A survey was sent to 5,000 undergraduate and graduate students asking them for feedback on the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA)’s proposed Student Union Building on Nov. 2.
“You have been selected to participate in the Student Union Building survey brought to you by the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) and the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) at Carleton University,” the body of the email read.
But the GSA said they did not agree to have their name included in the survey, or for the survey to be sent to graduate students, according to a post on the GSA’s website.
GSA president Debbie Owusu-Akyeeah said they responded after reading week that they would not be participating in CUSA’s survey and would do their own.
“We want to be very careful with how we are presenting the proposal for a Student Union Building, not only to our membership, but we think [to] the greater student body population,” she said.
She said she felt the survey was aimed mostly at undergraduate students, and she had issues with some of the questions included.
“We would probably use different wording that wasn’t [leading] questions, which we felt the survey had,” Owusu-Akyeeah said.
According to CUSA president Fahd Alhattab, the incident arose as a result of miscommunication between the two student unions during the developing stages of the survey.
“We had been developing the survey, we had sent it out to them for feedback,” Alhattab said. “They took a while to get back to us, gave some feedback, and we made some changes.”
“There was I think an email exchange that said ‘okay, it’s good, we’re going to do our own survey,’ ” Alhattab said.
According to Alhattab, the email was interpreted as saying the survey was good, and the GSA would also be sending out their own survey.
Following a response by the GSA to CUSA, Alhattab said Bruce Winer, assistant vice-president (institutional research and planning,) sent an e-mail to the graduate students who originally received the survey apologizing for the inconvenience.
According to Alhattab, all responses from graduate students were removed from the survey results.
The GSA statement also asks that Carleton “destroy any results” from the survey.
“I think it’s a bit drastic what they’re asking, you gotta be reasonable—we’re all trying to work together, we’re all trying to give the students what they want,” Alhattab said. “If the university wants to run a survey that surveys graduate students about a Student Union Building, the university has the right to do that. The results don’t belong to the [GSA].”
Sarah Wade-West, a first-year political economy graduate student, said she agrees the results should be erased.
“If there was no formal agreement made with the GSA [about the survey] then obviously they should repeal the data entered,” Wade-West said.
Taras Matkovsky, a second-year graduate student in political economy, said he thought the issue came down to a question of responsibility.
“I don’t know why they bothered sending us [graduate students] surveys if they’re not responsible for us to begin with,” Matkovsky said.
Owusu-Akyeeah said the GSA will soon take steps towards holding their own consultations and sending a survey out to graduate students about the Student Union Building.
— With files from Drew May
