Midway through their terms, the Charlatan spoke with student leaders—from the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA), the Rideau River Residence Association (RRRA), and the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA)—about their campaign promises.
Here’s a breakdown of what RRRA promises were kept, what promises were not, and what remains in progress.
Promise: Host collaborative events with clubs and societies
Ongoing: Cochrane said he met with vice-president (internal) Farook Al-Muflehi to collaborate on a tabling event aiming to engage residence students, similar to the Club Expo.
“After Club Expo and first semester, you don’t really see a lot of opportunities to connect with clubs,” he said.
The event was intended to happen before the end of the fall semester, but the dropping of the writ made the event not “feasible,” according to Cochrane. The event will hopefully take place before February reading week, he added.
Promise: Cafeteria grab ‘n’ go station
Ongoing: A popular campaign promise, a station where students can take out food from the residence cafeteria has “a very long way” to go before it’s complete, said Cochrane. But he is “not scratching it off completely.”
“Hopefully, because it’s something that was so well received, that whoever does come into office next year, if it’s not fully implemented, I’d love to see them follow through that,” he added.
Questions over the waste the service would generate, and the cost of providing packaging remain unanswered, but Cochrane said there have been good conversations had with the university.
“Students are paying so much for their food plan. So any way that we can kind of help students be able to access that without having to jeopardize like their class schedules or what have you,” he said.
Promise: Increase mental health services and counselors
No: More of a “long term goal,” Cochrane said, RRRA does not have the “financial stability” to hire another mental health counsellor.
“We all have mental health, whether it’s good or it’s bad,” he said.
Students’ concerns about wait times have been a big talking point in conversations with housing services, but making progress has been “challenging.”
“It’s more turned into a conversation of just bringing awareness and speaking on behalf of the students that do experience these unnecessarily long wait times,” said Cochrane. This will include greater promotion of EmpowerMe and TAO, Carleton’s online counselling services.
Promise: Campus card/room key charges
Ongoing: This year’s RRRA team was “shooting pretty high,” according to Cochrane when they proposed cutting down fees for lost campus cards to around $10. Meshing their own goals with housing and residence service’s 10-year plan has been challenging.
“I’d say that the cost that they charge the students far outweighs the cost of the program itself,” he said. “I’d say $20 is somewhat necessary, unnecessarily high.”
A new accessibility committee has been launched to allow for consultations into accessibility issues in residence life. The committee includes two RRRA counsellors, Cochrane, and three to four students at large.
One policy that has been discussed is implementing laundry room doors, such as those in Leeds House, would help improve accessibility and give students with physical disabilities their “independence back to them,” according to Cochrane.
Promise: Remodel abstentions
Ongoing: Refurbishing the “grungy” looking doors at the entrance way to Abstentions was the main piece of remodelling done so far to the RRRA run convenience store in Residence Commons.
The accessibility committee also proposed making Abstentions more wheelchair accessible, but “it is very challenging to make that very accessible because of the layout and how small the space it is.”
A new cashier and fridges are also planned for the future.
Promise: Network development café
Ongoing: “Think of like LinkedIn, but in person,” said Cochrane.
Plans for the networking event have been “put on the back burner a little bit,” likely until March according to Cochrane, due to the residence formal looming.
The event would resemble a job fair, affording students the chance to meet prospective employers.
“The job doesn’t really start and end when the promises on the literature completed,” said Cochrane. “It’s always ongoing.”
This article focuses on major campaign promises which impact the most students, as chosen by the editors at the Charlatan.
Featured image from file.
