The new Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) executive team kicked off the first council meeting of their term by addressing campaign promises of electoral reform and representation of international students.
Led by CUSA president Matthew Gagné, the council meeting was held over Zoom and live-streamed on Facebook May 27.
Gagné’s motion for a new democratic reform committee passed. The new committee will present a report to council in November outlining “a path forward,” according to the motion.
“This [democratic reform] is the biggest concern that came out of the last election and that’s why it’s the first thing we’re acting on,” said Gagné in his motion to council. “It’s about time.”
The committee will be chaired by a student-at-large who will be elected by council and paid an honorarium for their time.
“The reason why we’re hiring a chair on an honorarium pay is because we want someone dedicated to this issue specifically for the rest of the summer and into the end of the fall semester,” Gagné said.
Gagné and vice-president (internal) Ahmad Hashimi will be on the committee, as well as representatives from the Ombuds office, the Student Affairs Office and one CUSA full-time staff member. Each faculty will be represented by one CUSA councillor on the committee which will oversee consultation sessions happening in the late summer and early fall months, Gagné said.
“We’re going to have two consultations per faculty where any student at large from each faculty can come and bring their concerns, their questions, their ideas about council and about democratic reform,” Gagné said.
The chair will be responsible for setting up the consultation process and scheduling regular meetings, which Gagné said could be monthly during the summer and increased once the fall semester starts.
While Gagné said CUSA is hoping to fill the councillor seats by their next meeting, he is aiming to have the committee chair hired by mid-June.
An international students advisory committee was also created during the meeting, proposed to council by Saad Khan, a councillor for the faculty of engineering and design (FED). The committee will be responsible for “presenting to council how CUSA can improve the university experience,” according to the passed motion.
“International students have faced many issues, whether it’s high tuition, racism, discrimination, the lack of job opportunities and so on,” Khan said.
Although the committee is not tasked with specific advisory topics, vice-president (student issues) Valentina Vera Gonzalez, who will be chair of the committee, said the immediate focus will be on the return to campus.
“[The committee] is just basically to allow [CUSA] to see how can we can help international students, what’s going on with returning back to campus, returning back to classes,” Gonzalez said.
Khan was nominated by Gagné and elected to fill one of the councillor seats on the committee, along with self-nominated FED councillor Mohamed Faris Riazudden.
Co-ordinators from CUSA’s Racialized and International Student Experience (RISE) centre will also sit on the committee. The remaining three students-at-large committee positions are set to be filled in June.
The next CUSA council meeting is scheduled for June 10.
A previous version of this article reported Saad Khan was self-nominated and the international students advisory committee had two students-at-large positions. In fact, Khan was nominated by Matthew Gagné and there are three filled students-at-large positions. This article was updated on June 6 to provide more accurate information on the committee. The Charlatan regrets the errors.
Featured image provided via CUSA Facebook Live.
