With the campaigning period for Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) elections scheduled to commence Feb. 3, Carleton students can expect to see a number of posters and hear more than a few class speeches from potential candidates in the near future.
They won’t, however, see any YouTube videos, hear any radio advertisements, or be exposed to any other sort of multimedia campaigning tools.
CUSA council passed a motion Jan. 17, moved by Nick Curtis, to ban all audio and video campaign materials for the upcoming elections. Although supported by the majority of councillors, the motion has become the subject of controversy due to allegations that the banning of audio and video campaign materials limits freedom of expression.
“I was opposed to it right away because anytime you limit the way students can access information, you’re disenfranchising students,” said Nicholas Osborne, the CUSA computer science councillor, who, along with fourth-year journalism student Dean Tester, has been working against this motion since last year.
“I strongly feel that students should be educated as best they can be in the democratic process. Any time you have an election, and you’re not using every possible means to inform students, that’s a really bad thing,” Osborne said.
During the committee meeting when the motion was passed, Osborne also claimed that this motion violates the United Nations Charter, based on its handbook.
However, as CUSA president Erik Halliwell quickly pointed out, CUSA need not abide by the Charter, as it is a private organization, which “determines [it’s] own self-governance.”
Klaus Pohle, the journalism undergraduate supervisor and professor who specializes in media law and ethics, acknowledges that the UN Charter does not apply in this instance. However, he still questioned the decision to pass the motion.
“While the student union is a private organization, its actions are no less undemocratic,” said Pohle, who also addressed the issue in his second-year communications law class last week.
“In any case, I question how private it actually is. It is funded by public [student] money and is accountable to the student population.”
Pohle went on to say: “This is the kind of thing that gives student government a bad name and is akin to the ludicrous decision [last year] about cystic fibrosis. The present decision is wrongheaded, ill-considered and ridiculous. It is clearly undemocratic.”
Allison Elwell, the CUSA journalism representative, voted in favour of this motion.
Elwell said she was “torn” by this issue, but went on to say that as a journalism student, she understands that the use of audio and video tools could create an unfair advantage among candidates.
“I am a big fan of viral media and I think it’s really important, but I agree with the clause that it would be impossible to judge the fair market value,” Elwell said.
“Especially for journalism students like myself, who have access to high-tech digital video cameras, we have access, knowledge and training on how to use the software, we get to use audio digital slideshows, stuff that would cost me as a normal student hundreds and thousands of dollars. Even though I love free speech, and everything that encompasses that, I also really love fairness.”
Halliwell said he was in agreement with Elwell.
“The motion ensures that candidates all have an equal chance to get their message across to students, eliminating any unfair advantages for those candidates that have access to the high-quality video production that some students simply don't have access to,” he said.
Many of in the arguments in favour of this motion were based on the assumption that journalism students had access to superior audio/video equipment. However,
Christopher Waddell, director of the School of Journalism and Communications, said the school’s equipment cannot be signed out for any projects that aren’t course assignments. And therefore, it could not be used for political campaigning purposes.
Halliwell said this motion was a result of the elections review committee’s work, and from the suggestion of the previous Chief Electoral Officer Heather Murley.