The Carleton University Student’s Association (CUSA) announced the creation of nine paid associate vice-president (AVP) positions via Instagram on May 11.
The new AVP positions are offered include executive relations, university and academic affairs, government affairs, student funds, student groups, campaigns, research and advocacy, student experience and external affairs.
CUSA vice-president (internal) Logan Breen said the AVPs will be involved in all aspects of the organization.
Breen hopes the AVPs will address “key gaps” in the organization, such as “club support, helping [students] apply for grants, [and administering services] like the academic resilience fund.”
Breen added the positions will allow students to connect with the Carleton community while learning valuable skills.
CUSA president Mohamed “Faris” Riazudden said the initiative aims to create student leadership opportunities and make the organization more inclusive. Riazudden said this initiative dates back to his presidential election campaign, when he promised to create more student jobs within CUSA.
“For us to cover all parts of advocacy and those areas at CUSA, we wanted to provide that opportunity for students to take part in it and better the student experience,” he said.
Breen said many of the new positions are rebranded from previous CUSA positions, such as the advocacy research coordinator, policy analyst and executive assistant positions, among others.
Breen said the rebranding was the result of low recruitment over the past few years across CUSA positions.
“By rebranding [the positions], reformatting [and] adding different aspects to the job descriptions with these new AVPs, we’re hopefully able to attract more candidates,” Breen said.
He added the AVPs will hopefully allow CUSA’s structure to operate more smoothly.
“[The AVPs will] be able to handle some more of the administrative tasks, and some of the more specific, more nuanced tasks that an executive, for example, wouldn’t necessarily have time to,” Breen said.
Breen said he hopes the new positions will give executives more time to focus on long-term initiatives.
“It’ll be great for the executives and full-time staff to be able to focus on the long-term strategic plan of the organization, on making sure we’re implementing really good reforms that make CUSA a better organization,” he said.
Riazudden said he hopes the expansion will make CUSA more open to students.
“People think [CUSA is] very isolated. We want to expand CUSA. We want more people involved within our day-to-day operations, from elections, from events, from advocacy efforts,” Riazudden said.
Riazudden also said the new positions give students opportunities to learn about CUSA and participate in its development.
“When we provide [students] with these opportunities, they grow as an individual.”
Breen said three of the AVP positions, including AVP university and academic affairs, AVP government affairs and AVP research and advocacy, are summer trials.
“Those will be a trial for the summer to see what the engagement is with those positions,” Breen explained. “And then moving forward, after the summer we’ll reevaluate… the best way to have these positions as a part of CUSA.”
All other positions are permanent.
Applications for all AVP positions are due on May 25, with interviews to follow.
Featured graphic by Sara Mizannojehdehi.
