Matt Gagne, a third-year political science student, is running as an independent vice-president (finance) candidate in the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) 2020 elections.
Previous experiences
Gagne has been involved with the Political Science Society since his first year at Carleton and was a frosh facilitator earlier in the year. He is currently the vice-president (operations) of the Carleton Academic Student Government (CASG).
Reasons for running
“I really fell in love with the idea of giving back to campus,” he said of his role with CASG, adding their programs like the academic initiative fund and scholarship fund have “become very important in the past year” due to the Student Choice Initiative.
“Really, the main message from my campaign is that if you feel you’re qualified and you want to run for CUSA, you should feel comfortable to do so,” he said. “I want people to feel like they can run for CUSA, and feel as if they can make that impact if they want.”
Slate or independent?
“We’ve been doing the slate thing for a very long time now,” said Gagne, who is one of the seven candidates currently running as an independent.
Despite his independent campaign, Gagne said he is open to working with anyone if he were to be elected.
“I think we all in our hearts want to make campus better,” he said. “There’s going to have to be compromises if there is a mixed CUSA exec next year, which a lot of people are assuming it’s going to be, and I’m totally prepared to make those compromises.”
Campaign goals
If elected, Gagne said he wants to reduce executive salaries by “a 10 to 15 per cent cut,” putting the money towards helping CUSA businesses become more eco-friendly instead.
“We use a lot of older things at Ollie’s and Rooster’s,” he said, adding that changing plastic sauce dipping cups at Ollie’s to metal or ceramic ones and switching Rooster’s bio-plastic smoothie cups to paper are just some eco-friendly options available.
Gagne also wants to provide more opportunities for funding to CUSA councillors to organize faculty-wide events, who he said “don’t have any funds to do it.”
“I find once you’re out of first year, once you’re out of frosh, you kind of forget what faculty you’re in and you focus on your program. I think it’s important to keep those faculties together.”
Gagne also wants to add more student jobs on campus, including a sponsorship coordinator who works only for clubs and societies.
“It’s the clubs that got hit the hardest with their funding,” he said. “I’d like to give them the opportunity to have their events funded not only by CUSA and by CASG, but by outside businesses that want to get into the millennial district.”
Final thoughts
“Especially when it comes to money, it can be very personal for a lot of people, even if it’s through a club or society,” Gagne said, adding that his approachable personality would make students comfortable expressing any of their frustrations.
He also emphasized the need for taking more concrete steps towards climate action.
“Honestly, if I can say that I helped kickstart a movement where in the next three to four years CUSA became carbon neutral, I’d love that to be my mark on campus.”
Gagne said having so many undergraduate students on campus offers an opportunity for making real change, regardless of if they’re an executive or not.
“We have so much potential to make change with that many students on campus, and I want everyone to feel like they can be a part of that. It’s not just a group of twelve people, everyone can have an impact on campus if they want to.”
Featured image by Spencer Colby.
