SU Elections 2024 Q&A: CJSR Plebiscite

The Students’ Union 2024 election is giving students the opportunity to decide on renewing the CJSR fee. 

CJSR’s dedicated fee unit (DFU) goes toward providing students with the opportunity to gain experience in radio, as well as cover basic operating costs. This referendum is proposing a DFU of $2.18 per semester for full-time students, and 90 cents for part-time students. 

Representing CJSR in this Q&A is Brittany Rudyck, a third-year criminology student at the University of Alberta, and the current president of the First Alberta Campus Radio Association (FACRA), which oversees CJSR. 

The following interviews have been edited for brevity and clarity.

What is this plebiscite trying to accomplish? 

Brittany Rudyck: Our plebiscite is trying to ensure that we have funding for the next five years. We’ve been on the U of A campus for 40 years, serving students, providing tools to students to learn how to conduct interviews and use certain technologies. We don’t have a journalism school here, so with us and The Gateway, it’s nice to provide this service to students. Hopefully, we’ll get to do that for another 40 years at the end of this plebiscite. 

For students who don’t know, what is CJSR? 

Rudyck: CJSR is a campus community radio station that is based on the U of A campus, but we serve the entire community. So even if you are a student, an alumni, whoever — you have access to CJSR, you can listen online. We do weird music, local news, [and] campus news that you won’t get anywhere else. So it’s a pretty important, weird, and amazing service that we provide. 

If the plebiscite passes, how much will students be paying and how was that cost determined? 

Rudyck: For full-time students it will be $2.18 per semester, and for part-time students it’s 90 cents per semester. We haven’t bumped it up in years and years. We plan to keep it the same for eternity, just to meet our basic operating needs. 

Will all students be paying this fee? 

Rudyck: All students, [but] Augustana is exempt. 

Why do you think students should care about the work being done by CJSR? 

Rudyck: CJSR is a very special place on campus where you get to be creative. You get to learn how to run interviews, how to do audio editing, and it really can be anything you want it to be. It’s a great place for community connection and also creating something weird that the whole world can listen to. It’s not just based on campus, but it’s for the entire community. So that kind of sets us apart from other campus groups. 

-With files from Dylana Twittey