The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) has pushed back its election date, introduced new policies for the election of vice-presidents and planned a referendum to review an ancillary fee levy group, Millennium Promise.
Council convened on Jan. 31, only two weeks after they announced the general election during an emergency meeting on Jan. 17.
Interim president and vice-president (internal) Ahmad Hashimi was not present due to illness, according to an email from Hashimi to the Charlatan.
The meeting began with an announcement from the chief electoral officer (CEO), Nicolas Gil Ocampo, who said the electoral office was pushing the CUSA election dates to the end of February and early March.
The campaign period will now take place from Feb. 28 to March 10 and voting will be held on March 9 to 10.
“We have experienced an unexpectedly low number of interested candidates for the upcoming general election,” Ocampo said. “More specifically, the number of candidates interested to run for council positions was so low that the required quorum wouldn’t have been met even if they all got to sit on council for the upcoming year.”
As a result of the delayed electoral calendar, interested students will have more time to complete the candidates interest form. Ocampo said the elections office is hoping the extended timeline will bring a higher candidate turnout.
The form closes on Feb. 10 and is available on the CUSA elections website.
In light of the CEO’s announcement, during the question period, vice-president (community engagement) Callie Ogden asked councillors about their experience in the role and how they can ensure that the role is appealing to students.
Arts and social sciences councillor Tyson Scott said it was too easy for councillors to take a passive role within CUSA and difficult to engage with the wider student body.
“People don’t really interact. There’s not a whole lot of identity, at least for me, as to what we really do,” Scott said.
He said there could be more discussion during meetings to engage councillors with decision-making, rather than creating a “seamless pipeline” of approval.
Engineering and design councillor Cameron Davis said he attributes the lack of engagement to the “toxic culture” of Carleton’s student governance, especially since the pandemic started.
“I’ll be frank, I think CUSA student politics has become toxic,” Davis said.
“Because of this extra layer of toxicity, I think that [being a] councillor is actually a lot harder, because people are always stepping on eggshells or worried they’re gonna get attacked, especially during elections,” Davis said. “So, I think people are just tired.”
CUSA’s last general election observed a “silent weekend” to pause campaigning in an attempt to calm issues of cyberbullying and conflicts of interest.
Following the discussion, Ogden thanked the councillors for sharing their perspectives.
“I think that this is a great starting point of how we can all work together to start really shedding light on how toxic our campus culture is,” Ogden said.
Referendum to asses Millennium Promise as an ancillary fee levy group
Council discussed a briefing note brought forward by the ancillary fee review committee (AFRC). The note indicated the AFRC does not support CUSA’s continued partnership with Millenium Promise an an ancillary fee levy group.
As detailed in the note, Millennium Promise Alliance (MPA), formally Millennium Village, was introduced as a levy group in 2009. Since the 2009 referendum, the organization has been collecting $6.00 per student annually.
According to an article, at the time of the levy fee’s introduction, the organization was committed to providing “people in Africa with the tools they need to overcome poverty, one village at a time.”
Vice-president (finance) Venassa Baptiste said the organization’s presence on campus wound down around 2011 and the project that was initially proposed to students, the Millennium Village Project, ended around 2016.
Baptiste confirmed that the money was still being sent to the parent organization since it is the responsibility of the vice-president (finance) to sign and send the cheques after collecting the fees from students.
Gabriel Paraskevopulos, a student-at-large in the AFRC, brought up the issue to Baptiste in August but told council that he had emailed the previous vice-president (finance) with no response.
“There seems to be a fair amount of inaction on the part of the student association involved in the whole affair,” Paraskevopulos said.
Baptiste organized one meeting with the organization, during which a representative said they “introduced contact tracing initiatives to prevent community spread of COVID-19, donated $1 million [worth of personal protective equipment] to frontline health workers, and provided thermal temperature checks in countries throughout Africa.”
Since MPA does not directly or indirectly support Carleton students, the AFRC advised to eliminate the organization as an ancillary levy fee group.
Valentina Vera Gonzalez, vice-president (student issues), asked about recommendations to prevent future issues and Baptiste said the committee will be presenting a report in the spring including policy recommendations to enforce regular reviews for ancillary fee levy groups.
The council passed a motion to include a referendum in the general election posing the question to students about eliminating or continuing the partnership with MPA.
Preparing for the new democratic structure
With the new electoral process in effect for the upcoming election, council voted on several amendments related to the appointment of the vice-presidents.
Under the new system, the CUSA presidency and the councillors are filled through a general election while vice-presidents will be elected internally during an annual general meeting (AGM) before the end of the outgoing executives’ term. Council will also elect members to fill CUSA’s board of directors during the AGM.
The council passed a motion to schedule the AGM for March 25.
Gray Simms, chair of the constitution and policy review committee (CPRC), posed two options to council regarding the question of term limits for vice-presidents, a topic that was discussed in October during an indicative vote.
The first option would not enforce term limits for vice-presidents but would mandate an unpaid leave of absence during the campaign period for sitting executives running for re-election.
The second option would enforce term limits on the vice-presidential position, being that no elected executive—president or vice-president—would be eligible to run for a vice-presidential office.
“I think having this motion will really ensure that the students who are in this role will be completing their campaign points, they will be working towards creating a better association, and actually doing their job,” Ogden said.
A majority of council voted for the first option, but then voted on the motion again since there was confusion about the amendment’s jurisdiction over the presidential candidates.
Simms clarified that the motion in question referred to the eligibility of the vice-presidents only and that the policy on the eligibility of presidential candidates, and whether or not the bylaws would enforce a temporary leave of absence, was not currently being presented to council.
Council voted again, this time confirming support for the second option.
The CPRC also presented amendments to the vice-president (finance) nomination committee terms of reference. Committee candidates are selected by a nomination committee and are elected internally during the AGM.
The amendments specified the responsibilities of the nomination committee and detailed how the committee would be filled by lottery.
The committee is responsible for selecting between two and four nominees to present to council for the position of vice-president (finance) along with a detailed recommendation outlining the candidate’s qualifications.
The recommended amendments passed unanimously.
By the end of the three-hour meeting and after voting on nine separate motions, council decided to adjourn and reconvene during a special session in February to form and fill the nomination committee for the vice-president (finance).
Simms added that the CPRC would hopefully have more policy recommendations ready to present to council in time for the special session.
Featured image from Screengrab.
