Carleton’s Academic Student Government (CASG) passed a motion on AI transparency, textbook accessibility and discussed updates on a previous course outline motion at its council meeting on Feb. 26.
Council also heard a Carleton University Student Association (CUSA) presentation on the student levy fee referendum.
Motion to advocate for transparency in using AI
CASG passed a motion to advocate to Carleton senate to mandate course outlines to “include an explicit clause on the use of generative AI tools.”
Paul Wilson, associate dean (student and enrolment) in the Faculty of Public and Global Affairs, gave a presentation to CASG council about AI use and academic integrity violations.
Deans and associate deans oversee academic integrity violation cases. Wilson said inserting a uniform AI clause into course outlines would be beneficial to ensure consistency across departments.
“I’m pretty confident when most instructors say you can’t use artificial intelligence, they don’t mean Grammarly, they don’t mean auto-complete, but that’s not specified,” Wilson said. “Requiring clarity would be a good thing.”
Currently, Carleton’s Teaching and Learning Services provide resources about AI use for instructors to consult when creating their course outlines.
CASG councillor for law and legal studies Emma Pierce asked what the procedure is if instructors violate the academic integrity policy. It prohibits instructors from using AI detection programs and deducting marks from students suspected of unauthorized AI use.
David Matar, a CASG councillor for commerce, asked whether AI regulation could benefit affluent students who can afford better AI software that is more difficult to detect.
“Poorer students are going to get punished for it, or caught for it or be suspected for it more than people who are able to afford something more expensive,” he said.
Wilson said he was unsure how to address those inequities, but maintained that instructors aren’t allowed to use AI detection programs “because they have a high error rate.”
CASG president Allan Buri asked what barriers exist that prevent the university from enforcing regulation on transparent AI use.
Wilson said there could be pushback from instructors who don’t want to be told what to do with their course outlines.
Wilson also said many instructors “have not thought very deeply about this” and haven’t decided what the limits of AI use should be in their courses.
The motion pushing the Carleton senate to mandate clauses on AI use in course outlines passed with unanimous support.
President update on motion to request university to survey students on receiving course outlines
Buri said he received pushback from the university on a motion CASG passed in its January council meeting. The motion advocates to Carleton to ensure course outline compliance by emailing surveys to students about whether they received their course outlines on time.
Carleton’s academic regulation policy 5.2 states that students should receive their course outlines by a required date found in the academic calendar, “normally one week prior to the start of a term.”
Instead, CASG recommended sending emails to the student body informing students they should have received course outlines by the due date, and providing appropriate contacts in case outlines have not been received.
Buri said the university informed him that they cannot send those emails, but was not provided a rationale.
“I’ll be pushing back and asking why. Why is it so difficult to get the university to do something that can help students better understand their academic rights?” he said.
Buri said the university told CASG to advocate to students through tabling and talks in class.
“I don’t know why the burden is always falling on us who are volunteers to enforce regulations the university has imposed on itself,” Buri said.
Steven Reid, the university’s media relations officer, did not respond to the Charlatan for comment in time for publication.
Motion to advocate for accessible textbooks
Council unanimously passed a motion to advocate that courses provide physical and electronic versions of textbooks for students.
The motion highlights concerns around textbook accessibility, including students struggling to read electronic copies and financial constraints which can limit access to electronic devices.
Councillor for computer systems engineering Jordan Trach said the motion is worth pursuing, but the motion’s language should clarify whether it only applies to traditional textbooks.
“There are some courses [like] software engineering, computer systems engineering and computer science where the textbook for a class is online documentation. There is no physical copy,” Trach said.
CUSA presentation about student levy fee
Councillor for information technology Nathan Bruni, gave a presentation to council about the proposed increase to the CUSA student levy fee before the referendum occurred.
The referendum failed with 2,294 students voting against it and 1,545 voting in support.
Bruni shared financial information about CUSA’s student businesses and operations. Ollie’s ran a $411,000 deficit in the 2023-24 fiscal year, according to an operational update report released in January 2025. Rooster’s ran a $242,000 deficit.
According to the same report, Ollie’s and Rooster’s are losing $122,000 and $17,000, respectively, in the current fiscal year.
Bruni said CUSA subsidizes food costs for all student-run businesses, while prices of the items sold cover operational costs.
“We subsidize that for students so that when you go to Oliver’s, Rooster’s, The Wing, it’s a lot cheaper than going to the food court or any Carleton Dining Service locations.”
Bruni said without the increased student levy fee, CUSA will have to scale down student services.
“Without it, we have to make a lot of cuts,” Bruni said. “We have to get rid of free printing, we have to raise our prices at Ollie’s and Rooster’s and The Wing. It’s not going to be a fun experience.”
Even with the resounding message received from students in the referendum result, CUSA has been given a mandate, Bruni said.
“Even if more people vote no, at least CUSA has that mandate and that it is a binding mandate that CUSA has to shrink itself and provide less services,” he said.
CASG will hold its next meeting on March 28.
Featured graphic by Sara Mizannojehdehi.
