By Katie Stobbart (The Cascade) – Email
This October, the Student Union Society (SUS) put up three marble slabs in the foyer of the new Student Union Building (SUB), with several spaces for plaques bearing the names of SUS presidents past, present, and future.
The first plaque includes a statement recognizing those individuals’ contributions to:
“Creating a strong unified student voice, providing innovative and valuable services and developmental opportunities to our members by advocating on behalf of and collaborating with the Student Body, UFV, and the wider community.”
According to current SUS president Thomas Davies, the installation of the plaques is one way SUS hopes to promote student heritage on campus.
“There’s lots of different elements to [the building aesthetic]. Things from the different painting and artwork we have around the building, or the murals outside for the matter, doing creative things outside of Fair Grounds, the atrium music, furniture colours are actually a great one — we don’t just have bland colours over time as you can see. The plaque is part of that. That one touches on more building culture and tradition,” Davies said.
As to the cost of the plaques, Davies said that because it was part of the overall project cost, he was not able to get a specific number very easily, so he did not provide one. He did estimate that it might have been as low as $100, but could not confirm that number.
“I do know in the scope of this project, the cost is low. Rock is actually not as expensive as it seems sometimes. It’s not a significant cost in the ongoing, and putting up a new name is minimal.”
The ultimate goal for SUS with installing the plaques, Davies said, is to contribute to a particular building aesthetic.
“It’s part of that overall look and feel we’re going for in a building. There’s lots of work that was placed into this, beyond just architecture is what it is. That hasn’t been able to change, but in recent years, we’ve done a lot just working on the look and feel, the feeling that people get in the building,” Davies explained. “We felt this was a good avenue that could work to show the history that SUS has come through, but more importantly, how that ties to the students and the people that have helped form the community here. It just creates that overall aesthetic feel of the building.”
With files from Vanessa Broadbent.
