Commerce Undergraduate Society of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver
NicknameCUS
Established1941
Members
2936
AffiliationsSauder School of Business
Volunteers
>700
Websitehttp://www.cusonline.ca

The Commerce Undergraduate Society of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver (commonly abbreviated to the Commerce Undergraduate Society and the CUS) is the faculty student society for undergraduates enrolled in the Bachelor of Commerce program at the Sauder School of Business of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. The society is noted for being the largest business school society in Canada, both in terms of its $1.3 million annual operating budget and its over 700 students who hold positions in the society. The mission statement of the CUS is "To enhance the value of the UBC Sauder School of Business' Bachelor of Commerce degree while cultivating the personal, professional and academic success of students." The CUS annually holds some five major conferences for its students and external delegates and offers dozens of services to its students. The society also founded the Hari B. Varshney Business Career Centre for Sauder and is currently collecting fees in order to pay for the renovated Sauder facilities.

Mascot edit

The official mascot of the CUS is Wally Street, described by UBC student newspaper The Ubyssey as "a business bull with a dislocated jaw."[1]

The bull, which represents Wall Street and is named accordingly, was bailed out by a governing body despite his unpopularity with the electorate. A self-described "big deal", he walks around with a big cow-turd eating grin and smug sense of undeserved entitlement. No doubt Wally spends his days logisticizing [sic] away, secure in his belief that the invisible hand of the market propelled him into the top spot.

— Trevor Record, The Ubyssey[1]

Student Adrian Pape proposed the idea of a society mascot to the CUS Board of Directors and a "Mascot Madness Contest" was launched in the summer of 2010,[2] with the winning student designer to be awarded $200. 288 of 2701 students voted in the second of two rounds on sixteen entries between May and June and selected Okima the Lion;[3] however, the decision was overturned by the Board of Directors in July because "the connection wasn't there between a lion and [the commerce] facul­ty".[4] Okima's designer received the monetary prize, but Wally the Bull—one of the sixteen original entries, but not one of the five finalists in the second round of voting—was officially unveiled at Sauder Frosh in September 2010 as the mascot of the CUS. CUS VP Marketing Paulina Aksenova stated, "With Wally, we have the rela­tion to Wall Street and we have the bull which is on Wall Street too. We tried to play on stereotypes of commerce and make fun of ourselves be­cause that's what the mascot is there for."[4]

References edit

  1. ^ a b Record, Trevor, "CUS Mascot Selection was a Load of Bull", The Ubyssey, Vancouver, Canada
  2. ^ "Student Corner", Viewpoints, 31 (1): 41, Spring 2011 {{citation}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |journal= (help)
  3. ^ "Previous Election Results", Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, June 15, 2010, retrieved June 11, 2012
  4. ^ a b Gailits, Nicola (September 23, 2010), "The Same Old Bull from Sauder", The Ubyssey, Vancouver, Canada