The Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG) Carleton and the Carleton Food Collective, two student-funded groups normally receiving levies in November, have not received them from the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) for the 2013-14 school year.
After students pay tuition fees, levies are taken from those fees by the university’s Board of Governors. They are passed on to the undergraduate and graduate student associations to be forwarded to levy-receiving groups.
OPIRG-Carleton’s levy is $6.89 per undergraduate student and the collective’s levy is $2.18, according to CUSA’s levy and fee breakdown.
CUSA vice-president (finance) Folarin Odunayo said he contacted all organizations who receive a levy via email requesting a financial statement before distributing the levies.
“CUSA operates under an understanding with the university that we are dispersing the monies collected from students to groups that are operating in a financially responsible manner,” Odunayo said.
Sam Heaton, a board member at OPIRG-Carleton, called the request an “extraordinary demand.”
“We go above and beyond to show our financial accountability to students,” Heaton said.
Heaton said the request seems like an attempt from CUSA to “impose political control over organizations which are completely independent.”
“One of the biggest dangers is that if they try to impose these kinds of political controls and assert their authority on even just one or two groups to start with, pretty soon they’re going to be doing this to every other independent group on campus,” Heaton said.
Financial documents were also requested from the food collective, which manages the campus pay-what-you-can food service, the Garden Spot.
In an email, the collective said they have $34,000 in their bank account and a budget drafted for presentation at their January 2014 general meeting, but did not provide documents to CUSA.
CUSA has not granted the levy.
Odunayo said CUSA wants to make sure student groups are financially accountable.
“It’s good just to receive the money, but I also have to know that you’re responsible to the students,” Odunayo said. “I believe us operating in a financially responsible manner supercedes us just dispersing the money between that 10-day period.”
The OPIRG-CUSA fee agreement created in 1991 states CUSA will forward OPIRG-Carleton’s fees within 10 days of receiving them from the university. It makes no mention of financial oversight on the part of CUSA.
OPIRG-Carleton’s levy was called into question by CUSA in a referendum last year. A majority of students voted to maintain it.
Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) and Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario (CFS-O) have not received their levies for the 2012-13 or the 2013-14 school years, according to officials with each organization.
The CFS’ levy is $8.47, and CFS-O’s levy is $7.06, according to the CUSA website.
