From Dec. 6-7 students will go to the polls to decide in a referendum whether or not future students should pay $80 annually, tied to inflation, for a Student Union Building. Current students won’t pay a dime, but this doesn’t mean they shouldn’t care about the implications of the referendum. Every student should get involved and vote one way or the other.
Sure, if you’re a current student at Carleton you won’t be affected by the outcome of the referendum, but the results will be important. If the referendum passes, future students will get a new building and pay an extra $40 per semester, plus inflation. If it fails, they won’t.
We owe it to future Carleton students to get engaged and vote for what we think is best, especially since those affected by this referendum do not get a say. It’s easy to be complacent and not have an opinion because you don’t care or think it won’t impact you, but more than $320 in fees added towards future students’ university career tuition is an important decision that we have to make.
Students should get engaged in this referendum, regardless of which side you support. The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) executive have put their weight behind the Yes Committee with campaigns like Shaping Our Skyline, but students opposed to the referendum have been majorly silent.
It might be hard to get involved with exams looming around the corner, but this decision is important and deserves proper thought and engagement from the student body.
