The Carleton Academic Student Government (CASG) has implemented their first constitutional amendment in almost 10 years.
Matthew Pelletier, vice-president (internal), said this has allowed the Senate to veto motions at the CASG table and improve communications. The constitutional amendments Pelletier cited include new protections against gender identity discrimination as the most recent accomplishment. But he says the work is scheduled to continue.
“We had a big success with getting our constitution passed, and that’s freed up a lot of council resources to be able to tackle the other issues that we’re looking at.” – Matt Pelletier, vice-president (internal) CASG
Pelletier said several issues will be fixed as early as Thursday, Dec. 6. Some of these other issues include three bylaws and one policy planned. Documents provided by Pelletier indicate the bylaws slated to be changed involve CASG membership, department and faculty boards, the Academic Initiative Fund (AIF), and the CASG committee policy.
While these changes are slated to be implemented at the Dec. 6 CASG meeting, Pelletier said overarching overhauls of the hiring practices and contracts, electoral code, and executive committee will be an ongoing process throughout the remainder of the academic year.
He said there is a rough timeline of the hiring policy changes being expected to occur in January and the electoral code changes from February to March. Pelletier said “there’s a little more flexibility” on when changes to the executive committee could be implemented, as it is a smaller motion.
Pelletier described the hiring policy as “the next big obstacle for us,” stating that CASG’s goal is to make the system more transparent.
He said he believes the change would involve increasing the appeals’ committee ability to hear grievances about contract terminations, amending the Financial Accountability Policy to reflect changes in hiring practices, and introducing a CASG hiring board.
Pelletier provided a document which listed 18 amendments to the CASG electoral code—some of these including updates to the eligibility requirements for those running for CASG representative positions and reservations of at least one representative position for specific faculty-recognized academic student societies. In total, 13 sections of the code would be replaced in their entirety with amendments.
Finally, the changes to the executive committee would involve including new definitions of CASG’s operations, refining executives’ responsibilities to match changes in the CASG constitution and bylaws, and establishment of CASG delegates’ roles on administrative and student bodies.
Pelletier said he is confident in CASG’s competency to complete CASG’s calendar criteria comfortably in the coming months.
“Everything will be done by the time the next election happens,” said Pelletier.
