Student groups on the verge of a name change

Security issues over the summer trigger concern

JENELLE PETRINCHUK STAFF

University of Manitoba student groups related to the I. H. Asper School of Business are currently dealing with the U of M administration on a possible student group name alteration.

At the last University of Manitoba Students’ Union (UMSU) council meeting, it was announced that some commerce student groups had received requests to remove the University of Manitoba’s name from their organizations’ titles.

According to UMSU president Garry Sran, various Commerce groups including the U of M Marketing Association and the U of M Finance Organization — a group that has been using the U of M’s name for more than 50 years — received a letter from the university auditor requesting them to make the name change.

Sran remains upset at the request to remove the ‘U of M’ designation. “Th ese groups represent the U of M community, and for them to change their name is costly,” he said. He said he hopes that the changing of organizations’ names will be avoidable.

Feltham said they are dealing back and forth with the groups themselves instead of going through UMSU — which the two student groups are a part of.

Amin Dhillon, president of the U of M Marketing Association said she was frustrated when she heard about the request. “Th ey pretty much told us we had to change [our name] by Sept. 15. . . and no one would tell us how to appeal [the letter],” she said.

Dhillon said their group is proud of their school. “It hurt us because we’re worked so hard to get our name out there.”

According to Glenn Feltham, dean of the I. H. Asper School of Business, although it was in fact initially requested that the groups remove the words “University of Manitoba” from their names, this is not the case anymore.

U of M’s director of public aff airs, John Danakas, said the letter was triggered by a security issue that occurred over the summer.

Earlier in the year, a chequebook was left at a restaurant in Winnipeg that, according to Danakas, belonged to a U of M student group.. Since the student group name did not clarify that the group was in fact a student group, there was some confusion as to who the chequebook actually belonged to.

“Th ere are discussions between the Asper School of Business, the dean’s offi ce and the student groups on how they can clarify [their name] so the same instance doesn’t happen again,” said Danakas.

“It turns out that the bigger issue was actually identifi cation as a student group as opposed to something broader within the university,” explains Feltham.

He feels that as of now, the biggest concern and the only thing that is really important is that the student nature of the group is recognized.

Currently, no one is being asked to remove the U of M’s name from their group name. Now, the groups may have to clarify in their names that they are specifi cally a student group associated with the U of M. For example, the U of M Marketing Association could become the U of M Student Marketing Association.

“I really think that both as a school as well as a university we care terribly about what happens with the student groups and we just want to make sure that they’re not disadvantaged in the business community,” commented Feltham.

He added, “It really relates back to how we can make sure we can communicate eff ectively with all of our stakeholders and make sure that the student groups aren’t put in a position where people external to the university [don’t] know the nature of their affi liation.”

Th ese issues are currently being addressed and discussed by the student groups and the Asper School of Business.

“It looks promising,” said Dhillon after fi nding out they may not have to drop the U of M from their names, “It looks like they can see our point of view.”

With fi les from Michael Olson.