I read the Winter Carnival article (“Annual Winter Carnival cancelled due to low signups from clubs”) and wanted to respond because the article (although very well written) isn’t telling the whole story.
The claims from the Student Union students/advisor interviewed in the article suggest that club leaders were basically uninterested in participating. However, the rules in place created restrictions that made it not worth the time and money required to participate. We were told that we would get no reimbursements for participating in the Winter Carnival, and that we could not sell “regular bake sale” foods like brownies and cookies if we wanted to sell food at all. The document said that we should just “be creative” if we actually want to make money and make booths that will appeal to a wide audience. However, those restrictions might require us to spend a lot of money to sell products that few will want, leading us to lose money.
On top of that, the SU takes a share of the money. According to the rules document shared with all club leaders, tickets would be $0.60 each, and for every ticket, clubs would get $0.45 and the SU would get $0.15. This may seem trivial but combined with other restrictions in this document, it is clear why clubs might not find it worthwhile to participate. I can’t speak for every club, but for the two clubs that I’m on the board of, participating in the Winter Carnival was just going to cause a massive headache for no gain.
Additionally, some time before the Carnival was supposed to happen, we were notified that all clubs were going to be required to participate whether we liked it or not, because there wasn’t enough interest. This was infuriating. No one should be required to participate. We then came up with a plan nonetheless, only for the SU to cancel the event not long after that.
The perspectives from the SU quoted in this article paint club leaders and members as essentially lazy. However, the SU should try to understand why their systems and practices led to clubs deciding not to participate.
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