The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) council held an emergency meeting March 9 to debate and vote on the 2015 writ of referenda.
The questions posed focused on the CUSA health and dental plan, the clubs and societies levy, and the CUSA bursary fund.
The referendum questions need to obtain at least 1,000 signatures during the nomination period in order to appear on the ballot, according to chief electoral officer (CEO) Samantha Somerville.
The council approved three questions:
“Do you support the enhancement of the Carleton University Students’ Association health and dental plan coverage at a cost of $14 per term?”
“Due to the significant growth of the number of clubs and societies on campus, are you in favour of increasing the clubs and societies levy by $3.30?”
“Are you in favour of contributing $1 per semester to the Carleton University Students’ Association bursary fund, which helps students in financial need?”
There was no question on defederating from the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS). CUSA council previously voted in favour of adopting the student-run CFS review committee’s recommendation to hold a referendum on defederation.
CUSA president Folarin Odunayo, who was not present at the meeting, said the CFS has its own bylaws and the defederation process would not be run through a CUSA referendum.
“Financially, the best way to move forward is to release the fees we have been withholding for the past couple of years, and then go through whatever bylaw process the CFS has,” he said.
At the council meeting, Gennesse Walker-Scace, CUSA public affairs and policy management councillor, proposed a motion to change the clubs and societies question to its wording from the 2014 referendum.
Dan Crich, CUSA public affairs councillor, also put forward a motion to amend the clubs and societies question. This amendment would have added “from $3.30 to $6.60” to the end of the question. Both motions failed.
Walker-Scace said she and Crich support increased funding for clubs and societies on campus, but students need to understand how much more they will be paying.
“The way that the question is worded and how it passed does not inform students how much they’re currently paying and it does not give any sort of clear direction for how often that levy should be applied,” she said.
“It’s the CUSA executive’s job to provide all information to councillors on anything being considered by council or any of CUSA’s activities,” Walker-Scace added.
Crich said CUSA could have some political motivation behind the wording of the questions.
“It appears as if they’re relying on the student levy in order to keep the association afloat,” he said. “They’re misleading students in order to make sure that the student association doesn’t sink.”
“You can’t just mislead students and expect them to not give a crap,” he said.
Fahd Alhattab, public affairs councillor and CUSA president-elect, said there are key elements here funding right now is really tight.
Focusing specifically on clubs and societies, Alhattab said they need more money.
“For us to provide them this, it has to take a holistic approach of being able to provide more resources for students,” he said.
Odunayo said the questions were about raising more money to improve CUSA’s services.
“These questions are asking for money, but the line of question isn’t exactly specific,” he said.
“In my year as vice-president (finance), we saw clubs increase alone by almost 50,” Odunayo added. “It is a good thing because more people are getting involved, but it is also a bad thing from a CUSA perspective because we have to manage all clubs and pay all of our staff and keep the office open.”
Odunayo said CUSA offered the same health plan and services for 10 years under Green Shield. CUSA left the plan in 2012 and signed with Student Care.
Under this plan, services were similar and the cost was lower.
“We are now at a point whether we can keep going or we can make some changes to the plan and give more students more services and more bang for their buck,” he said.
“It’s not just asking for money,” Odunayo added. “It’s ‘hey, we want to make this plan worth your time, worth your money.’”
Crich said CUSA should be more transparent.
“At the end of the day, it’s the students’ student union,” he said.
Voting on the questions will take place online from March 25-26.
