Undergraduate students at Carleton University will get the chance to vote on increasing the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) clubs and societies levy fee and removing the Millennium Promise levy fee during the February general election following motions from council during its last meeting of the fall term on Nov. 28.
Upcoming referendums
The first referendum will be on the CUSA clubs and societies levy fee. Carleton students currently pay $3.94 each semester, which funds about 150 CUSA clubs. The referendum question will ask students if they want to increase the levy by $1.98 to increase club funding.
Vice-president (internal) Davin Caratao encouraged council to vote in favour of this referendum and hand the decision over to students.
“The money collected from students—almost all of it goes back directly to clubs or assists them in an important way,” he said. “We don’t have enough money to give clubs as much as they want, and probably not as much as they deserve.”
Caratao explained that the University of Ottawa’s student union uses a different model for club funding that allows them to have two to three times more funding to offer their clubs than CUSA.
The second referendum will be on the Millennium Promise student levy fee. Carleton students currently pay $3 per semester to the organization Millennium Promise, formerly called the Millennium Village Foundation, whose charitable aims ended around 2015, the motion reads.
Gray Simms, chair of the CUSA board, said Carleton students voted on the issue during the last CUSA general election, but the university’s board of governors refused to make the change due to a low voter turnout of 13.2 per cent.
“Because the voter turnout was so low, we didn’t reach the 15 per cent threshold that we needed for the referendum to pass, despite the fact that it actually did pass with the majority,” Simms said.
Council voted to declare a public position on the two referendums. CUSA will officially endorse the “YES” campaign in the clubs and societies referendum, and the “REMOVE” campaign in the Millennium Promise referendum.
Simms said these two referendums will work well together for students.
“While we’re asking students to increase their payment to CUSA by $1.98, we are also offering them an opportunity to get rid of a [$3] fee.”
The Niman Kolo Case
Council also declared a position against the deportation of Niman Kolo, an international student at Carleton who was set to be deported Oct. 13.
Kolo, an aerospace engineering student, and her family, fled from Nigeria two years ago, according to CTV News.
The family’s application for refugee status has been denied twice. CUSA could not confirm the family’s current status as the organization has not been in contact with Kolo.
CUSA vice-president (student life) Anshika Srivastava told the Charlatan she has been trying to find information on Kolo’s status.
“I’ve tried to reach out to as many people as possible to know exactly if there was any correspondence on Niman’s behalf,” Srivastava said. “So far it’s been a little bit of a dead end, I’m just trying to get to the [root] of it and find out exactly where she is.”
Although CUSA has not been in any official contact with the university regarding this issue, Srivastava said CUSA will be contacting the university as well as MPs and MPPs in the Ottawa area for support.
Srivastava said she has been in contact with the international students services office at the university about this issue.
“I asked if Niman was referred to any kind of assistance, if the university has been involved,” she said. “My understanding is no, because they only refer people to legal services.”
Srivastava said she hopes CUSA will build a support network with outside organizations and government officials to advocate for students like Niman.
“We have always been an organization and association that has asserted our belief in fundamental human rights,” she said.
CUSA’s next council meeting is scheduled for Jan. 16.
Featured image from file.
