The Board of Governors (BoG) nominee election results have come in and Greg Owens has been selected as the undergraduate nominee for the 2016-2017 term, with 1,052 votes. He ran against Mona Shadid, who received 843 votes.
During the campaign period, students were not allowed to run on a platform or make election promises.
Both the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) and the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) took issue with changes made to rules regarding the campaigning process for graduate and undergraduate student representatives seeking nomination to the 2016/2017 Board of Governors.
“Running on a platform and making election promises imply that candidates wishing to be nominated as a Governor are pre-judging issues that might come before them as Members of the Board,” said university secretary Julie Caldwell via email.
“The role of students, staff and faculty on the Board of Governors is not like those in other campus elections–the Board is not an elected representative body, therefore campaigning on a platform is not relevant,” Caldwell added.
Michael Bueckert, GSA president, said he found the changes to be “troubling.”
“As of last year, candidates were allowed to speak much more freely about student issues and what they felt about them, and what they would do if they were elected,” Bueckert said. “Students aren’t able to have an informed vote, they are not able to ask legitimate questions or seek relevant info from the candidates.”
Bueckert added he had sent a letter to the university secretary expressing his concerns regarding the changes.
CUSA president Fahd Alhattab also took issue with the changes made to campaign rules.
“We wholeheartedly disagree with the Board’s move towards having students not campaign,” Alhattab said. “However, I think students will still be able to voice themselves and they’ll still be able to play a role in the Board that’s effective.”
Selected graduate and undergraduate candidates will be presented to the Board for consideration at a meeting on Jun. 28. Once ratified, they will serve for the upcoming Jul. 1-Jun. 30 board year.
“In the process of this election, there definitely were times where I felt that we were unnecessarily being blocked from expressing points of interest that we think the students would be interested in knowing about the candidates,” Owens said, speaking before election results were announced. “This isn’t necessarily an election as much as it is a popularity contest . . . because we are not able to express any views or opinions.”
Shadid said she did not see the campaigning restrictions as being wholly negative.
“I think mostly it’s a good thing overall,” Shadid said. “It makes the campaign process harder, but at the end of the day, I think it results in a more honest campaign.”
“I would have campaigned the same way [if allowed campaign points]—I just would have had more to say,” Shadid added.
Joanne Ostrajanskiy was selected as the graduate nominee with 142 votes, running against Rayed Badiuzzaman, who received 132 votes, and Jaimie Klachan, who received 124 votes.
Voter turnout showed an increase from previous years. Two thousand, five hundred and thirty-four eligible undergraduate students voted in this election, compared to 2,093 in 2015/2016 and 1125 in 2014/2015.
Five hundred and thirteen graduate students voted to elect a student governor for the 2016/2017 BoG term, up from 112 in 2014/2015. Data is not available for the 2015/2016 election.
“I’m not planning on going into [the position of Student Governor] with any type of bias, but that being said, I am a student. So my perspective automatically comes from that of a student,” Owens added.
