When Carleton graduate students go to vote in the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) elections on March 20 and 21, they will come across two names on the presidential ballot for the first time in three years.
In addition to the only other contested seat of vice-president (operations), the two presidential candidates Ron Couchman and Grant MacNeil will go head-to-head after two years of the position being uncontested.
Couchman, a second-year master’s in sociology student, is running on the platform of getting post-residency fees and fighting the clawback in funding that graduate students faced this past year.
Post-residency fees are reduced tuition fees for graduate students conducting independent research and study, since they use fewer university resources.
“I know I lost $6,000 in funding. I’ve been a little bit disappointed in the lack of organization around that, so that’s something I want to push,” Couchman said.
He points to improving accessibility for welcome weeks and working with the Paul Menton Centre to increase accommodations for graduate students as his platform.
First-year master’s in anthropology student MacNeil said he is pushing for “building community” through an overhaul of the GSA website to promote inter-departmental communication and the creation of a campus report card.
He said he wants to have conference paper preparation sessions, graduate-specific writing tutorials, and more inclusive welcome weeks. MacNeil said he is also advocating for post-residency fees and fighting clawbacks.
“We just want to continue to be a strong voice for students that’s responsive to their needs and concerns as a campus community,” he said.
Both candidates have had previous experience with campus politics. MacNeil sat on the board of Saint Mary’s University Students’ Association where he did his undergraduate degree, and represented Carleton at the Ontario Student Activist Assembly last year in Toronto.
Couchman has been on GSA council for two years and currently sits on the Sexual Assault Advisory Committee with Equity Services, in addition to working with the Ottawa Coalition to End Violence Against Women.
MacNeil and Couchman both agree they hope to improve relations with the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) if elected, but stress that their primary focus is the needs of graduate students.
“I think the GSA needs to focus on determining which topics affect graduate students and which don’t. For those that don’t, we need to respect CUSA’s autonomy whether we agree or disagree with them,” Couchman said.
MacNeil echoed the point.
“The GSA represents graduate students and my interests are in the long-term success of our organization and graduate students at Carleton,” he said.
“But that being said, our door is always open and that’s the policy I want to have. If people want to have conversations about working with CUSA, that’s fine.”
Both candidates said they would like to continue working with the Canadian Federation of Students in the future. MacNeil and Couchman also focused on promoting solidarity among graduate students as it’s a labour bargaining year for the Canadian Union of Public Employees 4600, the teaching assistant union that represents a lot of graduate students.
For now, both presidential candidates stress the need for student involvement in the elections.
“It’s really important that graduate students come out. We haven’t had a [presidential] election in three years, so it’s really important we get voter turnout,” Couchman said.
