Campus Vibez uOttawa will now oversee registration, reservations, Clubs Fair
The University of Ottawa Students’ Union (UOSU) has introduced its system to oversee student clubs on campus.
Campus Vibez uOttawa (CVUO), formerly a club that promoted and supported other clubs on campus and encouraged participation in student life, will now manage club registration, the official club and event lists, club reservations, and the Clubs Fair. CVUO will operate under the student union.
CVUO is run by 21 volunteers, including president Hassan Ahmed, and received about $700 in funding from the student union that was put mainly toward CVUO’s website, said Ahmed.
Ahmed said CVUO was approached by UOSU student life commissioner Jason Seguya during his election campaign and began to collaborate on developing the new system. Seguya did not respond to an interview request.
“We already had a system we felt was working in terms of helping clubs, promoting clubs and having a (clubs) list up that was active,” said Ahmed.
CVUO’s club registration opened last Thursday but hit a roadblock on Saturday when the UOSU’s Board of Directors meeting was cancelled after it failed to reach quorum. CVUO’s club policy manual was scheduled for approval at that meeting, which would, in turn, give CVUO the ability to approve clubs.
The meeting’s cancellation creates a bit of a logistical challenge for CVUO. Without CVUO approval, clubs aren’t officially registered. Without official registration, clubs can’t book rooms or a spot at the upcoming Clubs Fair on Sept. 5
A new Board of Directors meeting has been set for Aug. 28, according to a post to the UOSU’s Facebook page. In the meantime, Ahmed said CVUO is looking to approve clubs on an interim basis to give them access to their services, especially registration for the Clubs Fair.
Despite the current challenge, Ahmed sees a number of advantages to CVUO’s club system when compared to the former system used by the now-defunct Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO).
There is no fee to register a club under CVUO this year, which Ahmed hopes will encourage more clubs to register and be active on campus.
Ahmed added the SFUO’s official club list was out of date, with a number of clubs no longer active or linking to old social media accounts and websites.
CVUO is looking to prevent this by building a new list and is also working on creating a single online hub for clubs on campus where students can find information on what a club does and how to get involved, Ahmed said.
“We were like ‘OK, we’re going to use all this that we know is not working with the SFUO club system and fix it,’ ” said Ahmed.
To register a student club, visit CVUO’s website. For information on CVUO’s full team, click here.
