Carleton Academic Student Government (CASG) met for its last meeting of the year on Dec. 9 to give an update on the switch to online classes for the winter semester and hire two equity officers.
In her report, CASG president Jennifer Ramnarine spoke about the changes to online course delivery for the start of the winter 2022 semester.
Ramnarine said students brought up four main arguments when many of their classes switched to online course delivery for the winter term. Students were asking for financial compensation or a reduction in tuition fees, more in-person classes, an explanation for the last-minute switch and the continuation of compassionate grading options.
Ramnarine said she met with vice-president (students and enrolment) Suzanne Blanchard to express concerns that students had shared with CASG.
“We’re advocating for everyone to get what they originally wanted,” Ramnarine said.
For students in search of explanations, Ramnarine directed students towards the CASG Instagram livestream with CUSA vice-president (student issues) Valentina Vera Gonzalez. She also welcomed students to reach out to her via email or Instagram with questions.
Last on the meeting agenda was a motion to hire two equity officers. CASG’s Equity and Ethics Code required one equity officer must have had previous experience as a CASG councillor and the other needs to be a student-at-large with no prior CASG history. Gialina Jiang and Benjamin Lieu were the candidates for these positions.
Global and international studies councillor Anthony Valenti expressed concerns about Jiang’s ability to take on the role of equity officer due to her positions in other student government organizations. Jiang is vice-president (programming) for the Rideau River Residence Association (RRRA).
“[Gialina] is a very involved individual on our campus, she serves in many different positions,” Valenti said. “The fact that she is so involved, specifically with one of the big three student governing associations, calls into concern the amount of time she could dedicate to an issue.”
Valenti brought up another question expressing concerns about potential influence in the hiring process since Lieu is in the same fraternity as the vice-president (academic) Pierce Burch.
Valenti said the potential for undue influence in the hiring process was brought up to him by someone in his faculty.
Burch responded to Valenti’s concerns.
“[Benjamin] just applied for the role and I had no influence over that at all,” Burch said. “Also, I don’t think it should be a point where if someone is being an equity officer on our committee that they can’t be involved in other parts of this university.”
Cognitive science councillor Tyson Scott also spoke up about Lieu’s qualifications.
“Should we take in consideration that someone had nominated someone else for a position and they’re within the same faculty and they take the same classes?” Scott said. “Is that a conflict of interest? Because they share programs with each other? Definitely not.”
Valenti said that he felt no one understood his question and proceeded to share with council the definition of “undue influence.” He asked Ramnarine for clarification on why hiring Lieu as an equity officer would not constitute an act of undue influence.
Ramnarine responded in agreement with Burch’s initial response.
“Firstly, I don’t appreciate the insinuation that we don’t understand what undue influence means. We very much do,” Ramnarine said. “And secondly, we stand by what we said.”
The motion to hire both equity officers was passed with 22 in favour, nine opposed, and six abstained.
The council meeting was held in light of confusion over whether CASG would hold an emergency meeting.
On Nov. 25, CASG held an internal town hall for councillors and executives to discuss students’ concerns about the changes in course delivery options in the winter term.
Before the town hall was scheduled, 11 CASG councillors signed a letter requesting the executives call an emergency meeting to discuss the changes in course delivery options.
Valenti said an emergency meeting would allow CASG council to present a unified stance on the situation ahead of the Board of Governors (BoG) meeting, which was held on Dec. 3.
Valenti sent a letter to request an emergency meeting to the executive on behalf of the involved councillors. He recalled section 1.6.3 of CASG bylaws which states that CASG exists as a resource for the Senate and the BoG to discuss concerns and issues of the student population.
As detailed in the Carleton University Act, the BoG is Carleton’s decision-making body for corporate issues and all aspects of the “governance, conduct, management and control of the University and of its works, affairs and business.”
The highest academic body at Carleton is the Senate, which makes decisions about the structure of the university’s academics.
The possibility of an emergency meeting was discussed in CASG’s private Slack channel, according to Ramnarine. They discussed the efficacy of creating a Google Form for councillors to share feedback from the student body that Ramnarine and the executives could reference when speaking with administration and other stakeholders.
The Google Form was created and circulated to councillors on Nov. 26, but 11 councillors still went forward with sending a formal letter to the executives requesting an emergency meeting.
In response to the councillors’ letter, Ramnarine sent an email to letter’s signatories suggesting a townhall, which she said would provide a better platform for open discussion.
Ramnarine said an emergency meeting would put a higher burden on the councillors since attendance would be mandatory, while the town hall is optional for councillors.
Kevin Caswell, CASG sociology representative, originally signed the letter requesting an emergency meeting but said he was happy with the decision to host a town hall after Ramnarine responded to the letter with the suggestion.
“The executive understands very well that it’s a stressful time for students and to have an emergency meeting, where it’s mandatory to show up, would be fairly difficult,” Caswell said.
The CASG president has the authority to call a meeting but the bylaws extend that responsibility to the councillors. Any 10 councillors can call a meeting and Valenti said that the executives’ response to their letter requesting a town hall was an overreach of their authority.
“It is clear that there was a fundamental misunderstanding of the executives’ authority compared to the authority of council as a collective,” Valenti said.
As a member of CASG’s governance committee, Valenti said this is one issue he would like to discuss with the committee in the coming months.
Featured graphic by Sierra Mclean.
