The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) will form a committee to start examining the possibility of building a student union building at Carleton after a motion was passed unanimously by CUSA council at their Sept. 28 meeting.
“We want to build a dream building for Carleton and really put Carleton on the map and as a student association. [The building] gives us many more advantages to help serve students,” said Fahd Alhattab, CUSA’s president.
Alhattab said the committee’s function will be to start brainstorming and imagining what could go into a new student union building and find out from students what they want to see.
“It’s a beautiful thing to have a student-centric space for students to just be,” Alhattab said.
Sofia Dala, CUSA vice-president (internal), said she supports the project because it would create more space for the student association to allocate to clubs and societies on campus.
“There’s a thousand reasons why we should build this. Clubs and societies always come to me looking for space but there’s no space to give them,” she said.
While Alhattab said he acknowledged current students will likely not see the Student Union Building completed, he is hoping it will be built within the next seven years.
He said the next step is to have a referendum that will allocate money for the construction of the building. The referendum will implement a staggered levy that would have students pay a larger amount each year the closer the school is to completing the building.
“Once we get some things confirmed and the ability to move forward, we get into the full brainstorming phase where we will really paint the picture for students for why we should be spending money on the building,” he said.
Alhattab said he hopes to get grassroots support from the student body behind the project.
“To build this picture and put it together we need as much student input as possible,” he said. “We want to really make this a community project and something everyone’s involved in.”
CUSA also unanimously passed a motion at the meeting to define “gender identity” and “gender expression” in its constitution.
The motion also amends CUSA’s electoral code policy and discrimination on campus policy to include gender expression when it refers to gender identity.
Matthew Pelletier, public affairs and policy management councillor, said he introduced the motion to help educate students about the transgender community.
“Having clauses which indicate gender identity and expression builds in more openness,” he said. “It gives us a more equitable and tolerant association environment.”
Pelletier said he believe this is a small step towards reducing the stigma some people feel towards transgender people.
“As a society, we need to approach the issue from all sides and by approaching it as one united front we can hopefully curb harassment,” he said.
