The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) is reducing hours at its service centres over the summer to save money, according to the association’s president, Fahd Alhattab.
Alhattab said the cuts are intended to save about $25,000 paid in co-ordinators’ salaries—money that would then be funnelled back into service centres’ operations in the fall.
“All the money is going back into the service centres so they have more to play with, more to do. They could have a bigger impact because of that,” Alhattab said.
He said the centres’ co-ordinators would see their hours reduced by about half. According to him, centres with one co-ordinator—the Mawandoseg Centre and the Health and Wellness Resource Centre—would be open for 10 hours per week, while the remaining centres with two co-ordinators would operate 20 hours per week.
Ashley Courchene, CUSA’s vice-president (student services), called the cuts a “hard decision,” but said the shortened hours aren’t set in stone.
“It is a flexible thing that if the co-ordinators do require that extra time, that’s something that can be looked at when the people involved need to cross that bridge,” Courchene said.
According to Alhattab, the number of students using centres’ services in the summer is too low to justify full-time operating hours.
“There is less than half the amount of students that we have on campus during the summer so to have our service centres open full-time—40 hours a week—was a bit excessive and we weren’t seeing the numbers,” Alhattab said.
He said the idea to cut summer hours came up last May, which was too late in the last year to provide adequate time for centre co-ordinators to find other summer jobs to support themselves.
According to Courchene, shorter operating hours shouldn’t impact users.
Liam Harrington, the programming co-ordinator at the Food Centre, said he agreed with Courchene that students shouldn’t be affected by the changes.
“It will reduce office hours, obviously, but the money saved from that will go back into programming to hold more events throughout the fall and winter semesters when more students are here,” Harrington said.
But according to a statement provided by administration co-ordinator Sam Richardson on behalf of the Gender and Sexuality Resource Centre (GSRC), the cuts could have a “potential impact” on students remaining in Ottawa during the summer.
“We will do our best to ensure that they have adequate support lined up before the hour drop,” the statement said.
Courchene said the decreased hours might help co-ordinators earn more money because many work two jobs during the summer.
“In a way, it would free up more time for their second job and then there’s a number of co-ordinators who are leaving anyway in May or June,” Courchene said.
Kareen Onyeaju, the programming coordinator at the Race, Ethnicity and Cultural Hall (REC Hall), said she understands the decision, but disagreed with Courchene.
“I’m very lucky to have two jobs, but for some people this could be their primary source of income,” Onyeaju said.
Harrington said the cuts wouldn’t affect future co-ordinators’ training. Onyeaju said most training occurs in the fall.
She added REC Hall could use more funding to provide dedicated volunteers with honourariums.
“As much as we’d like to say that all [volunteers] prefer not to get paid or are just doing it for the cause . . . some volunteers who step up to the plate and want more responsibility and experience of event planning or managing students should have a chance to gain some funds,” she said.
– Photo by Justin Samanski-Langille
