The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) Council passed a motion to freeze salaries and cut benefits for CUSA executives at its July 13 meeting. The Council also re-worded several of its key bylaws concerning funding for clubs and societies.
The motion on executive compensation brought forward by CUSA’s Executive Compensation Committee acknowledged several factors the group found to be unnecessarily costly for students.
The approved recommendations will provide a minimum of approximately $4200 in savings in the budget, or $710 per executive member.
Kevin Mason, the chair of the committee, which is struck every two years to examine compensation, said the committee’s mandate is to bring a fair and balanced report to council and to provide meaningful change while “depoliticizing” compensation decisions.
There were several areas the committee chose to examine for their report to Council, including cellphone benefits, vacation pay, transition pay, salary freezing and a re-evaluation of the committee’s start date from spring to fall.
Previously, each member of the CUSA executive received $200 per year for a mobile phone plan at a total cost of $1200. The committee called for a complete cut to this benefit, since executives were already provided with office landlines for business purposes along with access to a Wi-Fi network.
A focal point of the committee’s recommendations concerned vacation pay anomalies within the CUSA framework. Formerly, executives had the potential to access their vacation pay each pay period, whether they actually took any vacation days or not.
Mason said there was potential for executives to take time off while also receiving their vacation pay. Instead, they now must forego one or the other, in accordance with the Ontario Employment Standards Act.
One major outcome of the approved motion is freezing executives’ salaries. CUSA executives had campaigned on a platform to freeze their salaries, but Mason said he felt that was not enough.
“It should not be up to executives to decide whether to freeze or lower their salaries. It would be [decided by] a council who would vote on it,” he said.
In this year’s budget the total amount reserved for executive salaries was lowered slightly from $199,315.56 last year to $198,915.56 this year. To freeze salaries, the committee recommended overriding Bylaw 3.1, which ensures executive salaries remain tied to the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
Mason said Council should end these yearly debates, which take up time and resources in favour of discussing other, more pressing issues. The motion passed with 19 in favour and two abstentions.
The second amendment dealt with sections of the Clubs and Societies Bylaws, which some councillors felt could be more transparent as they could potentially be confusing to the average student.
The original proposal, brought forward by vice-president (internal) Lauren Konarowski and clubs and societies administrative commissioner Taryn Ashdown, covers funding eligibility for certain items such as traveling costs, and club/society applications that could be considered “advantageous.”
Several councillors, including public affairs councillor Julia Parsons and arts and social sciences councillor Oliver Nacey, found the amendments too broad reaching.
Parsons said this may encourage certain groups to misreport their ledgers or funding applications if they found they were not covered as they usually would be.
Ashdown noted there would be special circumstances within this new framework where funding would be granted, but she suggested clubs and societies should use their membership fees and other fundraising tactics to cover extra costs.
Nacey said he questioned whether competitive clubs and societies would apply for funding from, and submit their ledgers to CUSA or Carleton Athletics.
According to Ashdown, competitive clubs and societies are accredited through both Carleton Athletics and CUSA and will receive funding from both groups. However, she said CUSA isn’t able to cover all aspects of a group’s budget.
‘The Clubs and Societies office encourages groups to look into other means of sponsorship and fundraising to generate revenue to off set costs,” Ashdown said via Facebook.
Konarowksi added CUSA’s aim is for clubs and societies on campus to be active and “self-sufficient” with the funding they receive.
– With files from Drew May
