The Students’ Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO) is trying to regain student confidence after two of its former executives faced fraud allegations for payments over $50,000 earlier this year.
Despite being cleared of the allegations following a forensic audit, the executives resigned. This case tested the confidence students have in their student union.
Similar to government systems in cities, student associations are often in a unique position of direct accountability with the community they serve.
What are student associations?
The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA), the SFUO, and other university student associations are corporate entities that are in a leadership position as representatives of undergraduate or graduate students.
As third-party collectors through the university, student associations are responsible for things such as the U-pass, healthcare plans, and student clubs.
In some cases, they also own businesses, such as CUSA owning Rooster’s Coffeehouse and Haven Books, which employ students and generate revenue for association initiatives.
Currently, every undergraduate student at Carleton pays a levy fee of $30.67 per term named “C.U. Student’s Association” which funds CUSA initiatives and programming.
“Instantly, their first reaction is they’re not going to waste their time to engage with the student government.”
—David Oladejo,
Current CUSA president
Being in this position places student executives in a situation where accountability is key to a functioning student government that students trust. However, if confidence is put to the test, students will take action.
Closer to home, a handful of controversies—including an unsuccessful “CU Later CFS” campaign, last year’s unexpected byelection, and the controversial video where executive-elects appeared to mock a former candidate, to name a few—shook students’ relationship with CUSA in recent years.
CUSA president David Oladejo acknowledges that these mistakes have damaged the association’s relationship with the student body. Part of this, he said, is previous mistakes and leadership styles that have a lasting effect.
Oladejo pointed to the 2015 “I’m Gonna Vote” music video as a misstep that still causes students to disengage with their students’ association.
The video created controversy because CUSA spent $700 on producing it, with $500 coming from a foundation, leaving $200 coming out of CUSA’s budget.
He said stories about these mistakes are passed on from student to student, so while new students might not have been around to witness the video first-hand, they still hear about it.
“Instantly, their first reaction is they’re not going to waste their time to engage with the student government,” Oladejo said.
Student engagement
But, Zameer Masjedee—former CUSA president for the 2017-2018 school year—said he thinks Carleton students are some of the most engaged in Canada. Masjedee pointed to student involvement in CUSA activities as a standard by which to judge student confidence.
“I think it’s awesome that Carleton has one of the highest voter turnouts in the entire country when it comes to any other student body,” he said.
“Here [at Carleton], there’s always students listening, and there’s always students engaging with what was said.”
—Zameer Masjedee,
2017-18 CUSA president
In 2017, 37.2 per cent of the undergraduate body voted in the CUSA elections, followed by 34.9 per cent in 2018.
At the University of Toronto Scarborough, the Scarborough Campus’ Union (SCU) saw around a 13 per cent voter turnout in the last election in February. The SCU Reform Club is now asking for electronic ballots to increase the turnout. 
Western University’s student union saw a five per cent drop in voter turnout this year at 23 per cent. The University of British Columbia’s student union elections had a turnout of just over 20 per cent. At the University of Calgary, 24.8 per cent of eligible voters voted in the 2018 student union elections.
Masjedee noted that Carleton students regularly come out and vote in the referendums CUSA holds. In 2016, students voted in a referendum to decide whether CUSA’s proposed Student Union Building should go forward, and earlier this year, students voted on whether CUSA should continue a membership with the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS).
Even though CUSA lost the referendum to discontinue membership with the CFS, Masjedee thinks reaching the voter quorum of 10 per cent was remarkable, especially because voting took place via paper ballot.
“I think so many different schools that we know of that weren’t even able to meet the minimum quorum for the vote because those schools—their students don’t have confidence in their students’ union and they don’t believe that what’s getting presented to them is anything of value,” he said. “Here, there’s always students listening, and there’s always students engaging with what was said.”
Regaining confidence
To regain the confidence of students, the SFUO passed several motions that overhauled their governance and financial structure, known as the Accountability Agenda, to increase transparency and accountability within the student government.
The biggest motion the SFUO passed was that the Board of Administration will no longer be able to overturn the vote of students at the General Assembly, where undergraduate students vote on governance, bylaws, policies, campaigns, and budgets.
