During Sarah El Fitori’s campaign for the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) presidency last spring, a key promise she made to Carleton students was the conception of a plan to construct a student union building on campus.
Now nine months into her term, the Charlatan spoke with El Fitori to check in on the building’s progress and the ins and outs of her plan.
The Charlatan (TC): What progress has been made on the student union building project?
Sarah El Fitori (SF): We’ve been working on it since the summer. CUSA has weekly meetings to discuss it. We’re trying to plan what steps we have to take. We’ve met with the university and they’re on board to work with us. We decided it would be best to integrate a student union building into a long-term plan.
We don’t have enough spaces to accommodate students. They don’t gain a whole lot from CUSA unless they use our services, so we want to make sure students have spaces they can be in — but if we have to rent those spaces from the school, we end up taking more money from students for spaces they may not use. In the long term, a student union building makes the most sense because we wouldn’t be recycling that money back to the university, it would go back to the students.
TC: How are you working with the Board of Directors?
SF: We are working on a five-year plan with the Board of Directors. At the end of the five years, the goal is to start construction on the student union building. The five years are for ironing out the details and the ins and outs of the building, since it’s not a small plan.
Our priority right now is ensuring CUSA has the foundation to sustain a student union building, taking all necessary steps over the next five years and doing as much student consultation as possible so the building has everything students want.
TC: Is there a subcommittee for this building?
SF: Yes, there are six members. Their role is to conduct student surveys and gather information from each department on what they want to see from the building, so it’s representative of all students.
TC: How will CUSA conduct these surveys?
SF: I have multiple ideas. One of them is to create a CUSA Reddit account and allow students to ask questions directly and anonymously. The school suggested surveying students too, which would take a while, but would be worth it. We’re going to ensure we are as transparent as possible with students.
TC: What sort of impact do you want this building to have on students?
SF: My whole idea for the building is to create a community for students on campus. There’s not much to do on campus for students.There aren’t enough places to relax, especially for international students, who spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to get their degree. I feel that they deserve a meaningful experience and that can only be accomplished by having a community.
TC: Approximately how much would this building cost?
SF: Before we do feasibility studies and before we see what students want in the building, it’s hard to tell. It could be a four-floor building or a six-floor one. It all depends on what it looks like after the student surveying.
Jahnelle Woldegiorgis, my associate vice-president (executive relations), is organizing an alumni fundraiser. The goal is to bring Carleton alumni to campus and raise enough money for the initial architecture drawings. So, we won’t be taking money from students, we’ll be taking it from alumni. We’ll be able to develop an idea from that, which we can show to students first before we ask them to invest in us to get the building started.
Once we fundraise, the goal is to run a student referendum for the building’s construction. At the end of the day, without student funding, it’s impossible to construct a building. The building will be a great investment for students.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Featured graphic by Alisha Velji.
