Pizza for participation

The Cascade will be holding its Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Thursday, Sept. 26, and there will be pizza. 

You did hear right: pizza will be there for all who wish to attend and participate in the annual governance of the society that you contribute $6.24 per semester to as part of university fees. And yes you, students paying fees at UFV, are members of the Cascade Journalism Society (CJS) and are invited to participate in our governance and partake in the pizza. 

In an attempt to engage the student population and gather a quorum of 20 students out of a population of around 11,000, every year The Cascade draws students into our meeting with food. Either the upward struggle of engaging the student population is a strange but welcome testament to the trust the student body has in our monetary decisions and current strength of our board of governors, or a symptom of a larger issue on campus. 

UFV lost its university-college status back in 2008, moving from being the UCFV to the UFV we know today. Taking a step back in time, UBC was established in 1908 and SFU in 1965. The largest parts of UFV’s growth and development have happened over the last 10 or so years.

UFV is considered a community campus and despite the university’s best efforts to evolve the on-campus culture to something seen at larger universities, there’s still a strong taste of the temporary in many students’ presence here. This is not helped by only having one rather small on-campus residence and limited food choices after 4 p.m., but I digress. 

There has been a small but steady increase in student retention over the years at UFV. In Fall 2008 the retention rate for new students was 62.2 per cent compared the Fall 2012 retention rate of 65.7 per cent. 

UFV’s goal for 2019 is a retention of 68 per cent of new students, so if you’re here, there’s a chance you will be here for a little while at least. So why not get involved?

At The Cascades’ AGM we will be presenting on our 2018/19 budget and our recent initiatives, such as the Zine, workshops, and new positions. If you are feeling extra inspired to participate in the governance of the paper, there will also be a period for voting in new board members. 

We have a number of student board seats open to any student in good standing with the CJS. (In other words, that you have paid your fees.) The fine print adds you can’t be a paid staff of CIVL Radio, the Student Union Society, or the paper, and you can’t hold a voting seat in Senate or the Board of Governors. This is a unique way of getting engaged on campus: learn about Robert’s Rules of Order, be involved in the budgeting of an actual society, and help provide a student voice to the strategic direction of a university newspaper. It’s a two-hour commitment per month, plus discounts on parking passes and priority registration. 

In the end, the only reason we hold AGMs is for the members — for you. We’re buying pizza with your money to convince you to come and participate in the governance of a society you, by virtue of being a student at UFV, have to pay to be a part of. 

Image: Mikaela Collins/The Cascade 

Jessica Barclay

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