CUSA is also putting measures in place after last year’s election where a campaign by a Carleton student alleged that the conditions surrounding the election had been unfair.
The students’ association held a byelection last year where three of the six executive positions went to “No Confidence.”
Oladejo said his team of executives—who are all new to the position with the exception of one incumbent—were not responsible for the election process.
“We didn’t have any say in process of the election,” he explains. “Obviously it’s up to the elected officials that are in power going into January to ensure that the elections are well advertised and students know about it and know how to engage.”
“It’s just giving students an option . . . If there was opt-outs, it would just introduce another level of accountability to student government and to all these other groups who are getting this mandatory money.”
— Kieran Moloney,
Carleton Conservatives
president
Masjedee, who agreed that last year’s election process was a misstep, argued that the resulting byelection showed student engagement.
“The worst case scenario is when people lose faith and they don’t even want to take the time to organize, to get involved, to put up a ‘No Confidence’ campaign, but on our campus, that’s not the case,” he said.
He also said the number of students that run in the CUSA election, for both executive and council positions, show students believe in what the association has to offer.
Still, CUSA is taking measures to curtail criticism of the election process this year.
The executives dropped the writ of election at a council meeting on Dec. 5, months before the election is scheduled to take place in January to allow for more preparation time and a smoother process.
Masjedee said CUSA’s effort to reform the election process and give students advance notice was fantastic.
“During the break, students can start thinking ‘Hey, do I want to run? Do I want to put my name forward?’ and they get that time to prepare and they get an actual shot at actually being a CUSA executive,” he said.
This isn’t the only measure CUSA is taking to win back the confidence of the student body. Following the SFUO fallout, the CUSA council formed a new ad-hoc accountability committee which will hold accountability sessions and present the concerns of the students anonymously.
Oladejo said the executives are working on opening more channels for consultation. One of the ways they do this is through “Ask Me Anything” forums on Reddit, where students can anonymously post a question to one of the executives who answers it directly.
“If students ever feel they can’t engage with student unions or there’s things that we’re missing out on, I always, always, always encourage students to come by the office,” Oladejo said.
Opting for transparency
Over at the University of Toronto Scarborough, the Scarborough Campus’ Union Reform Club was formed for the sole purpose of changing the processes under which their students’ union operates.
“There are many issues regarding the conduct of the Scarborough Campus’ Students Union which must be reformed. The flagrant violations of Constitution and Bylaws demands for there to be justice in enforcing and maintaining the democratic integrity of the Union,” the group’s web page reads. “We are the official opposition to corruption!”
At the University of Ottawa, a new student union that is seeking to replace SFUO in the upcoming referendum, known as University of Ottawa Student Union (UOSU), morphed out of seeking transparency.
Moe Abu Rouss, a committee member of UOSU, previously told the Charlatan that their provisional constitution includes a check and balance for finances.
To increase transparency, Kieran Moloney, president of the Carleton Conservatives, introduced a policy proposal to the Conservative Party of Ontario, which would commit the government to stop universities from collecting third-party levy fees from students. The proposal would seek to amend the University and Colleges Act to allow students to opt out of paying third-party levy fees.
“It was a way to materially reduce the fees that students have to pay by offering a mandatory opt-out on any fee, levy, or charge that does not go directly to pay for your tuition,” Moloney said on his proposal.
While Moloney’s exact proposal was not brought to the floor at the recent policy convention, Moloney said measures like this would help make student governments more accountable.
“It’s just giving students an option,” he said. “If there were opt-outs, it would just introduce another level of accountability to student government and to all these other groups who are getting this mandatory money.”
Moloney also said that if organizations had to earn students’ approval every year, as opposed to receiving the levy fees without dispute, it could result in a higher threshold of accountability and transparency.
He added, “I think CUSA does great work, but I think fundamentally, I believe students should have a right to opt out of these fees if they don’t see the merit in benefitting from the services.”
And, Masjedee said he thinks students are aware of the work CUSA is doing and the services they provide.
“When you consider everything as a whole, students on campus are leveraging resources and services that CUSA provides more than other schools,” he said. “So yeah, we do still have some problems where we can’t reach everybody, but I think if you’re going to compare it to the average, we’re a lot further ahead and that’s something to be proud of.”
Graphics by Paloma Callo
