The student voice is missing from Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA)’s current deliberation over democratic reform, although this responsibility does not fall exclusively on the student body.
In October, the CUSA democratic reform advisory committee released their drafted report with their findings and recommendations for CUSA council. The report was discussed during the October council meeting with the goal of implementation in time for the February executive and councillor elections.
While the committee has spent the last several months researching and interviewing witnesses and stakeholders, it is now in the hands of the student body to voice their support or concerns with the proposed structural changes.
When given the opportunity to speak directly with the committee through four virtual open forums, democratic reform committee chair Braeden Cain said three of the four forums did not see any student attendees.
The open forums were advertised on CUSA’s social media accounts. While this sparked a conversation on Reddit, the forums were not advertised or shared as much as they could have been.
While there has been an attempt from the committee and from CUSA itself to include the broader student body, CUSA needs to provide even more accessible information on how it functions through all its online platforms.
CUSA had the potential to inform and include the student body in its virtual forums, but the lack of student participation shows the reach was limited.
Students were also excluded from the last council meeting since CUSA members were unable to work the Facebook livestream. The video was uploaded to YouTube two days later but has not been shared on CUSA’s Facebook page at the time of publication.
As a result, CUSA and the democratic reform committee have narrowed their inclusion of students in the decision-making process. Only students who are already engaged with CUSA know how they can participate in the discussion.
Whether the lack of participation is due to skepticism or disinterest, it is CUSA’s responsibility to involve students in discussion and keep them up to date. This must be a priority as the committee steps back to let council make formal decisions about CUSA’s future.
Councillors should be engaging with their constituents and the committee should be working harder to include the broader student body if they want to change people’s perceptions of the association.
CUSA will not be able to gain the long-term trust of students, even with structural changes aimed to do so, if the association does not make changes to prioritize the voices of students.
Featured image from file.
