Ashley Courchene, a fourth-year political science student, is running for the position of Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) president in this year’s election for the Change slate.
Courchene is the current CUSA vice-president (student services), and it is his third consecutive year running for CUSA office.
“There’s work that’s still to be done that I’d like to see completed within CUSA before I leave, so I would just like to do that,” he said.
He said Change promises to bring fair and open practices for hiring, referendum, and election processes to CUSA, particularly through biannual general assemblies where students can freely share their concerns with executives.
Another focus for Change, he said, will be to fight for student and community issues, such as rising tuition costs.
“We’d like to have a student organization that takes a stand,” he said. “I feel like a lot of people feel that as well.”
He also said he would like to bring together people who “feel alienated or marginalized from the association.”
“Our goal would be to bring those people in and make them feel included,” he said.
“I want as many people as possible to be engaged in the association,” he said, and added students should get their money’s worth out of the money they pay to CUSA each year.
Courchene was the co-ordinator of the Mawandoseg Centre for two years before stepping into the role of vice-president (student services) in last year’s election.
He said he believes his prior experience working with CUSA qualifies him for the role of president, and added his team consists of students who are already community leaders at Carleton.
“[CUSA is ] student membership of 25,000 students,” Courchene said. “We are a substantial block of people that, when standing united, can make the changes that we want to see.”
– Photo by Trevor Swann
