Ignite hopes to raise awareness after students express skepticism over new branding

By Devon Imrie & Kabrena Robinson, Skedline.com

Following the rebranding of the Humber Students’ Federation to IGNITE in July, many students remain skeptical about the budget and transparency of the change.

The previous rebrand info session held by IGNITE on Oct. 5 sparked a lot of anger among students who saw the $400,000 budget as a waste of money.

The executive body of HSF hopes to resolve these concerns with a special meeting of members scheduled for Oct. 18 at the Humber North Campus. A live stream of the event will be available for Lakeshore students in the K building.

The meeting is intended to give Humber students a voice to vote on the legal name change from HSF to IGNITE. An update is also expected to be released on the categorized budget for the rebranding.

When asked about the $400,000 budget and past info sessions held by IGNITE, many students said they were unaware of how the money would be spent and also the operation of HSF under the new brand.

Humber Graphic design students Tristen Fitian said that she was unaware about the change .

“I didn’t know that happened,” she said. “I don’t think they should have spent that much on a rebranding.”

Accounting student Handeep Bains believes the money could be put to better use.

“I would prefer if they upgrade the cafeteria area with more space to sit because we barely have that and study areas,” she said.

However, some students are more aware of the changes and see the rebranding as a positive move.

“Ignite seems like a good idea, it seems like something that is bringing all the campuses together,” stated Ryan Bowman, a Digital Communications student at Humber.

“HSF was more reflective of a small amount of the Humber student body.”

However, like many Humber students, Bowman also expressed his concern about the budget.

“I like the rebranding but i don’t think it’s worth all that money. Something like that should be public on where they spent the money and how they spent the money,” he said.

Anna Bilan, the VP of Student affairs at Lakeshore campus, believes that the major reason behind the discontent among students with the new branding comes from a lack of understanding and involvement.

“When the students actually understand why the rebrand was made there are no concerns and they will say it was very very necessary. There are a lot of students who came to us and said they would love to get involved since the rebrand’’ she said.

“However, no matter how you send this message to some students, if they have already made up their minds to hear what they want to hear, you are powerless in changing that.”

She also commented on the $400,000 budget project saying that more will be disclosed in tomorrow’s meeting.

“The $400,000 is just the excess amount approved by the board. We do not spend that much money so tomorrow we are going to present the exact amount that we have spent so far,” she said.

Bilan stated that the rebrand has not affected the operations of any services that were provided by HSF.