By Nick Ubels (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: October 31, 2012
After a heated debate, the SUS board of directors has voted to keep AfterMath open through the end of November.
The campus pub recently reached its deficit threshold for the year. This meant that it would take special action on the part of the SUS to increase its budget and keep it open.
The decision was reached last Friday morning at a four-hour regular meeting of the board of directors at UFV’s Mission campus. Representative-at-large Jay Mitchell motioned that there should be a roll call vote so the minutes would include the voting record of each SUS board member.
An August re-evaluation of AfterMath finances set the deficit limit for this fiscal year (April 2012 to March 2013) at $80,000. As of October, the campus pub surpassed $60,000 in loss, which meant that even if it were to close immediately and handle those attendant costs, it would cost the society an additional $10,000 to $20,000 over the original $80,000 budgeted according to a SUS press release dated October 19.
VP finance Sam Broadfoot explained that the SUS had budgeted according to “best case scenario projections” and the amount of money they had available.
“Unforunately that didn’t work out,” he said.
SUS board members and a gallery of student guests spent nearly two hours in a crowded Mission classroom debating how far they should go to save what CISSA president and UFV student Derek Froese called the society’s “most visible service.”
Prior to his assumption of the position of clubs and associations representative, Zack Soderstrom urged postponing any decision about the fate of AfterMath until the next SUS board meeting in two weeks so that students could provide more feedback on the process.
“This is the first time we’ve had both sides hold a proper discussion on this,” he said.
After conferring with Soderstrom, outgoing clubs and associations representative Nick Willms moved to table the motion until the next meeting, but was the only board member to vote in favour of doing so.
VP academic Dan Van Der Kroon said that waiting for two weeks to make a decision would be detrimental to the society’s finances. Based on AfterMath’s average monthly loss of $10,000, van der Kroon claimed that, “tabling the motion would have $5000 in financial ramifications for the society.”
Uneasy finances are a cause for concern for many SUS board members when faced with the prospect of bailing out AfterMath with additional funds.
Representative-at-large Rachel Waslewsky said that keeping AfterMath open at all costs could destroy the society’s finances.
“We could bankrupt our socety if we keep it open all year,” she said.
Broadfoot raised concerns about investors backing out of the Student Union Building project, which has already been delayed over funding issues, if the SUS does not exercise fiscal discipline.
“If we don’t show financial responsibility,” he said, “investors will be strongly motivated to deny us a loan.”
Waslewsky suggested that SUS should delay relaunching AfterMath until the SUB opens and the campus pub will have more space to thrive. AfterMath is currently using a former concession stand as its kitchen.
VP social Chris Doyle raised the argument that the SUS would have to shoulder the same costs elsewhere if they closed AfterMath due to prior event commitments.
“We’re going to be spending the same money to maintain commitments to clubs and associations,” he said. “Clubs and associations is going to take an ass-kicking in the next meeting if we close AfterMath.”
Waslewsky suggested a student referendum on an AfterMath fee would be the only way to gauge student commitment to the campus pub.
“It’s not fair for us to make a decision for the masses,” she said.
Derek Froese criticized Waslewsky’s proposal for a referendum, saying that it ignored student consultation about whether AfterMath should stay open.
“Don’t close AfterMath; let us talk about closing AfterMath,” said Froese. “You guys aren’t listening to the students at all. How about we, say, ask the students if we want to close it in the first place?”
The debate became charged as members argued over the benefit versus financial viability of running a student pub service. On a number of occasions, SUS president Shane Potter had to call for order among the members of the board.
“Guys,” he said, “there’s a lot of emotion in here, so let’s settle down.”
The question remains where the extra funding required to keep AfterMath open for an additional month will come from. VP finance Sam Broadfoot said some of the money will come from an $8000 deficit fund. VP social Chris Doyle suggested $10,000 to $12,000 might be re-allocated from events funding in the winter semester.
Students speak out on potential closure
While the board decided to keep AfterMath open through to the end of fall classes, students will ultimately determine its fate. In a general meeting scheduled for November 21 on the Abbotsford campus, students will be able to decide whether to move funds from other areas of the SUS budget to keep AfterMath open for the rest of the year.
Student associations were out in force on Friday to express their thoughts on the potential closure.
