Earlier this morning an altercation occurred at the UNB board of governors meeting over the recent #onlyhere campaign.
The trouble began after a series of tweets, originating from Fredericton, included the hashtag #onlyhere.
A purported fistfight broke out during a board of governors meeting with opposing sides squaring off in the Chancellor’s room of the Ward Chipman Centre.
There were no reported injuries although campus police did call in backup to breakup the melee.
The #onlyhere campaign is a recent marketing strategy for UNB, which is trying to convince students to attend, here.
Disagreement over where ‘here’ is came to light this past week with an anonymous individual posting a photo of Tilley Hall at UNB Fredericton with the hashtag.
Up unitl this point all material had been produced on the Saint John Campus.
“This is terrible,” says a spokesperson from the firm hired to create the campaign, “It’s much worse than anything we anticipated.”
“I think it is unacceptable for Fredericton to hijack the hashtag.” Says a spokesperson for UNB Saint John. “
In a statement released earlier this morning Vice Principal UNB Saint John stated that “Here will always be here, only here, and nowhere else.” Referring to the Saint John campus of UNB.
The Fredericton campus refused to comment on the issue, however a senior official was heard yelling, “I’ll show those [blank’s] downriver where ‘here’ is,” obviously upset with the situation.
Trouble may be with the word
“I’m not sure what all the fuss is about,” says a 3rd year linguistics major at UNB Fredericton who wished to remain anonymous.
“‘Here’ is in so many words, like ‘there’ and ‘everwhere’ it’s all a bit ridiculous.”
Students Union and SRC ready to rumble
The animosity between the campuses has spread to the student groups as well.
“We saw the Students Union using the hashtag last week, and got angry, we got really angry,” says a spokesperson for the UNB Saint John SRC. “It’s just unprofessional.”
Meanwhile the vice president of the UNB Fredericton Students Union is upset at the backlash.
“How can here be there? [the SRC] is obviously incompetent,” Says the vice president , who spoke to the Baron over the phone, while putting the finishing touches on his recently mobilized war room.
“I had this thing left over from the election” He says, referring to his campaign war room, which wasn’t used for some of the campaign due to a fine.
“After hearing about what [the SRC] said. we decided to make it mobile. They have no idea what’s coming at them.”
When asked if he is worried about the UNB Fredericton SU, the spokesperson from the SRC said. “I sent a message to them, If they want to rumble, it will only happen here.”
HMS Onlyhere, as the SU has dubbed it, is scheduled to make landfall at tucker park beach sometime in the next 1-3 weeks.
In addition the SRC and the Baron have advised Saint John students that anything written by the Brunswickan is not to be trusted.