David Oladejo said he thinks the coolest and funniest thing about himself are his tiny ears, but what he’s most known for on campus right now is his candidacy for president of the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) as part of the One Carleton slate.
Born in Nigeria, and an Ottawa resident for the last eight years, Oladejo is a fourth-year mechanical engineering student with a minor in business. He said both have helped make him the ideal candidate for president.
“A lot of business courses are group work-based and presentation-based, so it’s taught me about being collaborative and present myself. I’m very comfortable talking to large groups of people,” he said.
Apart from academics, Oladejo’s campus involvement includes working with the Student Experience Office where he helped plan last year’s Fall Orientation. He was also a brand ambassador with Hatch, CUSA’s incubator program that helps students develop their own business ideas through conferences and workshops.
Oladejo said there are many CUSA events and initiatives that have had a positive impact on him, such as the implementation of the fall reading week three years ago, the summer UPass, and events such as the Panda Game weekend and Black History Month.
If elected as CUSA president, the main problem Oladejo said he hopes to work on is tuition. He said he wants to remove the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) interest fees entirely.
“We have a two-pronged approach, and the first one is [the Ontario Student Assistance Program]. We think the government is acting as a bank by putting [an] interest rate on OSAP,” he said.
When asked about tuition for international students, Oladejo said tuition fee increases for international students should be regulated.
“Right now, the fee increase for domestic interest is capped at three per cent, but for international students it can be any amount. A couple of years ago it was eight percent, which is unfair,” Oladejo said.
According to One Carleton’s website, Oladejo’s platform also includes a promise to increase student jobs on campus by applying for government grants and creating a job board on CUSA’s website for off-campus job postings.
Some of his other plans include improving sustainability at Carleton through introducing more water bottle refill stations on campus and a compost bin at Oliver’s Pub & Patio, as well as defederating from the Canadian Federation of Students.