BCSA president Jennifer Martel said that UFV has come a long way from when she started attending a few years ago, and compared the old UFV to high school. She pointed to AfterMath as one of the main catalysts for the development of campus life.
“AfterMath [is our] biggest tool for building community at UFV,” said Martel.
CISSA president Derek Froese was one of the most vocal opponents of the AfterMath closure at Friday’s meeting. He presented a detailed argument before the SUS board showing that AfterMath has consistently reduced its losses each of the past two years under the management of Brad Ross, making the case that AfterMath has become an essential part of campus life.
“SUS has a budget problem, not an AfterMath problem,” he said.
VP internal Greg Stickland addressed Froese’s criticism by explaining that the AfterMath/Casey’s subsidy has crippled other SUS services.
“There is no option to keep it open the entire term,” he said. “That money does not exist, there’s no money to pull from; we can’t do that without putting the entire SUS into huge, huge jeopardy.”
Froese also argued students were not given nearly enough time to present solutions or have their voices heard on the issue before it was brought before the SUS board.
“The outcry against this is huge,” he said.
A Facebook event created by Jay Mitchell last Friday called “Oppose Closure of AfterMath” had recruited 228 members by Saturday, while over XXX have signed a petition circulating at AfterMath to keep it open.
The potential closure was announced October 19 via a SUS press release.
“If you truly want students’ input, give us time,” Froese said.
He explained to the SUS that they would only be “deferring cost by closing and reopening later.”
Froese’s impassioned, 15-minute address to the SUS board of directors was met with an ovation from the crowd.
CISSA president Derek Froese’s reaction to the SUS decision to delay AfterMath’s closure:
“It’s not the ideal thing. I would have rather not have a motion to cancel it pass today, but given the way people feel and the numbers that are there, I can understand why it happened. I’m just glad SUS saw it was not right to make an immediate decision so quick. I’m quite pleased that they postponed it. Overall I’m pleased: it’s not 100 per cent ideal, but it’s good. Good stuff happened today.
SUS wants AfterMath open, and that’s something that was heard today, [and] I’m very glad to have heard that . . . they don’t feel it’s worth fighting for as strongly as maybe I do and some other people do, but they do want to keep it open. I don’t think any subversive political moves are necessary. I think democracy will be heard, especially now that there’s a GM. I’m confident that SUS is working towards the best interest of our students as far as AfterMath goes. They just might not place as much value on things as I do on various things, but you know what, democracy will be served, that’s ultimately what’s going to happen and I’m happy with that so no I don’t think there’s going to be any mobilization of an army or political coups.”
VP internal Greg Stickland responds to Froese’s “budget problem” comment:
“To say that we want to close this because we have devious intentions I don’t feel is accurate. We’ve been trying to save it all aboard. We’ve tweaked the mark-up. We’ve looked at the projections. We’ve lowered staffing costs, we’ve reduced our hours. AfterMath fundamentally does not work, that’s why it’s subsidized. The reason why we’re in this situation is because, yes, past boards have spent future boards’ money and because we’ve always been slammed by AfterMath/Casey’s. It’s always more than we have planned for. Last year, the board was borderline expecting to make money on AfterMath, we were slammed with a $140,000 subsidy and that’s demolished our capital reserve. And then we found in our budgets from past boards, to hide the Casey’s subsidy? They took money from Health and Dental and we were slammed with that bill. That’s why we have no capital reserve anymore . . . The reason our budget is so lean is because we have to subsidize so much, that one service, that we can’t grow in other services. There is no option to keep it open the entire term. That money does not exist, there’s no money to pull from, we can’t do that without putting the entire SUS into huge, huge jeopardy and without the SUS AfterMath goes away anyway.”
Roll call vote to close AfterMath on Nov. 30 and re-open September 2013
Motion: “Whereas AfterMath is due for review when related operations cost in total $60,000 or more, be it resolved that AfterMath be close on November 30 and have renewed operations considered for September 2013 after a business proposal has been adopted.”
In favour
Dan Van Der Kroon
Chris Doyle
Nick Willms
Ryan Petersen
Debbie Ellis
Vitor Carvalho
Jun Feng
Sam Broadfoot
Greg Stickland
Opposed
Jay Mitchell
Rachel Waslewsky
Abstentions
Ahmed Hussein
Sean Webber
