It’s been an unprecedented year for all student governments, especially the Rideau River Residence Association.
With residence operating at 30 per cent capacity, the landscape of residence looks significantly different from what students may have expected in June, when they voted in this year’s RRRA executive team.
The Charlatan sat down with RRRA president Jaden Slawter to revisit whether his slate’s campaign promises were achieved.
Promise: Revamp RRRA council and pass the budget on time.
Accomplished: Slawter said council has “glowed up” from 2019-2020, when committees weren’t formed until January and the budget was passed in March, more than three months late.
This year, RRRA committees were formed on time and the budget was passed on time in October.
“I think we did a good job of reaching out to students and getting them to join [council],” Slawter said, adding that council met quorum at every meeting. “Not only is our council actually having council meetings and committee meetings this year, but they’re really engaged.”
He said the COVID-19 committee in particular has been very involved, leading an awareness campaign on pandemic restrictions in residence called “Mask Up or Pack Up.”
Promise: Ensure students still get a memorable residence experience through online events such as speed dating, trivia, yoga, dance workshops and a Meet the Grads night.
Accomplished: Slawter said RRRA hosted all the events it promised, with the exception of a Meet the Grads night.
Promise: Increase communication with students through the RRRAPORT, a bi-weekly newsletter.
Adapted because of COVID-19: Slawter said the RRRAPORT is a bi-monthly newsletter instead of a bi-weekly newsletter because RRRA wasn’t doing as much as it would in a normal year.
“We didn’t want to bore students,” Slawter said. “We wanted to make sure when we delivered the report, there was enough content in there that people actually read it and get something from it.”
This year’s RRRAPORTs are available on the RRRA website.
Promise: Make RRRA more inclusive with diverse programming, including Carleton’s first-ever Pride and a speaker series on anti-Black racism.
Not accomplished: Slawter said RRRA hosted a drag queen show and bingo this year, but decided not to host a Pride festival because most students aren’t on-campus.
“Doing a Carleton pride festival just for the residence community wasn’t really … the greatest idea ever,” Slawter said. “I would wait to do it when we can do it on a bigger scale, because I knew it would be something that would kind of be history for Carleton.”
Slawter said he’s working with the university to bring a Pride festival to Carleton in the 2021-2022 academic year.
He said RRRA hosted the Black at CU series for Black History Month, which focused on the inequalities Black students face in residence.
Promise: Increase the number of council seats to engage more students.
Not accomplished: Slawter said council engagement increased this year, but the number of council seats available on RRRA council has not increased.
Promise: Send a newsletter to students and their families to update them on virtual events.
Not accomplished: Slawter said the association combined the planned family newsletter with the RRRAPORT, because the original purpose of a family newsletter was to inform families of how in-person events were being kept COVID-safe.
“With it all being virtual, they’re not going to get COVID from a Zoom call,” Slawter said.
Promise: Renovate Residence Commons.
Not accomplished: Slawter said the slate wanted to renovate the second floor seating area on the Campus Avenue side of Residence Commons to add more chairs. However, the area is closed due to COVID-19 restrictions.
