With one day left before polls close, here are the latest updates from the 2016 Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) election.
Electoral Violations
Several electoral violations have been filed. A violation—filed against Your Carleton—accused the slate of distributing sweatshirts branded with the CUSA logo to their volunteers as campaign material.
The Electoral Board dismissed the violation because the sweatshirts do not display a slate name, according to chief electoral officer (CEO) Matt Swain, and thus the board does not deem them campaign material. The board did note that if the sweatshirts continued to be distributed with favouritism shown towards Your Carleton campaigners, they would explore the possibility of stricter limits on clothing during campaign periods.
The second violation—against Real Leadership—accused vice-president (student services) candidate Ryan Hussey of taking part in negative campaigning in a speech during a class visit. Swain said he initially ruled Hussey had indeed engaged in negative campaigning.
Hussey and Real Leadership campaign manager Lil Morton appealed the decision, stating that bringing up the attendance and voting records of candidates was not negative campaigning.
However, the board maintained their decision was based on a comment Hussey made in his speech questioning the honesty of the current CUSA executives and the honesty of their hiring practices. Swain rejected the appeal.
Slates
Change released a revamped Strategic Action Plan. The slate emphasized they want to engage with students, clubs and societies, and alumni.
Student Engagement
Luv “Shakes” Tomar, chief executive of the Metal Ravens club and known around campus, released a video on YouTube expressing his dissatisfaction with CUSA, particularly with how clubs and societies are treated and financed, and outlining questions which he had hoped to ask at the debate.
Tomar emphasized he believes all CUSA executives, past and present, are good people, and they work hard, but they have “consistently failed to equally distribute their efforts and resulting awards among the entire student association that they represent.”
He encouraged students to “stop assuming CUSA is corrupt” and go vote in order to have a say in the organization.
