Historically, there have been links between the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) leadership and the incredibly exclusive network of ancillary organizations to which a small, but influential, fraction of the undergraduate population belong.
The strength of CUSA as an organization can be seen in the mandates of its nine service centres. These centres are diverse in nature and attempt to reflect the diverse population of the Carleton community and facilitate its various needs. They have been historically operated by two paid student co-ordinators (one administration, one programming) under the supervision of the vice-president (student services) with input from the five other executives.
In my experience, job specifications were altered in conformity with the personal interests of those whose responsibility it is to fill the vacant positions within CUSA. For example, the position of the Carleton Disability Awareness Centre (CDAC) administrative co-ordinator, which was posted in September 2011, was divided after my hiring to facilitate what I saw as the self-centered interests of the VP-SS. It appears this was done in order to secure a position for a person belonging to the same network of organizations that the VP-SS and numerous other executives claim membership within.
Once I got the job, my boss, the VP-SS, informed me that another co-ordinator had been additionally selected to work in conjunction with myself. This individual was an unsuccessful applicant for the administrative co-ordinator job.
Despite this, a position was created for him, and he was given free reign to design his own job description after being appointed. The students did not know that the extra hire had taken place.
It appears the appointment of the newly-created strategic co-ordinator (a title he gave himself) was nothing short of institutionalized nepotism and an appointment motivated by personal friendship, rather than merit. In my view, this appointment called into question my ability to fulfill my duties and compromised my position within the centre before I even had the chance to prove myself. This process set the tone for my maddening experience over the past 14 weeks.
I faced an immediate and a constant lack of support from my colleagues and superiors, and was a casualty of institutional ableism that is systemic within CDAC and, by extension, of the CUSA establishment. The appointment of a third co-ordinator, who is able-bodied, is indicative of this ableism.
I initially approached my job at CDAC with a great deal of optimism and with unwavering desire to make a positive impact on the student experience at Carleton University. In light of the structural opposition I faced, my ability to fulfill the mandate of the centre was severely compromised.
My decision to resign does not reflect how I feel about advocacy for students, the work of the service centres, or student involvement in general. I have been and will continue to be a strong advocate for my peers and for issues pertaining to disability rights. My decision was not purely reactive or impulsive but was necessitated by the unfortunate circumstances in which I found myself; my decision was the product of deep and careful consideration.
I think that my experience is far from unique and can resonate with students who have felt abandoned or misrepresented by their students’ association.
It is important to make sure that forums for student involvement are accessible to all, in literal, metaphorical, and structural terms. My resignation should not be viewed as my quitting or giving up, but a call to action and an obvious indicator of the institutional failure of what I see as a nepotistic CUSA establishment.
The institutional framework of CUSA needs to be placed under scrutiny and reviewed by students to ensure that our association is a cross-section of the entire Carleton undergraduate community, rather than a student-funded fiefdom controlled and manipulated by a few, to the expressed disadvantage of the largely indifferent voter population.
