The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) held its first-ever spring break trip over reading week, from Feb. 18-25.
The trip was championed by vice-president (student life) Abdullah Jaber, who promised to introduce a spring break trip as part of his 2017 election campaign platform. The Charlatan reached out to Jaber multiple times for comment, but he said that he was too busy for an interview via email.
CUSA partnered with Campus Vacations, a student travel agency that arranges annual spring break and ski trips for university students. The trip was open to students from Ontario universities including the University of Guelph, the University of Western Ontario, and Queen’s University. Most of the available space at an all-inclusive resort in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico was taken up by these other universities.
According to CUSA’s website, Carleton students had to stay at a hotel across the street from the resort, because it had already sold out. CUSA president Zameer Masjedee said the association began selling spots later than other universities, which began as early as June 2017.
“For us to launch this project and really begin thinking about it in September, we were a little bit late to the party,” he said.
While only about 20 Carleton students went on the trip, Masjedee said setting participation quotas was never the focus of the program.
“What we really were aiming for was to ensure that it was a trip that didn’t have any issues, because I think that was the biggest thing that there’s a potential for safety concerns and all of these other things on these trips,” he said.
Masjedee added that Campus Vacations was a lucrative partner because it offers trained on-location staff to deal with emergencies, such as alcohol poisoning. According to him, the trip was successful because no safety incidents involving Carleton students were reported.
According to CUSA’s website, the trip cost $1,895 per student, tax included. However, Masjedee said the association had originally hoped to guarantee a deal of about $1,600 per student, before it discovered that it would be on the hook for the remaining deposits if less than 300 students booked the trip.
In CUSA’s 2017-18 budget, $140,000 was allotted to the spring break trip. Masjedee explained that this acted as a ‘placeholder’ to declare any money coming in, as a non-profit organization. He said the original plan was for CUSA to accept incoming deposits from students, then pass the money directly to the travel agency.
“What we ultimately ended up doing though, was not dealing with any of the finances whatsoever. We just partnered with Campus Vacations and instead of students having to pay CUSA and then CUSA paying Campus Vacations, students just paid Campus Vacations directly, so we didn’t have to deal with any of the money,” he said. “There’s no way for us to lose any money, because there’s no money to be lost.”
While the change in plans ended up costing approximately $295 more per student, Masjedee said it was a fiscally-conscious decision for the association.
“For a pilot year when we’re introducing this program for the first time and we don’t really have a chance to market it for the number of years the other schools do, it would be pretty financially irresponsible if we had made the decision to go with the 300 person guarantee,” he explained.
Masjedee said there’s potential for the trip to continue next year, but that it ultimately is up to the next team of executives—which includes Jaber, who is returning as vice-president (student life)—to decide.
Photo by Bailee Pegden
