The Carleton Academic Student Government (CASG) is currently seeking nominations for councillors. The campaign period is scheduled to begin on Sept. 23.
Dakota Livingston, CASG’s vice president (internal), said there are 90 seats on council, consisting of student representatives for each program and representatives appointed by academic societies, such as the BGiNS Student Society and the History Undergraduate Society.
Thirty-seven of the council seats are elected while the remaining seats are appointed. Elected councillors from previous years must be re-elected to secure their seat for another term.
The campaign period will last two days, starting on Thursday, Sept. 23 and ending on Friday, Sept. 24. Voting opens on the following Monday.
With CASG operating online this year, president Jennifer Ramnarine said the councillor election and campaigning period will also take place online.
Representatives for the Faculty of Public Affairs (FPA), the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS), and the Sprott School of Business are elected through the CASG councillor elections.
Candidates are self-nominated and the form is available on CASG social media.
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The Carleton Science Student Society (SciSoc) and the Carleton Student Engineering Society manage the councillor appointments for their respective programs externally. Selected councillors are “welcomed as members of CASG council,” Livingston said in an email to the Charlatan.
“I think it creates good collaboration and representation within the sciences [and engineering] departments,” Ramnarine said.
On Sept. 27, ballots will be emailed to students with the option to vote for the student representatives from their program. If a candidate runs uncontested, ballots are not distributed and the student is automatically granted a seat on council.
Vacant seats can be filled throughout the year if interested students approach CASG. These candidates are voted in by the council rather than the students in their program.
The number of CASG councillors can vary from year to year, depending on the active academic societies and the number of students who are interested in holding a seat.
Ramnarine said typically students in political science and journalism are more involved, while other programs with less people or who are “less politically involved” might have fewer candidates or could be left vacant.
Last year, CASG worked with the Senate to pass a short-term plan for grading reform and Ramnarine said student engagement in CASG has since grown. She said students in first and second year have reached out about getting more involved.
“I think CASG’s presence on campus has definitely been growing a lot especially since we passed our grading reforms last year,” Ramnarine said. “It’s great to see that especially coming back from a virtual year.”
Featured graphic by Sara Mizannojehdehi.
