Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) voted against supporting the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) campaign to challenge homophobia and transphobia on June 18.
The motion, presented by Sarah McCue, was met with no discussion and failed with 11 votes for and 13 votes against. Carleton student Arun Smith motivated the motion and said that although he wasn’t surprised by the result, he was disappointed with CUSA’s response.
“How 13 Councillors and Executives can reject a campaign built for and by students . . . providing a toolkit for customization to suit particular campus environments, that is supported by the GSA, the Administration, and members of the GLBTQ+ community, without even looking at the material objectively, baffles me entirely,” Smith said via email.
Michael De Luca, CUSA vice-president (finance), who voted against supporting the CFS-run campaign said that CUSA already strives to ensure campus is a safe place with policies against discrimination like the promotion of “homo/bi/transphobia.”
“I do not believe in supporting a campaign run by an organization (the CFS) whose primary goal, as a corporate entity, is to generate a revenue from Carleton students,” De Luca said via email.
“The CUSA Executive cares and is passionate about the issue that has arisen on our campus and we have been responsive to it by initiating a CUSA-run campaign that will debut this fall.”
Smith said that CUSA is adopting a “father-knows-best” attitude to combatting homophobia and transphobia that is not working for students.
“It is this sort of over-politicization that is undermining the ability of students to participate in and to trust their student union,” Smith said.
“This says very clearly that queer and trans student issues are not a priority for this Executive and their allied councillors.”
Despite lacking CUSA support, Smith said the campaign will continue to work with other organizations on campus.
