What is Campus Vibez uOttawa (also known as CVUO)? It’s reallyyyy hard to explain. When it comes down to it, it is a brand new administrative/marketing service for all student clubs and associations at the University of Ottawa. It originally started off as a student club but has grown to be so much more and is hands down the highlight of my professional career.
Bringing up this organization from the ground up and seeing massive growth year after year has been a thrilling experience. I have learned everything I know about working on a team, leadership, time management, and an ongoing list of skills all from working at CVUO. I say with confidence that my team and I, in a very short amount of time, have changed the student life at uOttawa.
Initially, CVUO was meant to be a club that was providing marketing services to other uOttawa student organizations for a price. After a few years of little to no success, we finally started picking up pace in 2018-2019 (my second year running the team). After what was a crazy 8 months of unprecedented success, we reached out to the University of Ottawa Student Union to collaborate on more projects. What initially started as small talks about things we could work on together soon ended up with CVUO taking over the entire club system at uOttawa by the start of the 2019 Fall Semester.
For our very first year as a service to clubs, we were given a small budget and a team comprised entirely of volunteers and yet were the most efficient and effective service at the university. Completely changing the relationship between student groups and the student union within a year. But of course, things didn’t stop there, currently, we are in our second year as a service and have 3 paid employees, a budget that has increased by 40x what it was in 2018, and have added countless new services that we provide to clubs.
As one of the most known services and student groups on campus, the entire team takes pride in what we accomplish and our results speak for themselves.
Currently, we are providing our services to the highest number of student clubs in uOttawa’s 172 years as an institution, with over 360 active student groups on campus, of course despite the negative effect on student life by COVID.
In September 2020, we launched a brand new funding system for student groups, with $200,000 budgeted to be given out for student activities. This also is an unprecedented and highest number in uOttawa’s history for student clubs. The year following in 2021, we were able to do it all over again with another $200,000.
For the first time in a while, student groups will also be given storage space on campus due to our efforts with the university and the student union.
Two years ago we introduced the first edition of the Student Life Awards. An award show recognizing the hard work that university students put into their extracurriculars. With nearly 50 different groups nominated and 23 different awards to be won, it was one of the most diverse and largest student-run events at the university. We hosted it live for the first time last year - and it was one of the largest events during COVID at the university.
We also introduced our Clubs Conference event. A now annual event that takes place at the beginning of each academic year and is comprised of a series of workshops that serve to educate students on the various components of running a small team.
As one of the most well-known organizations on campus, we have also had the opportunity to establish a long-term partnership with the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) to set up a system for clubs to make bank accounts with the bank.
At CVUO, I strongly believe our success can be contributed to our efforts in always improving the services we are providing, and as such every day we are coming up with new ideas on how we can continue to improve the student life on campus.
Being a team still comprised majorly of student volunteers it is still shocking to any onlookers all that we are able to accomplish. Of course, I couldn’t mention all our accomplishments without listing every single person that has helped in making those things possible. I consider myself extremely lucky to be surrounded by so many talented people, with whom I have been blessed to create long-lasting friendships.