Carleton University’s Academic Student Government passed two motions on Nov. 19 advocating for improved teaching assistant to student ratios and better working conditions for contract instructors.
CASG council voted unanimously to support petitions from CUPE 4600, the union representing contract instructors and teaching assistants, which calls on the university to implement “reasonable TA-student ratios” and end “unpaid labour for contract instructors.”
The motion also calls on the university to encourage Carleton’s bargaining team to negotiate in “good faith,” adding CASG will share their position publicly.
Councillor Mohamad El-Fitori, who introduced the motion, said many concerns about teaching assistants stem from them “being overworked and feeling like their concerns … weren’t being addressed.”
He added that large student groups for teaching assistants are contributing to the rise of AI-assisted marking.
“TAs and contract instructors (are) being given too much,” he said.
“So they felt like the only solution was AI.”
“By actually having TA ratios and TAs knowing how many students they have to teach, we would be in a lot better position academically.”
CASG vice-president (internal) Aidan Patrick said he supports the motion, adding it’s a matter of educational quality.
CASG president Alison Kocsis agreed, saying “the quality of our education is heavily dependent on TAs and contract instructors.”
Councillor Alexandru Simion supported the motion, but argued CASG should also address university budgeting.
“We should also be calling on the school to reallocate its funds,” Simion said. “They’re spending it in the wrong ways, so that they can’t afford to pay them properly.”
Patrick replied that telling the university how to use its funds is “just not our job.”
Gerardo Maldonado-Jimenez, the CASG vice-president (operations), said the provincial tuition cap is forcing Carleton to make cuts.
“It really does come down to, how is the university supposed to survive? And the provincial government won’t give it more money,” Maldonado-Jimenez said.
“It’s a very challenging situation, but please understand the university is not evil. They’re just trying to do their best with the cards they’ve been dealt with.”
Some councillors pushed back, charging the university with misusing its funding.
“I will say that some of the initiatives taken to quote-unquote address the deficit are not actually intended to address the deficit,” councillor Nathan Harlan said.
“There is money that they could be using to pay staff salary that they’re not using to pay staff salary.”
Featured graphic by Sierra McLean
