The Aboriginal Service Centre (ASC) continues to provide the services it promises to Aboriginal students on campus despite having an approximate $5,000 reduction in funding this year from the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA).
The ASC is a resource centre for Aboriginal students coming into university. It provides programs and initiatives for First Nations, Inuit, and Métis people, as well as the larger community, according to Ashley Courchene, the administrative co-ordinator of the centre.
In their 2014-15 budget, CUSA reduced the ASC’s funding by around $5,000, from approximately $32,000 to $27,000. The previous year, the centre underspent its budget, only spending around $24,000.
Since the Centre for Aboriginal Culture and Education, an administration-run resource centre, already exists on campus, CUSA president Folarin Odunayo said in August that CUSA “would rather not duplicate that service.”
Courchene said in January the centre put on a successful Aboriginal Awareness Month and hosted 6 to 9 events, which had a high attendance rate and received positive feedback.
The centre had to seek other sources of funding, according to Courchene.
“It’s kind of a shame that I had to go to the University of Ottawa [for funding],” he said.
Odunayo said funding for the centre was reassigned to other lines in the budget.
“CUSA has a very large budget, so it could have gone anywhere. It would’ve been reallocated to either a service centre or one of our programs,” Odunayo said.
As a result of the cuts, the number of paid staff in the ASC office was reduced from two to one.
“We went from the centre being super active two to three years ago to not being super active. So a lot of the funding that was allocated for things like projects was brought down because there was only one staff in the office,” Odunayo said.
CUSA had to wait until September to hire a co-ordinator for the centre, Odunayo said, because that’s when the majority of students are on campus.
Odunayo said the ASC co-ordinator job posting had been up for almost a month and a half with no applicants.
Courchene said there were at least two applicants for the positions—himself and another student. He added that since previous co-ordinators had connections in the Indigenous community, people were aware the positions were open.
Tess Laude, an Aboriginal student at Carleton who uses the ASC’s services, said she’s seen Courchene struggle with the limited resources available after the budget cuts, but he still managed to provide many services to students.
“If you compare each service centre, you have to wonder why it is that only the ASC has one co-ordinator while every other centre has two,” Laude said in an email. “This is especially so, considering there was more than one member of the Indigenous community at Carleton apply for the job.”
Odunayo said the reasoning behind the reduction was valid and funding for CUSA service centres depends on the discussions the vice-president (finance) has with the co-ordinator of the centre.
“When a co-ordinator is active and is motivated, then a lot more funding can be available to that centre because they’re showing that they can use that funding,” he said.
Courchene said he hopes any mistakes made this year will be corrected in the future. He said it is “vitally important to maintain relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities” at Carleton.
The ASC recently held a fundraiser for the 510 Odawa Drop-In Centre, Laude said, which raised more than $1,000 in less than a week. However, the centre needs the full support from CUSA and the community, she said, and they have not received that support this year.
“We have been making strides to improve this post-secondary institution, but like I said before, we need the support of the students and administration,” Laude said. “At the end of the day, a community, no matter how big or small, is strongest when it is united.”
