A rift between the new executive of the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) and the larger Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) has been growing through a series of moves this summer. CUSA is Local 1 of the CFS, meaning they were the first student union to join the federation.
CUSA’s executives missed a CFS-Ontario meeting Aug. 16, claiming they never got an invitation, and CUSA council voted down the CFS anti-homophobia and transphobia campaign earlier in the summer. More recently, CUSA moved away from the CFS and produced agendas for the first time in five years, opting to print its own agendas.
“These [new] agendas cost much less than the CFS ones and we were able to save the money, and reinvest the money into offering CUSA notebooks,” De Luca said. “At the same time we were able to control all the content that went into the agenda.”
According to the June 18 CUSA council meeting minutes, CFS has already made the agendas for CUSA and is unwilling to cancel the order, unless CUSA pays the CFS its loss of profit – between $2,000-$4,000.
CUSA expects the new agenda deal will profit them between $16,000 and $18,000.
CUSA may be ending other CFS purchasing agreements as well.
“Historically, past CUSA executives have always purchased goods and services from the CFS at a substantially higher price,” De Luca said. “As of now we are purchasing nothing from the CFS. Everything the CFS offers we can find at a better quantity and better price.”
CFS-Ontario held an annual general meeting for its provincial student unions, which was not attended by CUSA.
CUSA president Alexander Golovko said this was because they were not invited, something the CFS contradicts.
“CUSA absolutely was invited,” CFS-Ontario spokesperson Sarah King said.
“It’s their decision whether or not to use the services of the federation, but it’s disheartening that they choose not to work with students across the country.”
Carleton’s Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) also believes CUSA was invited to the CFS meeting, and made the point in a report to CUSA at the meeting where Golovko made his comment.
“I have no idea what that means, that they weren’t invited,” GSA vice-president (external) Anna Goldfinch said. “I think it is some position CUSA is taking.”
Another bone of contention between the two associations also brought to attention during the June 18 council meeting is the CFS-run campaign to challenge homophobia and transphobia. The campaign motion was met with no discussion at council, failing with 11 votes for and 13 against.
Although the GSA, the university’s department of safety, student affairs, and the GLBTQ+ community supported the motion, motivator of the motion and member of the board of directors of OPIRG-Carleton Arun Smith said he thought CUSA did not look at it objectively.
“How 13 Councillors and Executives can reject a campaign built for and by students . . . providing a toolkit for customization to suit particular campus environments . . . without even looking at the material objectively, baffles me entirely,” Smith said via email.
De Luca questioned the motivation of CFS on the project.
“I do not believe in supporting a campaign run by an organization whose primary goal, as a corporate entity, is to generate revenue from Carleton students,” he told the Charlatan at the time.
CFS maintains CUSA is at a disadvantage for not using their equity campaign.
“I find disheartening the decision not to let their service centres use our campaign materials,” King said. “These are campaigns that are tried and true and that work.”
Whether or not CUSA wants to work actively with the CFS, the two organizations will be tied together until a CUSA debt to the CFS is paid off. The amount, around $140,000, will be paid off in 2040 under the current installment plan.
