Carleton’s Board of Governors (BoG) has suspended its vote on proposed bylaw revisions that would have restricted student association executives from sitting on the board and kept members of the public from attending the meetings.
At the June 25 board meeting, members decided the electronic vote would be sent out on June 30.
The process was stopped before the voting could be finished, said Julie Caldwell, university secretary.
“The vote was suspended due to objections raised concerning the validity of proceeding by email and concern that Board members in a conflict [of interest] did not recuse themselves or abstain from voting,” Caldwell said in an email.
Several members of the board objected to the bylaw revisions, including Root Gorelick, a biology professor who sits on the board. Gorelick described the voting process as a form of “monumental vote-rigging.”
Voting on the board is usually done in person at the meeting, but this vote was held over email to make sure all members could vote, even those who did not attend the meeting, according to Caldwell.
In June, Gorelick accused the board of deciding to proceed with an electronic vote to make sure there were enough votes in favour of the bylaw revisions for them to pass.
The reviews have been shelved for now but Caldwell said they will be looked at again when the new session of the BoG meets during the fall semester.
The new school year also means a new board will be in place, including new Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) and Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) representatives.
Both CUSA and the GSA came out strongly against the changes when they were first announced.
“It is imperative that the board considers the perspectives and opinions of all stakeholders on campus when formulating its bylaws, and particularly when making changes to the composition of the Board,” said the GSA in a statement.
Michael Bueckert, president of the GSA, said he is encouraging the BoG’s governance committee to consult with a greater number of Carleton stakeholders before they come back with the revised bylaws in the fall.
“Instead of having a small group of individuals with very little connection to the community actually writing those bylaws, they should consult key stakeholders on campus—whether that is CUSA or the GSA or a different faculty union,” he said. “Everyone should be more involved in how the board operates.”
Carleton president Roseann Runte said students will always have a place on the BoG, but the process should change.
“It was never a question of removing the students. It was a question of how the students got elected to the board,” Runte said. “The question is, when students are on the board, do they represent students or do they represent CUSA?”
