News

 

 

Student Union Looks for New Logo

By JJ McCullough, Editor in Chief

Te Douglas College Students’
Union has its own office, staff, website,
posters, and even official colours. But
for the last few years the organization
has lacked a logo, something the current
board of directors is now aiming to
correct.

According to DSU college relations
coordinator Matthew Steinbach, the
board realized the problem shortly
after being elected last spring. Groups
affiliated with the DSU would ask
to use the student union’s logo on
promotional posters and flyers, which
according to Steinbach caught the board
off guard “since we realized we didn’t
have one.”

The DSU board has since begun to
solicit ideas for a new logo, with the
offer open to any student willing to
submit a proposal. The only criteria is
that the logo incorporate the student
union’s colours of red and black, and
feature a red brick road, an image which
has been selected as the official icon of
the DSU.

“All the campuses have red brick
architecture,” said Steinbach, “so that’s
something that unites us.” Symbolically,
“we also like the idea of [the DSU]
being a pathway between students and
the college,” he added.

Few submissions have been received
so far, but Steinbach admitted the search

 

isn’t being treated as a “huge priority”
at this time.

The Douglas’ College Students
Society has existed in some form since
1976, though in the early 2000’s the

society was dissolved and reformed
under a new constitutional structure
that brought with it a slightly different
name—the Douglas Students’ Union.
The old DCSS logo was retired at that

 

point, and never formally replaced. On
official documents the student union
usually just prints the organizations’ full
name in a distinctive font.

 

Simon Fraser Student Society

Splits in Two

By JJ McCullough, Editor in Chief

‘a Simon Fraser Student Society
officially voted to separate into two
separate student unions last week, the
end result of long-running, but amicable
divorce proceedings between graduate
students and undergrads.

At the SFSS’ annual general meeting
held on October 10, a crowd of around
500 students voted overwhelmingly
to allow the constitutional changes
necessary for the split to occur. The
Simon Fraser Student Society will
now be an institution solely for
undergraduate students, while the
newly-formed Graduate Student
Society of Simon Fraser University will
exclusively represent grads.

Tensions between grads and
undergrads have been a source of
considerable political tension at SFU
in recent years. In 2005 the creation of
a graduate health plan was approved,
but in the months both preceding
and following the decision there
were ongoing grad concerns that

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the undergraduate-dominated SFSS
board of directors was not sufficiently
loyal or dedicated to the plan. A mass
impeachment of numerous members
of the board launched in November of
2006 was at least partially provoked
by angry graduate students who felt
their health plan was under attack. It
was in the wake of this impeachment
that the once-controversial separation
plan gained full steam, an effort that
was in turn bolstered by a new, post-
impeachment SFSS directors that
largely supported the move.

SFU has approximately 4,000
graduate students, a category which
includes students perusing both masters
degrees and PhDs. Many grads also
work as tutorial leaders, research
assistants, and departmental aids.

SFU Students vote to separate their society