Students don’t hold enough voting power on the Board of Governors (BoG) in order to make a difference at Carleton University. Board meetings are meant to discuss and address high-level issues at the university to ensure effective resolutions, and without the student voice being heard to same degree as the decision-makers, these resolutions will not be reflective of the wants and needs of students.
Currently, four students sit on the board as student governors. The rest is made up of faculty members, staff, University Senate representatives, alumni, and 18 members from the community-at-large. That’s four out of 32 members of the highest decision-making body at Carleton, representing over 28,000 students. Considering how the BoG calls the shots on issues like tuition and academic policy, Carleton would do good by allocating more memberships to students.
Without appropriate representation on the board, the most important voices of the university go unheard. This also means that change on pressing student issues will be harder to obtain.
The BoG needs to make it a priority to ensure that students hold enough power on the board to reflect their representation at the university. Furthermore, students should continue to engage with the BoG to ensure every voice on campus is being heard, and no student is left out of the equation.
