The University of Manitoba Graduate Students’ Association (UMGSA) will be dismantled by the end of the term and will be replaced by a new association that will also represent post-doctoral fellows, according to Christopher Yendt, UMGSA president.

Yendt, who also serves as the interim chair of the University of Manitoba Students’ Union (UMSU) board of directors, made the announcement during the Jan. 30 UMSU board meeting.

The UMGSA is a student governed association that represents all the graduate students at the U of M. The preliminary enrolment report for the 2025 winter term states that the university has over 3,700 graduate students.

According to the UMGSA website, the association focuses on promoting and providing graduate student advocacy, services, support and developing involvement in the graduate student community.

“Monday capped off an eighteen-month long journey in negotiations around integration and partnership with post-doctoral fellows at the university,” said Yendt.

“Post-doctoral fellows came together for their first annual general meeting and voted unanimously to merge with the UMGSA. In doing so, […] we will become the first association in Canada to represent graduate students all the way up to post-doctoral fellows within our community.”

The university defines post-doctoral fellows as individuals who have completed a doctoral degree within the past five years and who are seeking further research training.

Yendt indicated that the UMGSA will be rebranded to reflect the fact that the association will represent close to 200 post-doctoral fellows alongside graduate students at the university.

“I was told that it couldn’t be done at this university given how bureaucratic and how much red tape there is in doing it,” said Yendt. “I’m pretty freaking proud of this having happened.”

“The UMGSA in spirit is not disappearing, but the logo and brand and everything associated with it will disappear by the end of this term and they’ll be a new association, society or union to follow in its place.”