Annually the Students' Union works with other student bodies across BC and Canada to lobby government on your behalf.

Campaigns of the Students' Union include meeting with decision-makers, conducting research and mobilizing students to raise public awareness. While a majority of students will be most familiar with the mobilization aspects of our campaigns, a great deal of work goes into crafting a position and presenting that position to government.

Elected directors of the Students' Union regularly meet with local MP's, MLA's, government committees and members of the civil service. Through the Canadian Federation of Students, VIU students are represented in meetings with provincial and federal ministers and to a wide array of parliamentary committees.

PICTURE: Nanaimo-Cowichan Member of Parliament speaks to students at the Nanaimo Campus.

Over the history of the Students' Union many campaigns have been organised and many issues taken to government. While not all of these initiatives have resulted in the desired goal, the Students' Union continues to be commited to representing students' interests.

Some victories of note include:
- regularion of tuition fees in BC
- re-introduction of the BC Loan Remission Program
- introduction of off-campus work permits for international students
- government review of BC post-secondary system
- elimination of the gym user fee and graduation fee at Mal-U
- elimination of GST from tuition fees
- increased tax deductions for students
- prevention of tax application to band funding for Aboriginal students

PICTURE: this picture is from the 2005 National Day of Action protest at the Mal-U Nanaimo Campus. More than 500 students attended to demand that the BC government freeze tuition fees. Shortly after the day of action, BC Premier Gordon Campbell announced that tuition fees would be frozen at the rate of inflation, and they remain frozen today.

VIU students are members of the Canadian Federation of Students and that means that students in Nanaimo, Duncan, Parksville and Powell River are connected to more than 550,000 other students in communities across Canada. Through the Federation, students work together, pool resources, act with a united voice and demand action from government.

With more than one half million members at more than 80 students' unions, the Canadian Federation of Students is Canada's National Student Movement.

PICTURE: Students set the Federation's campaign agenda, establish an annual budget and deliberate on policy at two national and two provincial general meetings each year.