Scholarships, ethical investment, a fall reading week and chicken wings were all on the table as executive candidates tried to woo voters in the second all-candidates debate Feb. 13.
Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) candidates from the two slates running for election, Fresh Carleton and A Better Carleton, faced off in the Unicentre atrium. The debate featured presidential as well as vice-presidential candidates, with candidates making a pitch for their platforms and answering questions from the audience.
Both slates emphasized how they want to move on from CUSA’s current legal troubles and divisiveness.
“Year in and year out there’s been a lot of noise made about how CUSA is unattractive to students,” said Alexander Golovko, presidential candidate for A Better Carleton. “It’s no good. We’re here to make it better.”
He said he wanted to improve CUSA’s hiring practices, establish a CUSA scholarship fund (by cutting executive salaries and redirecting the funds to scholarships), bring a fall reading week to Carleton and create more student jobs by keeping Rooster’s and Oliver’s Pub open longer.
Sarah Cooper, presidential candidate for Fresh Carleton, touted her slate’s proposal to “revamp” CUSA’s website to get input from students about events and services. She also pledged to promote “outreach and anti-oppression” training for service centres and try to generally reach out to students to get them more involved.
“It’s really important that we come together during this election time to make sure we’re voting for people who will rebuild the community on this campus, because we’ve seen in the last year that it’s fallen apart,” she said. “Students deserve to feel that they’re a part of something bigger on this campus.”
“I was there; I saw when CUSA fell apart this year and I know what went wrong and I’m here to fix it,” said Cooper, who currently sits on council as a FASS representative.
Golovko, who keeps in regular contact with CUSA as part of his role as president of the Carleton Academic Student Government, was quick to jump on that statement.
“I did see what things went wrong this year as well,” he said. “My problem with current CUSA councillors is that they didn’t fix it while they were there, so what’s the point of re-electing people to see how they can fix things in the future?”
A big issue that came up in student questions to candidates was divestment, with several candidates agreeing to support a policy of the university divesting from companies linked to the Israeli military.
“Who’s going to be against human rights?” said Maher Jebara, A Better Carleton’s candidate for vice-president (internal), to loud cheers from the crowd.
However, Ahmadou Gitteh, a first-year communications engineering student, questioned the candidates’ stance. CUSA should first focus on Carleton student issues and then move on to more international issues like divestment, he said.
“Unethical investment is a huge issue on our campus, and there are people who feel very strongly about this,” said Amal Duale, vice-president (internal) candidate for Fresh Carleton, saying she saw this as an issue that could bring students together rather than divide them.
Tomisin Olawale, A Better Carleton’s candidate for vice-president (student life), had several ideas for new programs in Oliver’s, calling for “Miller Mondays,” karaoke night and wing nights.
“If you’re vegetarian, come in, I’ll make a vegetable night, something good for you,” he said.
Mike Hons, Fresh’s Carleton’s candidate for vice-president (student life), said he would bring back theme nights at Oliver’s so it’s packed on a “night-to-night basis.”
Questions from students, however, continued to touch upon the divisiveness of the current CUSA council.
“There’s a lot of personal attacks, and that’s not cute,” one student said.
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