The Carleton Students General Assembly highlights the disenchantment students are experiencing with the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA), and rightly so. But trying to bypass CUSA isn’t the right solution.
Students have a legitimate reason to feel CUSA hasn’t been working for them, or effectively addressing their concerns. However, despite CUSA’s internal dysfunction, it continues to have the resources and clout a long-established and well-funded student union can be expected to have. These are resources that cannot be replicated overnight.
A large part of CUSA’s current ineffectiveness has been due to in-fighting and divisions. Students trying to break from CUSA and form parallel organizations are only going to further contribute to these divisions.
CUSA councillors’ main incentive to compromise, reach settlements and make decisions despite wildly diverging views has been the students who look up to CUSA for representation. If students no longer need CUSA, then CUSA no longer has any incentive to work.
Throughout the legal dispute and subsequent divided meetings, CUSA continued to fund student clubs, operate service centres and run important student businesses like Rooster’s and Oliver’s Pub. Even in a time of crisis, the union managed to meet many of its obligations, highlighting how big and resourceful CUSA actually is.
Besides, breaking from CUSA shows a divided face to the university administration, lowering the legitimacy of student representation in general. We play right into the arms of administrators who may not want to take students seriously.
CUSA needs to rebuild, but it cannot do so without the support and backing of its members.
