Council appointed chief and deputy electoral officers for the presidential by-election, created an electoral reform committee and passed a motion to censure a student-at-large at an emergency Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) council meeting on Nov. 17.
Interim president and vice-president (internal) Ahmad Hashimi was absent from the meeting due to a medical emergency. Executive assistant Jordan Collacutt was his proxy during the meeting.
CUSA live streamed the meeting on Facebook but ended it after less than an hour due to technical issues. The meeting was recorded but has yet to be uploaded to YouTube.
Tension during question period
During a question period, a former Board of Governors (BoG) representative Nathaniel Black asked current BoG representative Anastasia Lettieri about her plans to hold the university to promises made in 2020 surrounding in-person courses and online course accessibility for students. Lettieri said she would address the issue with the board.
Black then said some governors suggested there was a lack of leadership from the current undergraduate BoG representatives regarding campus reopening.
“What has been communicated to me is a lack of leadership—that we are failing to meet the basic opportunity on the Board of Governors,” Black said.
Lettieri responded that she and undergraduate governor Holden Heppler were advised to be better student advocates by asking questions at board meetings, which she said they will do. Lettieri did not state who advised her.
Black also asked vice-president (community engagement) Callie Ogden, how CUSA is informing first-year students of opportunities.
Ogden said with fewer students on campus, the association’s main communication method with students this last year has been social media.
“We are not allowed to have student emails that are mandated by the university which is completely fair, but that does narrow our access to reaching all levels of students in our entire undergraduate body,” Ogden said.
She added that the team is working to give students more information via social media and on-campus interactions.
Near the end of the meeting, Lettieri addressed council about Black’s questions stating that she believes the concerns he expressed were “largely misinformed.” Lettieri said she and Heppler are committed to their positions as student representatives.
“We’ve attended all our meetings and I’ve provided monthly CUSA reports, which is something that did not really occur last year. So if you have any questions in the future, I’d ask you to respectfully reach out to me with board-related concerns,” Lettieri said.
Collacutt interjected to reinforce that students and councillors respect each other.
“I love a good debate as much as everybody else, but being respectful to those who are on the other side of that firing squad during question period is incredibly important and really conducive to proper meaningful debate,” Collacutt said.
Censuring of student-at-large
After a discussion in council about policy changes to better manage future question periods, Collacutt presented a motion to censure Black. No amendments to the current policies were proposed.
Council chair Davin Caratao provided the definition of censuring to the council.
“A motion of censure is not one which is by definition necessarily predicated on the opinion of the chair. It is instead an expression of an assembly’s displeasure at the conduct of one of its members and can be made either based on the ruling and interpretation of the chair or based on the initiative of its members,” Caratao said.
In an email to the Charlatan, Collacutt said there are no procedural consequences for censuring a student-at-large. The motion acts as a documented declaration of the council’s “displeasure with the actions” of the student.
Council drafted a motion to censure Black on the basis that his tone and the content of his questions were “unproductive” and “disrespectful” to some council members.
Motion to Censure Nathaniel Black
Whereas the the tone and content of Mr. Black’s comments were unproductive and disrespectful to the purposes of CUSA council,
Be it resolved, that CUSA Council censure Nathaniel Black for their conduct at the 17 November special meeting of Council,
And be it further resolved, that Council’s opinion be made known to Nathaniel Black through means of private communication, i.e e-mail.
Council moved in-camera for 15 minutes to further discuss the motion. The motion to censure Black was passed by council.
The lasting effects of the council’s decision to censure a student-at-large were not outlined publicly.
Following the meeting in an email to the Charlatan, Black said his censorship was “inappropriate” and an “abuse of council’s authority.”
“This action was radical and frankly rooted in deep discrimination over debates on tone and style of delivery,” Black’s emailed statement reads in part. “I strongly believe that council’s action sets a very dangerous precedent to censure students based on policy questions they ask to their representatives based on the tone of their voice.”
By-election preparation
To prepare for the presidential by-election, council voted to appoint a chief electoral officer (CEO) and deputy electoral officer (DEO).
Upon recommendation of the human resources committee, council appointed Nicolas Gil Ocampo as CEO. Ocampo formally sat on CUSA council as a public affairs councillor and is a fifth-year law student at Carleton. The executives abstained from this vote to avoid conflicts of interest.
Before the vote, Black asked Ocampo about his approach to accessibility and transparency when adjusting the electoral code, which CUSA is revising this year.
“I am particularly concerned with issues of accountability, transparency and democratic exercise of rights from the students-at-large and I would heavily rely on these experiences to prove so,” Ocampo said.
Council also approved the human resources committee’s recommendation and appointed Qusai Yusuf, who was not present, as DEO. Yusuf, a fourth-year public affairs and policy management student, acted as DEO during the last executive election in February. Yusuf has experience as DEO and CEO for the Rideau River Residence Association (RRRA) elections in 2019 and 2020, respectively.
Council also passed a motion to create the CUSA electoral review committee. The committee will have a chair and four members, all students-at-large. A public recruitment campaign will recruit students.
CUSA also made a constitution and policy review committee. The committee will advise the council on policy recommendations and planning. Hashimi will chair the committee and council-appointed public affairs councillors Nora Draper and Gray Simms are set to sit on the committee alongside two students-at-large.
There is still no by-election announcement from the CUSA council to fill the vacant presidential position.
The next scheduled CUSA council meeting is Nov. 29.
Editor’s Note: A previous version of this article stated the motion to censure student-at-large Nathaniel Black was passed unanimously by council. In fact, councillors voted via secret ballot and the results were not made public. The article was last updated on Nov. 25.
Featured image from Screengrab.
