The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) is holding elections for their president and councillors. At the time of publication, voting days and campaigning had been postponed indefinitely.
Carleton students will vote for 31 councillors, eight of which will represent students in the faculty of public affairs. Only six candidates are running to represent the faculty.
The Charlatan asked each candidate questions about their campaigns.
Erin Okrainec
Erin Okrainec is a first-year public affairs and policy management student.
Q: Why are you running for CUSA?
A: I’m running for CUSA to be an advocate for the faculty of public affairs as well as anyone from the Carleton community who has a concern, questions that need to be answered or just needs a voice. As the vice president of communications for the Carleton-Ukrainian community, I experienced the struggle with club funding and obtaining resources, especially in urgent times. I want to review and change the procedures and processes for clubs to request resources and support from CUSA.
Q: Why should students vote for you to represent your faculty?
A: I’m using my experiences as motivation to push for change. I will do my best to get results and to get closure for anyone who comes to me with an issue. I actively volunteer within the Carleton community wherever and whenever I can and I want fellow students to know that I am somebody they can come to in times of need.
Q: What do you hope to accomplish as a CUSA councillor?
A: I hope to ensure that there is adequate communication within CUSA. I want to address some of the current policies, specifically the process of clubs requesting resources and the sexual violence policy currently in place. I plan to propose a self-defence policy for women as an added layer of protection.
Raj Gill
Raj Narain Singh Gill is a first-year economics and political science student.
Q: Why are you running for CUSA?
A: I’m running to increase first-year representation within CUSA council. There is a lack of first-year representation in many aspects of CUSA, yet they have a lot of concerns and issues that are unique to them. It’s my number one priority to represent everyone from the faculty of public affairs, but it’s also my priority to amplify the voice of first-year students.
Q: Why should students vote for you to represent your faculty?
A: I have a lot of experience in advocacy, student government, policy-making and policy analysis at the federal and provincial level. The work I’ve done as the former vice-president of my high school student council is very similar to the job description as a CUSA councillor, so I bring a lot of experience to the table.
I also bring a caring personal touch to the table. As a current first-year student, I’ve seen what their challenges are, I’ve seen what students want, I’ve talked to fellow faculty members and I empathize with them. But most importantly, I’ve gone through it.
Q: What do you hope to accomplish as a CUSA councillor?
A: I want diversity within the council. The more diverse the council, the better our policies are. I want to listen to students and be an advocate for them. My biggest priority is to generate conversations with the faculty of public affairs to identify the issues and bring those concerns to the table. Because If I don’t know what the issues are, how can I do my job as a CUSA councillor?
Jordan Vecchio
Jordan Vecchio is a fourth-year communication and media studies student running for re-election as councillor.
Q: Why are you running for CUSA?
A: I love CUSA. I’ve been a part of it for so long now that I really want to be a part of CUSA during my last and final year.
It’s really important that we revitalize how CUSA is running because we’ve changed its structure this year and there’s a lot of new things that are going to be happening with that new system.
Q: Why should students vote for you to represent your faculty?
A: With the new changes coming in, we need to have people that are knowledgeable on CUSA. It’s important that people on council are experienced.
Vice presidents are now being appointed. It’s going to be important to have people that know what it takes to be an executive on CUSA, to select executives that are going to support the organization.
Q: What do you hope to accomplish as a CUSA councillor?
With the return to campus, I really want in-person programming back and fun things for students to do because I miss on-campus life.
It’s important to make that more visible to everyone by posting meeting videos, posting council minutes and having transparency. As a counselor, that’s something that I’ll advocate for.
Francesca Lepore
Francesca Lepore declined an interview with the Charlatan.
Gauri Bhardwaj
Gauri Bhardwaj could not be reached by the Charlatan for comment.
Liam Clarke
Liam Clarke, a second-year political science student, emailed the Charlatan that he dropped out of the race for councillor on March 2.
These interviews have been edited for brevity and clarity.
Featured image by Maryam Teima.
