The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) has issued an apology to the World University Service of Canada (WUSC) local Carleton chapter after they voiced concerns regarding funding for refugees and mistreatment of WUSC as a campus club.
WUSC received the apology after publishing an open letter to CUSA, in which they said the $5,000 that was supposed to be donated to them by CUSA through their charity fund was actually donated to the Refugee Sponsorship Support Program (RSSP), run out of the University of Ottawa’s legal clinic.
Efrem Berhe, co-president of WUSC-Carleton, said the $5,000 was meant to be donated to the chapter through Carleton’s crowdfunding site FutureFunder, and would have been matched by the university to bring over an additional student refugee to Carleton.
WUSC-Carleton demanded an apology from CUSA in regards to the misunderstanding of the funding in their open letter.
“Last night, CUSA offered its apologies to WUSC Carleton, and President Fahd [Alhattab] has stated that he takes full responsibility. WUSC Carleton, of course, accepts the apology,” WUSC said in a media release after the apology.
Berhe said WUSC thought it was getting the money because of an announcement made on Nov. 1 at Arabian Nights, but found out it was going to the RSSP through an article in The Charlatan.
“[Alhattab] came to my table [at Arabian Nights] and said we were going to be pretty happy because it was going to be announced that they were going to donate $5,000 to WUSC-Carleton,” Berhe said.
CUSA president Fahd Alhattab said the issue was a misunderstanding. He said CUSA and WUSC never made an explicit agreement.
“What was done was an announcement during the Arabian Night on Nov.1 that said that CUSA is going to be pledging $5,000 to help support Syrian refugees,” Alhattab said. “That same night the money that was coming out of Arabian Nights was going to support WUSC . . . But an announcement was never made to say we were giving the money to WUSC, the announcement was made that said we were going to give money to Syrian refugees.”
“We had a meeting with WUSC, where we were looking at giving the money to WUSC, and that’s where to them it felt more solidified, but to us was just a consideration,” Alhattab said.
Alhattab said CUSA has a committee that is solely responsible for the Syrian refugee crisis and how the association is responding to it. The committee did an extensive review of projects CUSA could have given money to, eventually deciding on the RSSP.
“With WUSC, there were two issues that were identified by the committee. One, WUSC could not guarantee that it was a Syrian refugee student, they work with refugees as a whole . . . CUSA helping refugees as a whole is important, but this specific earmarked money, we wanted to go to Syrian refugees,” Alhattab said.
He added the RSSP program provides pro-bono legal services to families who want to sponsor refugees, meaning more Syrian refugees would come to Canada as a result.
WUSC’s open letter also addressed concerns of funding from CUSA. In it, it cites a discrepency on whether they can receive clubs and societies funding from the association.
Alhattab said because WUSC is a levied group, they do not qualify for CUSA funding under the bylaws. Berhe, however, said their levy is only used for sponsoring student refugees and not holding events, which is why they want funding.
Alhattab responded by saying WUSC can receive funding from CUSA through sponsorship or the Student Initiative Fund, which provides up to $500 in funding for individuals if approved.
WUSC and CUSA are scheduled to meet at a later date to discuss the relationship between the two groups on campus and their funding options.
