The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) council passed two advocacy policies and discussed the high price of international students’ tuition at a Sept. 30 council meeting.
At the meeting, President Sarah El Fitori announced her return from a two-week partial leave of absence. According to councillors, information about her leave was not shared with them or the student body.
In an emailed statement to the Charlatan, El Fitori said that she took the leave for medical reasons and was not obligated to inform anyone other than her supervisors and the CUSA board. Those people were all informed, she wrote.
During the meeting, Rideau River Residence Association president Mohammed Akif announced the resignations of both of the association’s vice-presidents. Elections for the vacant vice-presidential roles and floor councillor positions were held on Oct. 18.
Aliza Khan, a second-year law and psychology student, was elected to the role of vice-president of administration. Hasan Rezvi, a second-year electrical engineering student, was elected to the role of vice-president of programming.
Advocacy priorities outlined
Council unanimously approved CUSA’s second advocacy roadmap, which documents the organization’s advocacy priorities for the year.
The roadmap is based on concerns expressed by 302 students throughout the association’s consultation process, said CUSA vice-president of student issues Artur Estrela da Silva.
It identifies 10 priorities for CUSA’s 2024-2025 advocacy team:
- Transit
- Accessibility
- The cost of education
- Housing and affordability
- Student health care and mental health care
- EDI and international student support
- Climate change and environmental sustainability
- Research opportunities
- Indigenous student support and reconciliation
- Sexual violence prevention
Of students’ replies to the advocacy consultation, nearly 49 per cent raised concerns about transit, Estrela da Silva told council.
“That’s pretty much our top priority of the year,” he said. “We have already done quite a bit of work with city councillors and OC Transpo on our transit advocacy, and we’re going to keep the work going.”
He pointed to CUSA’s Oct. 10 transit panel with Ottawa transit advocates MPP Joel Harden and Coun. Shawn Menard as an example of CUSA’s advocacy efforts.
A recap document of the association’s advocacy work will be published in the winter, Estrela da Silva said.
New political partnerships policy
Council voted unanimously to approve the political stakeholder and advocacy policy, which outlines CUSA’s approaches to partnering and meeting with government representatives.
“This [policy] is codifying 99 per cent of what we already do,” said Aidan Kallioinen, associate vice-president of government affairs.
The new policy outlines the CUSA advocacy team’s mandate, what its partnerships with political organizations should look like and the association’s formal process for briefings and statements. It also ensures that all partnerships are tied to the advocacy roadmap, are non-partisan and do not involve monetary payments from CUSA or its partners.
Before voting, the policy was amended to exclude CUSA’s board from the political stakeholders process, as councillors said the board must remain a non-political body.
Concerns over international students’ tuition
Councillors discussed concerns over international students’ tuition following a question from Coun. Aryan Singh about high costs.
“Education should be a necessity, not a luxury,” Singh said at the meeting. “We as CUSA should do our best to make tuition for international students more affordable.”
International students’ tuition has continued to steadily increase at rates of five to seven per cent a year. On average, international students in Canada pay four times more in tuition than domestic students.
To address the high costs, Kallioinen said the association is advocating for a tuition guarantee at Carleton. The model would ensure students pay the same amount in tuition fees for every year of their undergraduate program.
“If you started paying $30,000 a year,” he said, “you would pay $30,000 a year at the end of your four-year program, instead of not knowing whether or not your tuition is going to climb and climb and climb.”
CUSA is also advocating to the federal government to remove the international student cap, Kallioinen said, adding that the policy drives up tuition costs for international students and is detrimental for university finances.
CUSA council will meet next on Oct. 28.
Featured graphic by Sara Mizannojehdehi.
