By Jessica Wind (The Cascade)
Print Edition: March 13, 2013
Students who commute between Chilliwack and Abbotsford will be able to save their money starting in September; the SUS transit referendum saw a majority vote, and a bus will be instituted between the two main UFV campuses.
Over 1000 students voted in the referendum that ran between March 8 and March 11. The question asked if they approved a $6.75 fee to run a bus service between Chilliwack and Abbotsford.
Seventy-five per cent of voting students approved the fee, and SUS is hoping to see the bus running as soon as September 2013.
Interim president Shane Potter has worked on getting the bus running between the campuses since his election to the VP east position in Winter 2012.
“I said that in my term I will get you a bus between Chilliwack and Abbotsford,” he said. “I was not the first person to think of a bus between Chilliwack and Abbotsford. I was not the first person to say, ‘Hey this should happen.’ It just took throwing everyone into a room and getting it done.”
Referendums need a 60 per cent majority vote to pass, as revised in the 2012 SUS annual general meeting.
Historically, referendums pass or fail with a small margin above majority, and Potter says the 75 per cent majority clearly reflects students’ attitudes.
“It is surprising, but in a way it’s not,” he explained. “UFV students want a different option. UFV students want to start thinking green and want to start finding ways to get cars off the road. So I think this is a success all around.”
Potter went on to explain how the efforts put forth in this referendum differed from previous ones.
“We got out there … whether it was Tim Hortons, whether it was A&R, whether it was CEP, TTC. We made sure that we were getting the walk-by traffic,” he explained. “The reason we saw higher numbers [and] the reason why we saw more feedback was because we started communicating to students.”
The success of the referendum is based on a preliminary count. SUS is currently confirming the numbers, and the official count will be ratified at the March 15 SUS board meeting. The meeting will be held at the Mission campus, and will be open to the public.
