The past month has made it clear that this year’s Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) executive will not work with the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS). But CUSA says it has no concrete plans to launch a campaign to pull out, or de-federate, from the CFS.
Over the summer and into the beginning of the school year CUSA has boycotted CFS meetings and campaigns. Most recently, CUSA sent out an email to the student support centres asking them to return any CFS posters, buttons and t-shirts to CUSA. Volunteers were asked to stop wearing CFS clothing. It was a strong move to pull back material students had already paid for and had begun using.
Vice-president (finance) Michael De Luca says the executive didn’t campaign in last year’s election on the promise to try to de-federate, so they won’t do it this year.
That’s fair, but they are doing practically everything else they can to distance themselves from the CFS. If they truly believe students are standing with them against the CFS, they should begin the de-federation process. If they don’t think students are behind them, they shouldn’t be taking away CFS materials.
De Luca did say defederation is a long-term goal, and that this year CUSA hopes to raise awareness against the CFS among students to put a future executive in a better position to leave. But every year, students pay out more than $300,000 to the CFS. The clock is ticking, and every second costs us money. If CUSA truly believes students’ money is being wasted, they should begin the process of leaving.
