Carleton’s clubs and societies got less funding than requested from the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA).
Students and CUSA alike are desperate to increase the Clubs and Societies levy so that these groups can continue to thrive on campus. At their last meeting, CUSA passed a motion to put the increased levy forward as a referendum question.
Public affairs councillor Hailey Mahoney proposed adding a second question to the referendum that would instead ask students if they support slashing CUSA executives’ salaries by 15 per cent and forwarding the savings to clubs and societies.
It’s an appealing solution to slash executive salaries, but slashing CUSA executives’ salaries and forwarding the difference to clubs and societies is not a permanent solution. It may help reduce the strain on funding temporarily, but there needs to be a permanent change to CUSA’s levy system that will reflect the increasing number of clubs and societies on campus without taking money directly from executive salaries each year.
CUSA execs work full-time hours. Their salaries, which average out at around $33,000 each, are reasonable for an executive that handles a $2 million budget. The executives handling the budget have to be competitively and responsibly compensated.
Voting “yes” on the referendum to raising the Clubs and Societies levy, or at least offering a more realistic second option, is a better way to safeguard funding these groups on campus.
