Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) executives will not take part in hiring the association’s chief electoral officer (CEO) and deputy electoral officer (DEO) this fall, according to a statement released on Aug. 9.
The executives’ decision comes two weeks after vice president (internal) Ahmad Hashimi announced a by-election will take place this fall to fill the vacant presidential position.
The CUSA CEO and DEO are responsible for running fair and unbiased elections for CUSA executive positions. They work with an elections committee to accept nominations, issue violations and assign sanctions.
“We made a pledge that elections would change. Given this by-election is moving forward under the procedures in place at the time of the presidential vacancy, we feel this recusal is most in keeping with our commitment to democratic reform and fair hiring processes,” the executives’ statement reads in part.
Having an executive hire an electoral officer who is responsible for supervising that executive’s re-election campaign was biased and unfair, according to the executives’ statement.
“It was wrong that sitting executives eligible for re-election ever had the ability to hire the CEO and DEO,” the statement reads in part. “It can be perceived that the process was unfair … that seed of doubt can and has damaged student faith in CUSA elections.”
CUSA’s hiring process has been criticized before. Students launched a campaign to vote ‘no confidence’ during the 2018 executive election due to a lack of candidates. Last year, former CUSA president Matthew Gagné and former CEO Claudia Calagoure-Perna spoke out against the electoral officer hiring process.
A human resources committee hires appointed CUSA positions such as the CEO and DEO, according to CUSA bylaw XIII. Council amended bylaw XIII to change the members of the committee on June 28.
The bylaw amendment excludes a Graduate Student Association (GSA) representative and CUSA general manager from the committee and includes the new position of CUSA human resources director. The updated bylaw still requires the CUSA president and one CUSA executive to sit on the committee, as well as a CUSA council member, a community representative and a CUSA staff union representative of CUPE 1281.
The executives’ recusal would reduce the size of the committee to four members, instead of the six committee members outlined by the amended bylaw.
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While this decision goes against bylaw, the executives said their recusal is supported by the association’s conflict of interest policy and will ensure unbiased executive elections this year. According to section three of that policy, whenever a conflict of interest is perceived in a decision, council members are to remove themselves from the decision-making process.
The committee has not yet been filled. CUSA executives will not fill the human resources committee, according to their statement. Hashimi wrote in an email to the Charlatan that it is up to the councillors to fill the committee.
A human resources director would have to be hired by an ad-hoc human resources committee, according to Hashimi.
“If the committee is to be struck for this by-election, it will need to be struck by CUSA council, moved and seconded by two CUSA councillors,” Hashimi wrote.
CUSA vice president (student life) Daisy Kasper said she trusts CUSA councillors to fill a human resources committee that can fairly hire electoral officers.
“We believe that the CUSA council will be able to fairly hire in a way that is in compliance with CUSA’s existing bylaws and conflict-of-interest policy,” Kasper said.
CUSA executives removing themselves from the electoral officer hiring process is a temporary measure. The democratic reform committee, chaired by fourth-year political science and communications student Braeden Cain, will propose permanent revisions to the electoral process during the upcoming academic year.
“We will be pursuing concrete measures to ensure that our electoral officers are chosen by a fair, open and independent hiring process,” Cain wrote in an email to the Charlatan. “Carleton students deserve to trust their elections office, removing executive influence from [the] CEO hiring process will do just that.”
A previous version of this article stated Daisy Kasper was the vice president (student issues). In fact, Kasper is the vice president (student life). The Charlatan regrets the error. The article was updated on Aug. 19.
Featured image from Screengrab.
