The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) meeting on Aug. 30 saw council approve a motion to amend executive compensation bylaws, and featured the first report on council reform from the Constitution and Policy Review Committee.
Aside from minor changes to the motion, one major amendment required the committee to put forth compensation recommendations no later than CUSA’s November meeting, with a final copy of the report to be presented and a decision made by council no later than the December meeting. This is a change from the previously-held deadline of June 15.
“It kind of solves the depoliticizing of this whole committee, in terms of you’re deciding on executive compensation for an executive that doesn’t exist yet,” said Lauren Konarowski, vice president (internal). “You don’t have faces to who you’re deciding the pay for.”
“Also, when you decide to run for executive in the CUSA elections in the winter term, you know what your pay is,” she added.
The motion on executive compensation changes passed unanimously at the meeting.
Council also heard from engineering councillor Julia Dalphy, who delivered a report on council reform on behalf of CUSA’s Constitution and Policy Review Committee. The report focused on potential reallocation of seats in order to better represent the student population at Carleton.
Dalphy’s report described CUSA’s seat allocation as “definitely broken as it [currently] stands.”
Under the current bylaws, CUSA allocates seats on council based on constituencies. The problem, Dalphy said, is that there is no set definition within the bylaws of what counts as a constituency.
She presented a number of potential adjustments to the system, such as faculties or degrees composed of over 250 students holding seats, among others.
As CUSA’s current system stands, programs like journalism, public affairs and policy management, humanities, and computer science are seen as overrepresented in their 26-seat structure, whereas programs such as social work, architecture, global issues, international business, math, and others are seen as underrepresented, according to the presentation. Both council and the committee will continue to discuss this in the future, Dalphy said.
The meeting also saw the re-appointment of Brandon Burrill as council clerk for the 2016-17 term, and training for councillors on CUSA’s new Clubs and Societies platform, CUSA Hub.
