A motion put forward by humanities councillor Roy Sengupta to create an ad hoc committee for democratic reform passed at the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) council meeting May 27.
The committee would collect voluntary information from students and seek to answer the issues that plague student elections at Carleton: “declining voter turnout, and declining student engagement,” according to Sengupta.
Towards the end of the three-hour meeting, Sengupta introduced the motion to the council. Student apathy was the biggest problem with the previous CUSA election, he said. which saw a voter turnout of around 3,370 students, or 15 per cent of the 23,000 eligible undergraduate voters.
The motion was not without its opponents.
“I just don’t think that voter turnout will ever be 50 or 75 per cent,” said Rawan Abujoub, CUSA vice-president (student life).
Abujoub said because most Carleton students do not live on campus, many students are simply disinterested in what CUSA does and won’t vote.
But Sengupta disagreed.
“There is no more noble mandate I can think of for this association than to engage its students,” he said.
Debate on the motion was extended, but eventually passed with 11 votes in favour, which included Abujoub’s, three against, and 11 abstentions, which included the rest of the CUSA executive team.
Also at the meeting, council voted to make outgoing two-term CUSA president Alexander Golovko an honorary member. This means he can attend and speak at meetings, but cannot vote.
“Essentially, it’s ceremonial,” said Folarin Odunayo, the current CUSA president. He moved the motion.
