Say goodbye to the DSU handbook

Dalhousie Student Union not releasing annual student guide due to cost, environmental issues

The 2014-15 DSU executive. (Photo by Amin Helal)

The Dalhousie Student Union (DSU) is not releasing a student handbook this fall for the first time in many years.

The DSU already needed to make changes to the student agenda and guide, which originally cost between $35,000 and $45,000 and was funded entirely by advertising.

Last year, the DSU published the Tiger’s Guide to Halifax, a much smaller version of the original handbook. The Tiger’s Guide contained information about the student union, different Dal societies and an introduction to the DSU executives.

Jennifer Nowoselski, vice president (internal) says companies started moving away from traditional print media with their advertising, making it harder to cover the cost.

“We decided that we didn’t want to have to take money out of student programming in order to pay for the handbook,” says Nowoselski.

It became clear last spring that even a modified, streamlined handbook would not be feasible for the upcoming year.

“We had an in-house graphic designer, so that cut down on a lot of the costs, but she found a different job over the summer and we knew that hiring someone for graphics would cost us a lot more,” says Nowoselski.

In addition to cost issues, the DSU noted the environmental impact of the handbook.

“We found that the handbook took so much paper and plastic to produce that it really didn’t line up with our sustainability vision,” said Nowoselski.

“We just decided that we would focus more on our other communication tools throughout the year instead of spending money that could otherwise be used on student programming on the booklet.”