UFV’s World University Service of Canada (WUSC) committee announced via email Sunday that they plan to hold a referendum this fall to determine whether a $2 levy will be added to student fees.
The referendum would be on the condition of support from the Student Union Society (SUS). WUSC presented the proposal at the SUS board meeting Jan. 30, and SUS will decide whether to support the referendum at their Feb. 27 meeting.
The proposed levy would go toward supporting two students yearly through WUSC’s Student Refugee Program (SRP), which brings students from refugee camps around the world to Canada, granting them citizenship, temporary housing, and the first year of post-secondary education.
Catherine Taekema and Michelle Murray-Schlitt, co-chairs of WUSC UFV, said that the proposed $2 levy is necessary for the SRP to continue, citing the large amount of fundraising efforts required to sponsor even a single student.
“In the past, we went to different departments and faculties and asked for committed funds … and ran tons and tons of fundraising events,” said Taekema. “But we just found that to be unsustainable.”
According to the co-chairs, the proposed fee increase would bring UFV’s WUSC in line with the majority of WUSC organizations across the nation.
“In Canada, 75 per cent of [WUSC chapters] are levy-funded,” said Murray-Schlitt. “It’s just a pretty common way to run the program.”
The cost per student, which Taekema said is about $25,000, took WUSC UFV nearly two years to raise on their own when they sponsored their first student. After forming in January 2018, the organization has hosted a number of fundraising events including board game nights, film nights, and a concert, and finally welcomed their first sponsored student this January.
Taekema said that the additional funding would also allow the SRP’s impact to grow, giving them the opportunity to take on a greater number of sponsorships, more frequently.
“We’d love to bring over two students per year, just so they have that support system in each other,” said Taekema. “Only one per cent of refugees have the ability to go to post-secondary education, and we want to impact that number. We feel like two students is a good place to start.”
