Student Choice Initiative leaves CFRU scrambling for survival

Ford government’s action deems community radio “non-essential service,” workers and volunteers left in dismay

On Jan. 17, 2019, the provincial PC government announced that they are cutting tuition rates by 10 per cent and freezing those rates for the next two years. The Ford government also replaced the Free Tuition program with a grant-and-loan system.

Hidden underneath the 10 per cent off price tag was the Student Choice Initiative, which critics have called an attack on student democracy, an attack on student-operated non-profits, and an effort to weaken campus life by undermining the institutions that have become pillars of the campus community.

Who is CFRU?

One of those pillars is CFRU 93.3 FM, Guelph’s campus and community radio station, a non-profit that has been operating out of the University Centre since the beginning of the 1980s. CFRU now airs around 70 different programs, run by around 120 student and Guelph community volunteers.

Volunteers can work in a reviewing capacity, or begin training to run their own show. CFRU also gives students the facilities to record their own podcast or music. The station also has a live performance segment that features a green screen, a segment that is revered by the local indie scene.

CFRU also hires six full-time staff, from a station manager to a mobile studio coordinator. Many have been working for the station for a decade or more, either as full-time staff or in a volunteer capacity.

Andrea Patehviri, the Marketing and Outreach Director, has been programming at CFRU for almost a decade and has been on staff for four years. Now she promotes events, organizations, and takes care of any advertisements CFRU can pull in, which nowadays, aren’t many as the CFRU is run on a non-profit, community-driven mandate that sells advertisements for cheap, or even for free when organizations request it.

Student Choice Initiative to defund CFRU, among other organizations

Opt-out student fees put campus organizations and community-run non-profits in a financial free fall. CFRU and other organizations (including The Ontarion), now must create an operating budget around precarious funding, creating the unattended consequences of staff unsure if they will return to the job next year, or if they do, if they will return in a part-time capacity.

“It’s just devastating to all of us who work here and everyone who volunteers here, listens to us, or learns skills because of the services we provide,” Vish Khanna, program manager at CFRU told The Ontarion. “I should say, its potential for damage is what makes us feel this way. I still have hope that students and citizens will quickly realize how the services targeted by this measure enrich both campus life and how that informs how vibrant our city is.”

Patehviri said that if CFRU loses half of its student levy, it will most likely have to shut down.

“In September we’re set to be defunded if that’s what the students want, and so right now it’s just a matter of, on the one hand, trying to combat it and trying to get the Student Choice Initiative completely shut down,” Patehviri told The Ontarion. “We’re encouraging people to write testimonials on the importance of CFRU and also writing to MPPs.”

Not about Student Choice

“[The Ford government] made it pretty clear it’s not about choice for the students, it’s a political move,” Patehviri continued.

This could be referring to Ford’s fundraising email that was sent to his party members and voters asking for donations.

“I think we all know what kind of crazy Marxist nonsense student unions get up to,” Ford wrote in the email. “So we fixed that. Student union fees are now opt-in.”

CFRU has also been considered an opt-out, “non-essential” service. After the announcement was made, a representative from the Ontario government told The Ontarion that each institution will be responsible for determining what services will be “essential” and “non-essential.”

Carrie Chassels, Vice-Provost (Student Affairs) at U of G, told The Ontarion that she could not say anything for certain until the Ministry of Training, Universities and Colleges gives the University the final document.

If the Student Choice Initiative isn’t backtracked, then Patehviri says that CFRU will have to restructure in order to stay afloat.

“A lot of planning, and contingency plans, and there’s definitely a lot of talk of cutting hours of staff,” Patehviri said.

CFRU is also looking to try and get grants from the provincial or federal level, however, Patehviri noted that it is hard to write grant proposals when the financial situation is precarious, and when how much cuts will be made remains unclear.

If the Student Choice Initiative is upheld then it will be up to the student body to decide to support the community radio station and all the volunteers and staff that compose it.

“I hope students realize they have a lot of power in this situation and that their decisions in summer will have a massive impact on how vibrant this university and this city can be,” Khanna said.

Photos by Alora Griffiths/ The Ontarion