurtry, including social objective, volunteerism, profit and loss allocation, and governance. York University's social objective makes the school a social economy organization in the way that the university serves its students by providing them with education. In his book Canada's Social Economy: Co-operatives, Non-profits, and Other Community Enterprises, Quarter defines the social objective of social economy organizations

Similarly, as it is seen on President's Message web page, the objective is also to "pursue new educational opportunities for students [and to] build a culture of student success, academic and research excellence" (Shoukri, n.d.). All these aspects of York University demonstrate that the school's primary purpose is to provide education and other similar social and academic initiatives to its students. Another characteristic of social economy that York University possesses is volunteerism. Within the school, volunteerism occurs in many places such as clubs and student governments. In his book, Quarter defines volunteerism as organizations, with both paid and non-paid staff, that employ volunteer labour who contribute to provision of services (Quarter p. 6). York University demonstrates this in various ways. First of all, student governments, also known as college councils, play an important role for students. They host school events, form clubs and organizations, and represent the student body. York University's Student Governments web page describes the college councils as "great opportunity to get involved [and] ultimate goal is [to provide] an enjoyable and educational university experience [for students]" ("Student Governments", n.d.). This is a great

McMurtry's arguments in his book Living Economics also prove that York University is a social economy institution. First of all, in Living Economics, McMurtry defines social economy as "economic activity neither controlled directly by the state nor by the profit logic of the market, activity that prioritizes social well-being" (McMurtry p. 4). Similarly, the term "social" is defined by, "the collective activities of a number of individuals" (McMurtry p. 17). The ways York University operates fully satisfy these two aspects, as it operates independently from the government and aims to provide students with education. Secondly, McMurtry's definition of social objective is similar to Quarter's. McMurtry defines social objective by saying, "activity that is not focused on profit" (McMurtry pp 7-8). York University is a not-for-profit organization that reinvests its income in organizational services. It is important to note that if York University had been operated like a private corporation, the tuition would have been very expensive and not a lot of students could have been able to afford it. That is why McMurtry states that the purpose of social economy organizations is to make a difference and satisfy needs that capitalism cannot satisfy (McMurtry p. 30). Thus, York University, as an institution serving to students without seeking profit, can be considered as a social economy