The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) passed the 2012-2013 budget unanimously July 31, allocating increased funding for service centres and renovations to Haven Books and Rooster’s Coffeehouse, among other areas.
“The budget was passed by Council with minimal amendments [and] is drafted in a way that increases funding to many important areas and will help the Executive to make CUSA and Carleton better over the course of next year,” CUSA vice-president (finance) Michael De Luca said via email.
“I am very pleased with the budget [and] Council seems to have been pleased with it as well.”
Not all coordinators were satisfied with service centre funding, however, and expressed concern with executive priorities.
Sarah McCue, programming coordinator for the Food Centre, confirmed the Food Centre received all requested funding, but said she was “concerned” that some centres were favoured over others.
Sarah Cooper, coordinator of the GLBTQ Centre for Sexual and Gender Diversity, said via email that she was specifically concerned about the amount the centre received for campus pride.
“The Centre has relied on the CUSA executives in the past to cover some of the costs for Campus Pride and it is unclear as to whether this support will continue,” she said.
“The projected needs for the community, and lack of Executive support, like we’ve seen in the past have not been met through this budget.”
Three amendments were made to the original budget before the final version was passed, including striking the provision to create a Health and Wellness Centre. Council opted instead to pass the measure separately.
“There were too many unanswered questions,” McCue said.
McCue attended the meeting on behalf of engineering and design councillor Aziz Khatib. She moved the motion to separate the Centre from the rest of the budget because “there was not enough information provided as to the mandate and the functions of the proposed centre,” she said.
Council also voted to allocate an additional $1,000 from the president’s special projects fund to the Aboriginal Service Centre budget, and an extra $4,000 to the Muslim Students’ Association.
De Luca said the fund already included the money for the Muslim Students’ Association and “the CUSA President was more than happy to see additional [funds] go towards the Aboriginal Service Centre as well,” adding, “These types of expenditures are what the President’s special projects budget is supposed to be used for.”
Arts and social sciences councillor David MacMillan proposed an amendment to devote half of the $100,000 contingency fund to make CUSA proceedings accessible to hard of hearing students. After debate, the amendment was ultimately referred to CUSA’s Accessibility Committee for further review.
McCue said council meetings and other CUSA events are “totally inaccessible” to deaf students.
“Many people felt that we need more time to work out the details of what exact services are required and where to pull the funding from,” McCue said.
CUSA president Alexander Golovko said via email that deaf students do have options for accessing council meetings, but that council will look to improving these services soon.
“Members of the Carleton community who have hearing problems currently have resources at their disposal to help with interpretation,” Golovko said.
“CUSA does not offer this service but it is something we will be moving towards quite soon as we feel it is important to break down barriers that prevent our members from participating to the best of their abilities.”
