The VIUSU Extended Health and Dental Plan came into effect in September 2007 after the VIUSU Board of Directors held a democratic referendum of students at the Nanaimo campus of Vancouver Island University in April 2007. Students voted overwhelmingly in favour of the proposal to create a mandatory health and dental benefits plan.

At the time VIU was one of the only major colleges or universities in BC that didn’t have a health insurance plan and VIU students were consistently coming forward with requests to have a plan available to them at VIU similar to the type their peers across the province were already accessing. It was in this context that the VIUSU board responded to student demand by initiating a referendum in order to create the service and implement mandatory fees to operate the program.

When we initially established the plan, the referendum was intentionally held on Nanaimo campus only, not system wide, as we had no experience running a health and dental plan, most administrative functions were paper based, and Nanaimo is where the VIUSU administrative office is located. Furthermore, this would allow us to work out the kinks in the program before expanding to other campuses. Since then, most of the administrative functions have been moved online, which would allow the Students’ Union to support members on any campus or in any location to access their benefits or make changes to their plan.

There have been only minor revisions to the plan benefits and cost, largely maintaining or reducing the cost of the plan while increasing the benefits provided. However, no major changes have been made to who has access to the plan in the ensuing years – access has remained limited to students who study at VIU’s Nanaimo campus due to the nature of the referendum that occurred in 2007.

The VIUSU Extended Health and Dental Plan is a service of the VIU Students’ Union which provides comprehensive extended coverage for plan provides extended coverage for prescription drugs, contraception, paramedical services (like physiotherapy, chiropractic, acupuncture, massage therapy, naturopathy, counselling) and dental work, along with travel insurance, accidental death and dismemberment coverage.

The plan also includes access to unlimited free summary telephone legal advice, unlimited referrals to local lawyers at preferred rates through Sykes Assistance Services and access to GOeVisit to arrange for medical appointments online, and other benefits tailored toward students.

The plan is structured in such a way as to share the total cost amongst a relatively large number of students. By doing this we are able to keep the cost very low relative to the high value of the plan. This is typical of student plans, they are generally of a high value relative to the cost and when compared to similar plans that are provided by an employer or purchased by an individual the VIUSU plan is comparably very affordable.

An important feature that allows the plan to be so affordable while maintaining a high value is that it is mandatory for students who meet a certain set of criteria. The criteria currently limit the plan to students who study the majority of their courses at the Nanaimo Campus of VIU and who are enrolled in full-time courses ie 9 credits per semester or equivalent in non-academic programs.  

Another common feature of the plan is the ability for students who already have pre-existing coverage to easily opt-out. Commonly these are students who are young enough to still be covered under a parental plan or mature students who are covered under an employer plan of their own or their spouse. 

Annually over 3000 students a year studying in Nanaimo have access to a low cost, high quality plan tailored to students needs that supports their physical and emotional well-being. Many of these students come to rely on this program to provide access to medication, counselling, dental care, and many other aspects of physical and emotional well-being for themselves and their loved ones that they could not otherwise afford.

There is a lot of uncertainty that comes with choosing to engage in studies at VIU, cost pressures, all the additional stress of life. For students to know that the basic healthcare needs for themselves and their family is covered while undertaking studies can alleviate at least some part of this uncertainty.

We have heard from many students over the years studying online and in Cowichan, Powell River and Parksville - asking for the chance to participate in the plan.

We know the support provided by our Extended Health and Dental plan can be an integral support for student success. For many it may only just offer piece of mind that if something goes wrong there is a safety net in place but for many many others it is an essential service without which they would be unable to access studies at all.

Currently any student who is not studying full-time with the majority of their courses over two semesters being located on the Nanaimo campus cannot access the plan. This rules out a significant number of students who take courses in a combination of multiple campuses or online.

Students for a multitude of reasons decide to participate in studies on a part time basis. Two common factors are due to the need to attend to family responsibilities such as raising and supporting a family. Another major impediment to full-time studies is simply the high cost of education requiring working part-time and studying part-time in order to afford schooling.

Another major cohort of students that could benefit from expanding the plan is students with a registered disability. The current formulation of the plan does not allow students with a registered disability - who are considered full-time taking six credits of coursework a semester - to participate on the plan even though the intent of the plan is for full-time students to be able to do so.

Much of the work of VIUSU touches on this idea of Academic Enhancement in one way or another; however, one of the key drivers of this activity in all of VIU is VIUSU’s Club System. Through the club system VIUSU supports activities that improve students’ overall educational experience by providing opportunities to apply learning, grow skills, develop as leaders, and impact the community.

Over the course of many years VIUSU has created an increasingly sophisticated framework for supporting clubs which, in the year before Covid struck, had upwards 2700 members participating in a variety of clubs of their choosing ranging from general interest to partisan and religious and course unions which provide representation to individual programs.

The Students’ Union supports the independent operation of clubs and course unions at VIU in many ways. A significant amount of staff time and direct funding is allocated to support clubs annually. Additionally, equipment rentals and room bookings, support for club governance, learning opportunities, and promotion and fundraising; all go toward helping student leaders to get the most out of their experience as club executives and members.

Clubs provide an essential service in the fabric of university life and the investment in them is well worth it. The amount of creative activity stemming from clubs operating at VIU is immense.

With a meaningful but relatively modest grant from VIUSU, clubs over the years have been able to accomplish amazing things. A few initiatives from over the years below:

*The Business Students’ Association created and hosted the Vancouver Island Leadership Conference. Annually attracting hundreds of students from across Vancouver Island for 11 years and counting.

*The MBA Association hosted and won the National MBA games. All together the games hosted at VIU fundraised over three hundred thousand dollars for the Moosehide campaign.

*The Global Studies Association sent a team to the National Model United Nations in New York City and in the same year hosted a district wide Model United Nations conference for high school students from all across Nanaimo.

*The Nursing Student Association hosted the Canadian Nursing Student Association National Conference in Nanaimo. Gathering hundreds of nursing students from across Canada to come together to discuss issues, hear educational speakers and connect with nursing leaders/experts.

*The Community Peace Garden club built a community garden at VIU that for many years has drawn together students, staff and faculty from all areas of campus to enjoy and participate in sustainable agricultural practices.

These are just a few highlights of the hundreds of activities that clubs undertake in any given year; fundraising, putting on community events, giving back to the community.

The VIUSU board of directors regularly receives requests from both clubs and individual students looking for support for activities that are unfortunately not provided for in the current mechanisms in place to support campus life. The VIUSU club funds are directly tied to club activities and the majority of the fund is expended annually in club grants. In exploring options to increase campus support, a model which has been well established at Thompson Rivers University provided a window into the type of support that could be put in place to greatly increase opportunities for students at VIU.

At Thompson Rivers University - a school relatively similar to VIU - the University provides a portion of their student activity fee (about $400,000 annually) to fund their Comprehensive University Enhancement Fund which is then administered by the students’ union to fund student initiatives. This creates a significant amount of funding for students to apply for to support; attending academic conferences, for clubs to host events, for campus educational activities like conferences or speakers, or for community initiatives.

Unfortunately at VIU no proportion of the student activity fee is designated for use by students in the same way. To make up for the lack of funding at VIU for individual and club initiatives the the VIUSU board has opted to try to create a similar fund without the financial support of VIU. Of course we will continue to work to lobby the university to increase the amount of money it sets aside for student initiatives but in the meantime students at VIU should have access to similar opportunities as students at other universities.