Guelph’s student government striking out in a bold new direction
The Central Student Association (CSA) announced on Dec. 2 that, come the new year, they will be moving forward with their rebranding initiative.
Tad Johnstone, the CSA’s inaugural executive of positive public image, is spearheading the organization’s complete image overhaul.
“Overall, we’ve found that students just aren’t connected to their friendly student association in a meaningful way, nor do they care about it in any capacity,” Johnstone said in an interview with The Contrarion. “We feel that, despite the common student’s opinion, the organization is a vital service for the students at the University of Guelph, and we hope that, with our new image, the average undergraduate will see us as more than a bus pass distribution service.”
Beginning in 2017, the CSA will be rechristened the University Student Association, or USA for short.
“We felt that our old name reflected our old values and didn’t precisely line up with our new image of student government at the University of Guelph,” said Johnstone. “Central can be defined as ‘of the greatest importance,’ but we like to see ourselves as always secondary to serving our university students, and central is a little too assertive for us.”
An outside marketing firm was brought in, at great financial cost to the students Johnstone assured, to find out exactly what students would want from their government. Surveys were sent out to every undergraduate student—past, present and future—to hear their thoughts on the new branding strategy.
Of the thousands of emails sent out, the CSA received 11-and-a-half responses, “One of our most successful campaigns in the organization’s history,” according to Johnstone.
The results were generally apathetic, with one inebriated undergrad believing the survey to be an extortion letter demanding English plum pudding, which Johnstone enthusiastically snacked on.
Of the three students who felt any sort of emotion towards the branding of their student government, regardless of how faint that emotion was, two were in favour of the USA rebranding.
“We’re already printing up the posters celebrating this historical accomplishment,” said Johnstone, adding that any marginal success by the CSA is a cause for celebration.
“Since 1979, we were the CSA, now we’re USA. Even though we are Canadian, we’re certain our student body will have the same level of confidence in our ability to lead, as our neighbours have in their government to the south. With that, we’re making some changes to our election procedures by allowing literally anyone in our community to run in our annual general elections.”
Johnstone recently concluded touring local elementary schools, where he introduced the upcoming changes to the USA election regulations.
“Some of the kids in Mrs. Greenwell’s third grade class, well, there were some pretty smart cookies. Our organization has always been about empowering future generations and we believe that some of these youngsters could bring a real sense of professionalism to the USA.”
The USA rebranding is the first step in a new initiative adopted by Guelph’s student government for 2017. Johnstone teased other new initiatives for the USA in the coming year like, “More bus passes, probably an online petition or two, and some more of our beloved surveys.”
Johnston said he’s optimistic about the future and how Guelph’s student government will go forward and serve the undergraduate community.
“If I could describe our new direction in one word, it would be feckless. To be honest, I’m not clear on what it means, but it sounds daring, adventurous, everything we want the USA to be.”
Johnstone made sure to mention that these new initiatives, through no fault of his organization, may never come to fruition.
Photo by Dana Bellamy/Modified