Carleton University’s Rideau River Residence Association (RRRA) council passed a motion Tuesday to impeach its current vice-president (VP) programming.
The move, which removes third-year finance student Sanjay Kirubaharan from office, was debated and voted on under a secret ballot. The motion stated Kirubaharan “has objectively failed at his job.”
First-year public affairs and policy management student and RRRA councilor Aiden Rohacek moved the motion, and first-year public affairs and policy management student and RRRA councillor Allan Buri seconded it.
Both Rohacek and Buri said the decision to move the motion was difficult, but they wanted to send a message to students that council is holding executives accountable.
Sixteen voted in favour of Kirubaharan’s removal, two voted against it and two abstained, surpassing the two-thirds majority required to pass the motion, according to a council update.
“We had an executive who had taken a fair amount of students’ money, and in return, students got very little,” Rohacek said.
The VP programming is responsible for overseeing RRRA’s external portfolio, including external partnerships and running events for residence students.
“The events weren’t run, promises were made and broken, and we felt like [Kirubaharan’s] active carelessness harmed residence students and the experiences they could have had,” said Rohacek.
Buri said Kirubaharan was removed because he did not deliver programming promises that he made during his election campaign.
“He was elected on a platform to deliver programming to residence. Did programming happen? No,” Buri said.
Rohacek and Buri said some examples of events Kirubaharan promised to hold include a residence gala, a Valentine’s day dance, and a “RRRA gives back” initiative. The two had a meeting with Kubarahan Feb. 13 to discuss their concerns.
“We brought questions to him because a lot of councilors had concerns with his performance. We were concerned that events weren’t running, the events that we did have were executed extremely poorly,” Rohacek said.
Neither Rohacek nor Buri have heard from him since that meeting on Feb. 13 and said Kirubaharan went on leave not long after that date.
“His leave began roughly a week after we confronted him and gave him an honest performance review,” said Buri.
Rohacek and Buri explained it was important to continue with the impeachment even though Kirubaharan’s term was ending soon in order to send a message to the incoming executive and council.
“I hope that next year’s council realizes that they are an important body, that they have an important role to play, and just because they’re volunteers that their role is any less important than that of the executive,” Buri said.
On April 10, the association amended Policy V of its constitution, allowing any executive member other than the president to be removed from office by a two-thirds majority vote of all eligible voting members of the Residence Council, following a motion from any councillor to remove the executive from office.
“Sanjay is here for a good time, not a long time,” his profile on the RRRA executives page reads. “He will try his best to plan fun events for everyone living in residence.”
Kirubaharan did not respond to requests for an interview in time for publication.
A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the VP programming is in charge of scholarships. The Charlatan regrets this error.
Featured graphic by Sierra Mclean.
