Two years of occupying the president’s office of the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) has made his corner office with its big windows overlooking the street below feel a bit like a second home, Alexander Golovko said.
The A Better Carleton team, with their purple campaign posters and materials, swept the undergraduate student association elections twice with Golovko at its helm and for a third time with him as campaign manager.
“Our approach has always been about saving students money,” he said. “Coming into CUSA, I always understood the value of a student dollar.”
Golovko said one way he aimed to save money was by cutting the old Health and Dental plan, which the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) shared with CUSA through their mutual provider, Green Shield.
The GSA took the position that CUSA broke contract, and promptly sued them. The matter is ongoing.
The slate’s upcoming executive includes members from many prominent campus groups, something Golovko said is no coincidence. To get elected, he said he and his team studied political theories, held focus groups with students around campus to build their campaign, and read article after article on successful lobbying.
He said a priority of the A Better Carleton executive is to defederate from the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), a Canada-wide student federation that collects money from member locals, which include CUSA and the GSA.
“This has always been our position. The moment our students give us the direction of letting go, we will pursue it to the best of our ability,” Golovko said.
Previous attempts by other university student unions have lead to lawsuits and massive fines from the Canada-wide association, so Golovko said he is proceeding cautiously.
“The stage is set in a way that if the students give us the direction and show support towards moving away from the organization—ultimately saving our students money—we are ready to go for it,” he said.
He looked out the window as the interview touched on the more sentimental notes of his presidency and time at Carleton.
“I got attached to the community, and that community is the community at Carleton University,” he said.
