YOU’VE SEEN IT ON INSTAGRAM PROMOTING CLUBS AND UOSU EVENTS – BUT WHAT’S THE POINT OF OUR STUDENT UNIONS $60,000 INVESTMENT
As the back-to-school rush settles, students seeking on-campus thrills are being steered to go browsing through the new Bounce app. But many Gee-Gees have questions about the app: What’s Bounce? Did U of O even need a student life app? When was it introduced?
To understand the new partnership between the University of Ottawa’s Student Union (UOSU) and Bounce, the Fulcrum sat down with UOSU President Jack Coen. Coen’s 2024 campaign introduced the idea of UOSU purchasing a student-life app to change Ottawa’s reputation as “the city that fun forgot.”
What is Bounce?
Bounce, created specifically for student unions to “redefine campus event experience,” is an app for students to purchase tickets, receive updates, and be notified of upcoming events on campus.
At the University of Ottawa, the app is set to promote the 300 clubs and student groups on campus.
Originally founded in 2019 by two alumni of Queen’s university, the business is currently partnered with 14 student unions across Canada. After consulting with the University of British Columbia and Western’s student unions, Coen felt reassured with their “universally positive” feedback.
Why do we need a student life app?
Coen told the Fulcrum that his commitment to investing in student life stems from U of O’s campus being “big and right in the city, it’s hard to find a community and feel truly at home.”
“We have the highest amount of club funding in the country, from what I know,” said Coen, but without event information being accessible, students are unaware of events offered on campus.
Coen continues “circle[s] of friends are often limited to faculties” despite having club fairs, instagram marketing pages, promotional events, and the previous system of a UOSU calendar of events, he felt there was only ever involvement “from the same group of people.”
Inspired by the success of 2025’s Frost event, — where UOSU staffers saw a huge increase in student involvement — Coen hopes that having the information centralized on the bounce app will loop in upper year students of on-campus events and encourage cross-faculty mingling.
McMasters University, who also uses Bounce, reported a 34 per cent increase in student involvement among campus activities since beginning their partnership in 2024.
How are we paying for this?
The price tag is paid for by student fees, with full-time students paying $121.97 during the winter semester and part-time students paying $75.19.
According to Coen, his decision to invest $60,000 was reassured after seeing that the 2025/2026 budget included a surplus of almost $300,000. “We’re roughly a seven million dollar operational budget… it’s the first time [that UOSU] has been this financially stable,” continued
Coen, saying “now is the time for bold action.”
The partnership officially started July 1 2025, costing UOSU $60,000 for the first year, set to increase to nearly $82,000 for the second year, and $102,000 annually for the third to fifth year of the partnership.
Despite being set to last five years, UOSU is able to terminate the contract at either the two year mark, or the three year mark. Coen explained that this clause was added to avoid his presidential successor being constrained to his commitments.
What comes next?
Within the first three weeks of the announcement, Coen reported that around 80 clubs are already using the app, hoping to onboard 150 clubs in the next few months.
UOSU is planning to organize a targeted outreach to connect with clubs and hear their feedback on the app – especially leading up to the contract renewal in July 2026.
