Canada’s largest and oldest residence union is in major trouble. The Rideau River Residence Association can’t seem to be able to hold an election without a clear outcome. Students are quickly losing faith in the association.
In 2011, RRRA had to have a fresh election after irregularities in the counting process. In 2012, the results were delayed for a week while an investigation into an electoral violation went on. This year, a second election has been called again after a slate’s disqualification was overturned.
Clearly, the association’s electoral system is broken.
RRRA is a very important Carleton institution, having served residence students for more than 40 years. It runs businesses that provide jobs to students, it provides services to students, and it advocates on behalf of residence students and their unique needs.
But to represent its students, RRRA and its elected executives need to have credibility. A broken election system makes RRRA seem disorganized and unable to run its own affairs. How can they expect the university administration to take them seriously?
RRRA needs to take a long, hard look at the way it runs its election and see how they can streamline them. It needs to bring in outside, independent overseers. They could ask the university administration— which has offered independent arbitrators to other organizations— for help. They could bring in the university ombudsman, an independent and impartial authority, to decide over contentious electoral violations.
The current system, filled with cronyism and an appeals process hindered by partisanship, is not working.
RRRA needs to clean up its act fast or they risk leaving residence students without an effective voice to advocate for them.
