On Feb. 25 Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) vice-president (finance) Michael De Luca moved a motion at council to strike an ad hoc committee to discuss the possibility of funding Greek organizations on campus with CUSA money.
The committee was to consist of only the president, vice-president (internal), vice-president (finance), and vice-president (student life) of CUSA, the president of the Greek Council, and one representative from each of the 13 Greek organizations on campus. Although, Mr. De Luca rectified the makeup of the committee through an amendment at the council meeting, from the beginning it seemed to me as if decisions were already made and minds already made up. Mr. De Luca even admitted the motion was merely “symbolic.” But why the need for symbolism?
Perhaps the fact that Mr. De Luca recently announced his candidacy for the Carleton Board of Governors (BoG) is to blame. It seemed all too convenient that he would want to appeal to such a large group as the Greeks in the lead-up to this vote in mid-March. When I motioned to postpone the motion indefinitely, Mr. De Luca denied that his candidacy for the BoG had anything to do with it. However, he stated that he would be open to an amendment to postpone the motion until after the elections. When I agreed and met him halfway, he and his friends on council promptly voted it down. For me, this makes it seem like Mr. De Luca is using council as a tool to appeal to the very important Greek vote.
I value the work that Greek organizations do on our campus, particularly their charitable efforts for the community at large. However, if anyone thinks that the Greeks are seen as anything more than a giant voting bloc to the shrewd operatives behind the ABC political machine, they are sadly mistaken. Every single move made by this year’s executive seems to have been politically calculated and their strategy seems to have paid off in last month’s elections.
Beyond all of that is the issue of funding to Greek organizations. I don’t think they should receive funding from CUSA. If you compare them to other clubs there are two glaring problems. They do not have an open membership – they are exclusive. By that same token, their exclusivity rests partially on enormous membership fees – upwards of $600 for some, according to a source at the council meeting. To put them on the same playing field as clubs—which are open to everybody and charge membership fees in the range of $5 to $10—and make them compete for funding is simply not fair. There are much better things CUSA can and should spend its money on.
At the end of the day, the motion passed. And that’s fine—such is the democratic prerogative of council. When the issue comes back to council, there will be another debate. When pressed on the BoG issue, Mr. De Luca swore profusely while CUSA president Alexander Golovko threatened the Graduate Students’ Association representative by suggesting she would “lose her seat” in May. Such forms of bullying have no place at council or anywhere on our campus, especially not from people who we are paying upwards of $39,000 a year to do a job. That job is, plain and simple, to represent all students and not just a select group of their friends.
The only way to hold people to account is to ask the hard questions—it’s what I’ve done, and it’s what students both elected and unelected need to do more of moving forward whether on the issue of Greek funding or any other issue. The alternative is a Carleton we might not recognize in a few years’ time.
And is that really “A Better Carleton”? Only time will tell.
— Sean White,
CUSA public affairs councillor
