The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) announced on Nov. 14 an upcoming referendum on their proposal for a new Student Union Building.
The referendum will ask students to decide on a motion to pass funding for the project, which will involve a $40 increase to tuition fees per semester to be charged to students once the building is complete and ready for use.
Voting for the referendum will take place from Dec. 6-7, and students will vote through their Carleton emails.
If the referendum does not pass, CUSA president Fahd Alhattab said they will not be able to come up with the money to pay for the building and it will not go ahead.
“For us to really own the space and have influence over it, we need to put the money forward,” he said.
According to Alhattab, the students’ association has negotiated with the university to have the school pay for the entire up-front cost of the building, with no cost to current students. The total cost of the project is an estimated $42 million, of which CUSA will have to provide $20 million.
If the referendum passes, the projected completion date for the expansion will be during the 2020-21 school year, according to a CUSA website about the building.
The proposal says the building will be an 80,000 square foot expansion of the University Centre. According to the CUSA’s announcement, plans for the proposed expansion include additional tabling space, 24-hour study space, 15 meeting rooms, a lounge area, increased food options, and a large conference hall.
CUSA will be running a campaign in the lead up to the referendum called “Shaping Our Skyline” to disseminate information about the building. Alhattab said the budget for this campaign is $5,000.
Alhattab said the proposal was created based on feedback given through student consultations, held this past February and March.
CUSA sent out a survey to 5,000 students on Nov. 2 to gather opinions on the new building, Alhattab said. He said the majority of respondents leaned towards supporting the building, but not strongly.
“It’s been really exciting and a lot of the engaged students seem to understand the benefit of it . . . [but] we have to keep in mind the average students on this campus is not the engaged student,” Alhattab said. “Those students are the ones we’re really targeting to get out there and talk to them.”
Alhattab said he wasn’t sure how many people had responded to the survey.
Yana Birion, a second-year public affairs and policy management student, said she is more inclined to vote no on the referendum.
“The cost for the building is an ongoing cost that will continue for literally decades, which means that students that have no voice now are quite stuck with what we decide now,” Birion said. “We’ll all be long gone by the time costs start being implemented.”
Ben Kielstra, a third-year engineering student, said he supports the project if the increase to fund it is only $40.
“If [the building] is a place for relaxing and a place for homework, $40 isn’t a lot of money,” Kielstra said.
Carmen Ho, a second-year engineering student, said the building is unnecessary.
“It is a good idea to have more space for the students and clubs and to hold events and stuff, but at the same time, I don’t really think it’s necessary because there is already a lot of space on campus for those things,” said Carmen Ho, a second-year engineering student.
Students will have the chance to help campaign for either side of the referendum by attending a “Yes” or a “No” committee meeting held on Nov. 21.
A ballot for the referendum will be sent on Dec. 6 and 7 to students’ Carleton email accounts.
