Good evening,
As some of you might have seen, Student Support, a for-profit external organisation based in Toronto, recently sent an email alleging that Udemy & Calm is no longer being offered to students.
I want to emphasize that these services are no longer being offered by Student Support. The SSMU is committed to providing students affordable services to support their academic progress, and we haven’t given up on working to provide Calm, Udemy and Grammarly to you.
Due to continuing legal and privacy concerns about Student Support, the SSMU’s Board of Directors voted not to renew a contract with them and instead to advocate for students to gain access to these services through direct contracts between the SSMU and the individual service providers.
At present, no contract exists between Student Support and the SSMU which would give Student Support access to student emails. Their communication was not authorized by the SSMU and I, personally, would encourage you to unsubscribe.
Further, the SSMU is already in the process of negotiating contracts directly with Udemy, Calm, and Grammarly. Grammarly has not been available through Student Support since 2022, as they instituted a policy against Third-Party suppliers that year. Moving forward, the Student Support Fee will be used to gain access to these services directly.
The opt-out period for student fees begins September 13th and ends September 27th. We will have significant updates on what platforms are available with the existing fee before the end of the opt out period.
If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to me at president@ssmu.ca.
Cheers!
Dymetri Taylor
