Carleton’s Board of Governors (BoG) approved the student fees for the 2015-16 school year during the last meeting of the academic year on April 28. All three student associations passed referendum questions this year.
The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) increased their levy by $1 to be used toward their student bursary fund, the Rideau River Residence Association increased their levy by $5 per semester, and graduate students voted to cancel the $25 unicentre levy and increase the Graduate Students’ Association’s (GSA) operational budget by the same amount.
The board approved all three referenda. However, Carleton’s administration is set to enter into discussions with the GSA over the unicentre levy referendum due to an agreement signed by the two parties in 1999, according to Duncan Watt, Carleton’s vice-president (finance and administration).
Watt said the 1999 agreement between the administration and the GSA states that a portion of the graduate unicentre levy is to be allocated for the payment of clubs and societies and service centres, which are currently operated and funded by CUSA.
He added the recent GSA referendum still needs to take into account the agreement regarding the unicentre levy between the university and the association.
“In order to work around [the agreement], the GSA held a referendum where 13 per cent of the graduate students voted in favour of cancelling the unicentre fee and increasing the graduate levy by an equal amount,” Watt said.
“That doesn’t seem fair to CUSA at all,” he said. “CUSA is still operating clubs and societies and service centres.”
Michael Bueckert, the GSA’s vice-president (academic) and president-elect, said the GSA referendum terminates the 1999 agreement with the cancellation of the unicentre fee.
“There is no unicentre fee, so the 1999 agreement does not reference anything,” Bueckert said. He added the administration cannot pose restrictions on the GSA’s operating levy due to another agreement made between the association and the university in 2010.
Bueckert said the GSA is currently developing a legal response to the administration.
“This represents a significant attack on the independence and autonomy of the GSA as a student union,” Bueckert said. “What the university is doing is violating its contract with the GSA. What is the point of having a contract if the university is simply going to disrespect it?”
Watt said though the GSA is entitled to take legal action, he thinks it would be “foolish” for the GSA to do this, calling it “an appalling waste of graduate student money.”
Bueckert said the cost of the legal action taken by the GSA will come directly from their operating budget, but it is important to enforce the contract between the university and the GSA and to defend the association’s independence.
“We believe that makes the legal costs necessary and appropriate,” Bueckert said. “We know that we have significant support in our membership to continue to fight this.”
Watt said the deadline for the GSA and the administration to reach an agreement regarding the recent referendum is June 30. He added CUSA and the GSA will enter into arbitration with the administration to reach a resolution if an agreement is not reached by the deadline.
“If [arbitration] is not concluded by the end of the summer then we will have to go back to the board and recommend we stop collecting this fee and then we refund it to graduate students,” Watt said.
CUSA president Folarin Odunayo said that under the 1999 agreement, the GSA is required to contribute to clubs and societies, service centres, and the cost of renting the atrium space.
“The [GSA] referendum states that the money should be collected, and the money will still be collected,” Odunayo said. “The university would just like that the original agreement to be respected, which is not the case.”
Bueckert said the GSA has promised to continue funding service centres operating under CUSA, but through their operating budget.
“We would rather [fund centres] directly rather than just dumping a whole bunch of money into CUSA’s operating budget without any actual transparency and accountability on how that money is being used.” Bueckert said.
He added CUSA has seen recent financial mismanagement and said there has been no accountability or transparency with the association.
“Our repeated attempts to get information on how they are spending that money are being constantly ignored,” he said.
Carleton’s administration is continuing to withhold the unicentre fee collected from graduate students in 2012-13, 2013-14, and 2014-15, according to Watt.
“We’ve been trying to mediate for the last four years a resolution between CUSA and the GSA around this fee,” Watt said. “We’ve said to GSA and CUSA to come to an agreement on how the money will be distributed between the two associations.”
But Bueckert said there are currently no discussions between the two associations regarding the withheld fees.
The lawsuit between the GSA and CUSA regarding the unpaid unicentre fees from the 2012-13 and 2013-14 academic years is still ongoing, according to Odunayo.
Odunayo said CUSA is still awaiting a response from the GSA regarding the lawsuit. However, Bueckert said the GSA already responded with a counter-proposal in February.
“We were advised by our legal counsel not to publicly talk about the contents of that proposal,” Bueckert said. “The ball is in CUSA’s court.”
