The Student Union Society (SUS) recently announced that students would not need to pay certain fees over the summer semester, as the services would not be usable due to COVID-19. Despite not being open for student use, the $35 Student Union Building fee will not be one of them.
Students, understandably, have been frustrated. During a time when expenses are already tight for so many, why should students pay for a service they can’t even use?
The answer lies in a 2008 referendum of questionable validity, where students made a long-term financial commitment for decades of UFV students.
Our Student Union Building hasn’t been around forever, with its lovely plants, bureaucratic-centric space allocations, and furniture that blocks the poorly located stairs.
In 2008 a referendum passed by a scant 52 per cent majority, approving the creation of a $35-per-semester capital building fee in exchange for a decrease in the health and dental fee. The building fee would be used for the eventual creation of a student union building that would act as a hub for student services and activities.
Development of the building began, but after plans fell through to receive a loan and the B.C. government backed out of their $5-million contribution, SUS put forward the idea of getting a mortgage to pay for the building.
SUS ran a referendum in December 2011 to obtain a $10-million, 25-year mortgage, which passed with a 63 per cent majority. During this time, however, questions were raised regarding the validity of the first referendum. Dan van der Kroon, vice president academic of SUS, said the original referendum question in 2008 was poorly worded, barely passed, and many of the students who voted in that referendum were no longer at the university. The motion to pursue another referendum was shot down at the SUS board meeting.
The building finally opened in 2015, seven years after the original referendum for its creation. And thus why we will be paying for a building — as well as its considerable loan interest, and all of the associated building maintenance — that we are unable to use during a pandemic.
Illustration: Elyssa English/The Cascade
