With the current Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) executives having completed their term, the Charlatan spoke with CUSA president David Oladejo to see which promises were kept and which fell through.
Promise: CUSA business revamp
Yes: CUSA made large financial strides this year by opening convenience stop The Wing, while improving existing CUSA businesses to boost student participation and profits.
“Henry’s wasn’t doing business,” Oladejo said. “I think The Wing is something that, going into every single school semester, can become a staple location for students—especially with its location being on the fourth floor.”
Improvements to existing CUSA businesses also included opening a café in the Haven Books store, as well as diversifying the menu to include craft beers and more vegetarian options at Oliver’s.
But, Oladejo said he thought the programming at Oliver’s, which was promised to be less focused on drinking this year, could have been improved.“To be honest, I think our programming at Oliver’s could have gone a lot better,” he said.
Promise: Lobby for removal of interest on OSAP loans
In Progress: Oladejo said that although the actions of lobbying were completed, the campaign promise of lobbying is still in progress because the results are ongoing.
“We took the actions to talk to the necessary government leaders to make this a reality,” Oladejo said. “But, obviously with the changes by the provincial government recently, it is something that has gone in the opposite way than we would have hoped.”
Promise: Re-negotiating a contract with Aramark for cheaper food
Yes: Previously at Carleton, if a club wanted to have an event on campus where they would get catered food, they had to go through Aramark or pay a fee. This year, CUSA executives were able to negotiate that events below $1,000 in catering fees would be able to be held on campus without paying any extra fees.
“Obviously most student groups won’t be having an event where catering will get up to $1,000,” he added. “So basically, we gave all our groups the freedom to bring—whether it’s cultural foods or whether it’s just food that they prefer—on the campus.”
Promise: Increased storage and free graphic services for clubs and societies
Yes: CUSA gave free access to clubs and societies to use a full suite of Adobe services this year, so that clubs are now able to design graphics for themselves. Oladejo said there is also a button maker in the office for clubs to use.
He added that executives moved CUSA storage space around in order to “maximize the use of those spaces so that we’re still able to offer the service for students, but still have the space to store the important things CUSA has as well.”
Promise: Cheaper textbooks
No: Oladejo said one of CUSA’s biggest actions to combat expensive textbooks was to create a CUSA award recognizing professors who are implementing online educational resources over textbooks.
“But in terms of getting all of the professors to implement [online educational resources], it’s still something that has to be done,” he said.
Oladejo said he hopes Sissi De Flaviis, incoming vice-president (student issues), will continue to push for online textbooks into the next year.
Promise: Defederation from the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS)
No: CUSA was unable to keep their promise of defederating from the CFS, but they did get Carleton to the referendum stage, which Oladejo said was important in itself for the executives.
Although Oladejo said the result was not what CUSA executives had hoped for, he was glad students were learning about the two organizations involved.
“I think it was important the learning outcomes of that— students really learning a lot about CUSA and, in the meantime, learning a lot about the CFS, and what either one does,” he said.
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