Since its founding in 1942, Carleton University has come a long way.

With over 24,000 full and part-time students, and more than 875 staff, the university has become nationally renowned for programs in journalism, public affairs, and high technology.

Although Carleton has been a role model in the academic sphere, it still has a long way to go regarding accessibility and student policies.

Everyone has felt despair when the O-train is out of service or when the stairs to Tory quad are treacherously coated with ice. Not to mention, Carleton’s sidewalks have been seriously neglected, making navigating campus extremely difficult for students and professors requiring higher accessibility.

With all the political push this year to change our sexual violence policy and the debate for women’s-only gym services, campus conversation has only proven Carleton’s need to update school policy to protect its students from issues of sexual violence and inaccessibility. With all of the student push for the university to step up and provide these common sense services on campus, the university needs to focus more on student issues and less on climbing Canada’s academic hierarchy. 

As a university that was supposedly founded to support the education of Ottawa’s youth suffering from the Depression, it seems that even after 75 years, there’s still room more improvement.