The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) council proclaimed a referendum on adding a levy for the Unified Support Centre (USC), elected a new deputy speaker and appointed two councillors to the vice-president (finance) nominating committee in a meeting on Jan. 16.
Council also discussed the organization’s budget, which was approved by its Board of Directors in December and awaits council’s approval.
Council calls for referendum on USC levy
Council passed a motion for a referendum on a USC levy, which was originally proposed by the service centre’s staff in October. The referendum gives students the option to vote on the creation of a fee of $2.98 per semester, which would go directly towards the USC.
Full-time Carleton students currently pay $1.43 per term to the USC through the foot patrol levy. With the current levy as well as other sources of funding, the USC’s current revenue is $91,727, but expenses are more than double their funding, according to its proposed budget.
The USC was created in 2021 as a merger between the CUSA Food Centre, a food bank service, and Foot Patrol, a campus safety service.
An average of 453 students use USC’s food bank service every month, and the USC’s emergency assistance program has had a 515% increase in use since before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the motion.
“Due to the increased demand and budget shortfalls in the association generally, the Unified Support Centre is in need of approximately $121,000 to sustain its current operations in concordance with expected growth,” reads the meeting agenda.
In light of these facts, council voted on an official position on this referendum, endorsing the creation of the levy.
Council fills vacant positions
Arts and social sciences councillor Nkosinothando Mhlanga was elected by the council as the new deputy speaker. Raj Gill, a public affairs councillor, formerly held this position, but resigned in December due to personal reasons, he said.
“Serving as the deputy speaker has been a privilege and I look forward to serving on the CUSA council in my role as a councillor and member of the constitution and policy review committee and the long term strategic plan committee,” Gill said in an email statement to the Charlatan.
Representatives from council will have a say in hiring CUSA’s next vice-president (finance) as council appointed two councillors to the vice-president (finance) nominating committee.
Sprott councillor Samuel Easby and engineering and design councillor Stephnie Ughara are now part of the committee responsible for vetting candidates for the position.
Both Mhlanga and Easby were elected in CUSA’s October byelection.
Chair of the CUSA board Gray Simms also discussed CUSA’s budget.
Simms said the board has reviewed and passed the budget, which is now ready for review by council. Council must approve the budget for it to be official.
“It was a significantly better budget than we had seen before, so we were pleased with that,” Simms said.
“The budget the board was originally presented with had a significant deficit, which the office was able to reduce substantially without adverse effect on our programming,” Simms added in an email to the Charlatan.
Simms did not say what specific changes were made to the original budget.
Vice-president (internal) Davin Caratao echoed Simms’ statement in council and encouraged council to review the budget.
“[CUSA’s finances] are in much better shape than they were a couple months ago,” Caratao claimed.
There will also be five vacancies on the board of directors starting in March, according to Simms, who encouraged students to apply.
In an email to the Charlatan, Simms explained the current board has four one-year directors and four two-year directors. In March, the terms for the one-year directors will end. Simms said there is also a seat available for a director serving from 2022-2024.
In the future, all directors will have two-year terms, meaning there will be four new directors each year, he said.
Council is scheduled to meet next on Feb. 27.
Featured graphic by Sara Mizannojehdehi.
