Plans for a presidential by-election this fall and a revamped hardship fund were the highlights of the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA)’s online meeting on July 26.
Just over a week after the resignation of the former CUSA president Matthew Gagné, CUSA met with the vacancy of their lead executive role. A motion to appoint vice president (internal) Ahmad Hashimi as acting president passed unanimously.
“Unfortunately, [the president] resigned and I had to take over his responsibilities,” Hashimi said.
CUSA bylaw mandates a by-election within six months of an executive role being left empty. Hashimi said there will be a by-election this fall, but no date has been announced yet.
Vice president (finance) Venassa Baptiste also supported the creation of a committee to administer an academic resilience fund. The fund would operate under the same rules as last year’s hardship fund, but would use a new name. The motion to create the committee passed unanimously.
“We’ve overcome COVID-19 in the best ways we [could have] and that seems pretty resilient to me,” Baptiste said. “We [wanted] to give [the fund] more focus on academic success, so that’s why we made this the academic resilience fund.”
The committee overseeing the academic resilience fund will include Baptiste, two councillors, the CUSA student services manager and the CUSA student groups administrator, according to last year’s hardship fund proposal. They will be responsible for assessing financial need and granting up to $600 to student applicants. Funding decisions will be based upon need, not academic merit.
A CUSA bylaw amendment combining the Foot Patrol and Carleton Food Centre into the Unified Support Centre was also approved. The amendment requires what was previously Foot Patrol to use its annual levy money to fund a part-time student coordinator position as well as the Unified Support Centre’s office, equipment, advertising and staff and volunteer training. The amendment states CUSA would also pay another part-time student coordinator and one full-time administrator and allocate a minimum of $10,000 indexed for annual inflation.
Although previously announced as the Urgent Care Centre, the name was changed to better reflect the centre’s goals, according to Foot Patrol administrative coordinator Liam Callaghan.
“Students may not be comfortable in approaching a space called the Urgent Support Centre because they may think that their issue doesn’t necessarily meet the definition of ‘urgent,’” Callaghan said. “We wanted to make sure students are as comfortable as possible approaching the Unified Support Centre for anything we can do for them.”
Faculty of public affairs councillor Emily Sowa was elected to the clubs oversight committee, filling the final vacant position. She said she hoped to build upon her previous experience overhauling the club bylaws.
“Holding a position on this committee would be a really great way to just continue to ensure that these bylaws are followed to the best of their abilities and that students are receiving the best treatment and best quality of care by the club’s oversight committee,” Sowa said.
CUSA bylaw was further updated to change the human resources committee. The amendment created a CUSA human resources director staff position for CUSA’s human resources committee instead of a Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) representative and CUSA general manager or director of services.
At the subsequent CUSA Inc. meeting, vice president (community engagement) Callie Ogden was appointed interim CUSA trustee, allowing the board of trustees to meet quorum for financial decisions, until the position is filled by an elected CUSA president.
Council is set to meet again on Aug. 30.
Featured Graphic by Sara Mizannojehdehi.
