OUR MISSION
Our mission is to be a leader in providing high-quality accessible services, advocacy and events that enhance the student experience, and to build a campus community that embodies our values.
OUR VISION
Our vision is to see full student engagement in our core components of advocacy, events, services, businesses and society governance.
VALUES
Our values are what we stand for. They underlie everything that we do and guide how we make decisions, perform our work and work with each other. These values are the primary driving forces behind all that we do:
Good Governance
We take our responsibility to ensure the long-term stability and health of your students’ society very seriously. To us this means ensuring participatory democracy and transparent decision-making, being prudent and judicious with your student fees, and being accountable for our actions.
Environmental Sustainability
We recognize the urgency of the climate crisis and are committed to doing our part. We work to reduce the environmental impact of UVSS operations and support sustainable initiatives that are relevant to students. We strive to be climate justice leaders that set an example for our members, UVic, and the greater community. We recognize that the climate crisis intersects with existing structures of oppression and acknowledge anti-racism and decolonial work as essential components of climate justice.
Service
Service to students is why we exist. Our student-centered approach drives us to provide services that are high-quality, relevant, and meaningful to students. We provide essential services to all members of the UVSS: The extended health and dental plan, the U-PASS, Peer Support Centre, and the Food Bank and Free Store.
Decolonization
Our campus resides on the unceded and unsurrendered land of the Lekwungen people, including the Esquimalt, Songhees, and WSÁNEĆ Nations. We are committed to holding our institutions accountable to reconciliation and decolonization by challenging systems and practices that oppress Indigenous peoples. We aim to elevate Indigenous voices and perspectives by confronting colonial norms and frameworks. We will continually educate our members, create open dialogue, and take action to dismantle colonial systems. We aim to elevate all First Nation, Inuit and Metis peoples – including but not limited to women, girls and queer/Two-Spirit folks – that continue to experience ongoing systems of oppression that inter-lock with and originate from colonialism, such as racism, sexism, homoantagonism, transantagonism, ableism, and others.
Excellence
We aim to be a leader not just among student societies, but among non-profits – and we pursue this goal through excellence. To us that means driving innovation, promoting a learning culture, investing in our people, and by taking a compassionate approach to everything that we do.
Social Justice
Whether we are advocating for student issues or putting the profits from our businesses back into services for students, the UVSS works every day to ensure no person is left behind. Promoting social justice means supporting, uplifting and providing services to students and student-led organizations on campus that centre issues of equity; this includes, but is not limited to, confronting racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia, ableism, colonialism, and all other discriminations and/or systems of oppression. We work with campus and community partners to raise awareness and empower students to create change.
Fun
We value fun in everything that we do. To us that means creativity, passion, spirit, lightheartedness, and not being institutional. Campus should be a fun place to be and students should feel excited and engaged about the work their students’ society does.