The Martlet

Access UVic’s bid for further funding gained support at the polls, but the other two referenda failed when a majority of students opposed them while voting in last week’s UVic Students’ Society elections.

The referendum to give the four student advocacy groups (UVic Pride, Students of Colour Collective, the Native Students’ Union and the Women’s Collective) a base funding of $2 failed by about 300 ballots, or 55 per cent of the vote.

The groups declined to comment in response to the referendum results, though they said they would prepare a written response as a group once they’ve had time to consider the implications.

However, Chris Ross of UVic Pride clarified Pride’s stance when he left a comment on a Martlet story online about the referendum. In his comment, he stressed that he wasn’t speaking on behalf of all four advocacy groups.

“These groups do not always do work that is visible to every student, but they definitely do work for and in the community at large,” Ross’ comment said.

He went on to describe awareness workshops that Pride has hosted, and a national conference for queer service providers, like advocacy groups and equity services.

The extra funding would have represented expansion for Pride, Ross said in his comment.

The group wants to become more of a presence in the community, work at developing Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) groups in high schools, increase advertising and expand its library of queer and trans literature.

“I am sorry that the referendum didn’t pass,” he said.

UVic Pride currently receives $0.50 per semester of each full-time student’s fees.

Had the referendum passed, the group would have received an extra $1.50, quadrupling their funding.

Students of Colour Collective (SOCC)’s Luam Kidane spoke on the “Yes” side of the referendum in last week’s election insert.

She noted the four advocacy groups are expanding yearly.

“However, with this increase in participation comes an unavoidable increase in cost to fulfill our mandates,” Kidane said.

The request would have equalized funding for the four groups at $2. Like Pride, SOCC currently receives $0.50 per full-time student per semester. Meanwhile, the Native Students’ Union receives $1, and the Women’s Collective receives $1.45 in funding.

Together, the groups take $3.45 from each student each semester.

As a result of the referendum, Access UVic will receive $3.50 per student, seven times that of Pride and SOCC, the lowest-funded groups.

The exact same number of students voted for each referenda, but 59 per cent of them favoured supporting Access’ fee increase, while only 45 per cent wanted to increase funding for the other groups.

“We’re ecstatic. And very grateful,” said Rose Marianna Robb, Access UVic’s director.

But some students felt Access’ separate referendum wasn’t fair.

“I think the other organizations are just as relevant as Access,” said first-year social sciences student Krista Phelan. “I don’t think there even should [have been] a separate category.”

Third-year sociology student Nathan Wilson noted that while Access offers important services, “that sort of disparity between student groups is obscene.”

Besides the different level of funding requested, chair candidate Kyla Berry expanded on the reasons Access ran a seperate referendum question.

“As disabled people we need to address our own concerns,” Berry said. “And we need to keep control of our own advocacy because historically our voices get lost when we don’t.”

She added Access respects and admires SOCC, Pride, the NSU and the Womens’ Centre.

The referendum which received the least support this election by far was a question that asked to tie student fees to inflation.

Only 28 per cent of students supported that change, with more than 2,000 students saying no to the increase.

Current UVSS Chair Caitlin Meggs said that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

What mattered was that students were asked to weigh in on the question, which came up a number of times this year, she said.

The UVSS can look elsewhere for funding to cope with inflation, Meggs said.

“I think a lot of people just voted no because any indication of fees going up is seen as negative,” said fourth-year sociology and psychology student Jessica Rathwell.

The UVSS estimated the annual fee increases would have been about $2.30 to $2.80 per full-time student, based on information from the Consumer Price Index.

Referendum results won’t be finalized until ballots from co-op students are received and counted. However, Chief Electoral Officer Conrad Vanderkamp said there would probably be about 10 co-op ballots received, which wouldn’t alter referendum results.

Watch Martlet.ca for the final electoral count.