By Katie Stobbart (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: September 17, 2014
Is turning 40 really such a big deal?
Writing that in someone’s birthday card would probably get me an indignant response, but in UFV’s case, I think the question is warranted.
Don’t get me wrong. I’ve enjoyed seeing the technicolour timeline of UFV history produced for the occasion. The corn maze looks pretty cool, and I like cake as much as the next person. But with each celebration, it’s all starting to seem like a bit much. Worse, it feels like an insult.
Every corner I turn, someone is talking about budget cuts. It’s the reason the Mission campus library and Abbotsford faculty reception closed last year. It’s why departments are being asked to be entrepreneurial and creative about slashing funds and bringing in revenue.
In September 2013, Shawna Pierce, the library technician when the Mission library closed, told The Cascade the closure would save $30,000 a year, and that every little bit counted.
“If you said you could save $50 on postage, or $500 on postage, or whatever, [they were] like, ‘okay, we need that,’” Pierce said.
The province cut millions of dollars from post-secondary education. In an interview this week about corporate partnerships with our institution, director of ancillary services Cameron Roy linked the need for those partnerships with the province-wide cuts.
“One thing that we’ve been kind of straddled with in the past two or three years has been cutbacks from the provincial government. So subsequently, departments like mine, in ancillary services, we’re mandated to bring in revenue to supplement and balance off,” Roy explained.
Yet how many birthday parties have we had now? How many are still to come?
Three UFV festivals at the Chilliwack, Abbotsford, and Hope campuses are occurring within days of each other: September 12, 17, and 19. They include live music, marketplaces, kids’ zones with bouncy castles, dunk tanks, a hamster ball race, and Gizmo the clown.
Granted, some generated funds are reaching students: proceeds from the corn maze are earmarked for a scholarship endowment that provides multiple awards, for example.
But how much are we putting out to balance any benefit? How many cake cuttings, corn mazes with our logo imprinted in them, barbecues, and 40th-anniversary spins on events we host anyway are going to be packed into a single year? How are we going to top this when we hit 50?
Even if half the events were free of charge for UFV, which I doubt, that’s still a lot of money being poured out of the university, much of which targets external community members more than it does students. I don’t know how much it all costs, but I’d be willing to bet it’s not cheap — it probably costs a lot more than postage. That’s not to mention the price tag on designing logos, promotional materials, and advertising.
Having discussed branding and advertising in the context of this paper, I’m sympathetic to the need to appeal to prospective students, their parents, and the powers that be, as well as establish a good rapport with the communities of the Fraser Valley. That’s part of giving the university space to grow as much as it is about increasing our prestige and profile.
I’m also far from opposed to celebrating our history as an institution, and providing community-building activities for students.
What smarts is to see academic-related services cut and miles-long waitlists while the merriment carries on across the Green, the Canada Education Park, and the cornfields all year long. If departments are being asked to be creative when it comes to saving money, and we’re being told that every nickle and dime counts, it’s only fair that UFV show some restraint as well.
When it comes to classes and services that benefit students, we’re stretched too thin. But go ahead and have that extra slice of cake, take in some tunes, and get a temporary tattoo with UFV’s 40th anniversary logo on it.
Temporary, because the birthday party can’t go on forever.
