The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) council meeting on Oct. 30 focused on filling its vacant seats and talked about initiatives to support campus clubs and societies.
Despite an announcement at last month’s meeting which stated council was considering cutting an executive position for next year, there was no mention of a change in the executive structure at this meeting.
Filled seats for Executive Compensation Review Committee
Council members voted to fill the seats for the Executive Compensation Review Committee for the 2019-20 academic year, which will review the benefits next year’s CUSA executives will receive.
CUSA executives were paid over $200,000 from the operating budget last year for their annual salaries.
The committee was filled by three CUSA councillors and one student at large, leaving two student at large seats of the three unfilled.
Though CUSA’s communications and funding initiatives—including extensive marketing and multi-year sponsorship opportunities—have prevented the Student Choice Initiative (SCI) from creating a severe financial toll, the committee must think about what the numbers might look like in the future when deciding how much CUSA executives will be paid, said president Lily Akagbosu.
“Ever since we knew about the Student Choice Initiative, we’ve been very proactive in making sure it doesn’t affect us too much financially,” she said.
“At this point, we are in a healthy position, but I do think that [the committee] will take some perspective on how the future of the association might look like as the Student Choice Initiative does get more popular.”
All four students—Sara Abbass, Pierce Burch, Aaron Fischer, Ali Makki—were elected unanimously to the committee, and are expected to report their recommendations at November’s council meeting.
Filled councillor positions
Council members also voted to fill two vacant councillor positions—for the faculty of social arts and sciences, as well as the faculty of business—filled by Aiden Stead and Aaron Agyemang, respectively.
Stead said hearing about others’ experiences of struggling with mental health “was really powerful,” and drove him to centre his mandate around improving CUSA’s mental health services for all students.
“[These stories] showed me how fortunate I’ve been up until this point to have the mental health I have, and reinforced for me the importance of making sure that other people can enjoy that too,” Stead said.
“CUSA can play a really important role in ensuring every student at Carleton can enjoy that same positive mental health.”
Agyemang, a second-year finance student, said the biggest issue he hopes to target for Sprott students is the lack of communication regarding academic resources available for business students.
“I want to spread information about services put in place for Sprott students that they aren’t fully utilizing,” he said.
“For instance, the Business Career Management Centre—it’s right in Dunton Tower, and I rarely see Sprott students going in to interact with career management.”
If students were to make better use of these services, Agyemand added, they would be more prepared when looking for a job after graduation.
Changed bylaws for clubs and societies
CUSA executives reported a series of initiatives meant to help clubs and societies more easily operate on campus, including an adjustment to its Sexual Violence Workshop bylaws.
Though attendance by a club or society’s executive members is still mandatory to receive funding, changes have been made to make attending “more convenient,” said vice-president (internal) Farook Al-Muflehi.
“This year, we decided to host a workshop at the beginning of January, where all club execs attend it and get it done all at once,” Al-Muflehi said.
“In past years, we kind of let club executives try to manage and find a time throughout the semester to do it, but as students, we all get busy with studying and our personal lives,” he said.
Although Al-Muflehi said the bylaw change would be easier for clubs and societies executives, it is unclear what will happen if executives are not able to attend training on the newly scheduled day.
Akagbosu also announced a partnership with Instructional Media Services (IMS) to ease clubs and societies’ access to classroom projectors.
“Clubs usually go to IMS for keys so they can use the projectors in classes,” said Akagbosou.
“Now IMS has basically created an agreement with CUSA where we now have those keys, which means that when the IMS office is closed, students still have an option to get them.”
Special access is required to access keys from IMS on weekends, until 7 p.m. on Fridays, and until 11 p.m. during weekdays.
Although the CUSA office is only open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, CUSA executives can be messaged when clubs and societies need the keys.
Featured image by Pascale Malenfant.
