The Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) has put an open letter online urging Carleton to do more to bring Syrian refugees to Canada. As of Nov. 18, the letter had 199 signatures.
The letter was written as a collective effort between the World University Service of Canada (WUSC), the GSA, the Carleton University Academic Staff Association, and the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 4600.
“What the letter calls for is for more institutional support,” GSA president Michael Bueckert said. “In addition to private fundraising, more things can be done for those students that are brought in through the WUSC program.”
Bueckert said the letter recommends waiving tuition and residence fees, as well as financing textbooks and school supplies for WUSC student refugees at Carleton.
“These are really sort of basic things the university could do fairly easily to provide funding so that when student refugees come here, they can afford to attend Carleton,” Bueckert said.
The Carleton administration and Carleton student associations are currently working on various projects to help fund initiatives to aid the crisis.
In September, Carleton collaborated with WUSC to raise money for a bursary for student refugees and raised $22,870 through Carleton’s crowdfunding platform FutureFunder. The administration is working with WUSC on the paperwork and funding for bringing more student refugees to Canada, according to Suzanne Blanchard, Carleton’s vice-president (student enrolment).
“Right now we’re looking at bringing one or two individuals in January if the paperwork and everything can be done,” Blanchard said. She added two more refugee students are set to come in September, with the possibility of an additional student coming as well.
Carleton president Roseann Runte said Carleton has had their refugee program for almost 20 years, and is one of the first universities to sponsor refugee students.
“We’ve done that every year where many other universities didn’t do that at all and they’re suddenly stepping it up,” Runte said.
The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) and the Rideau River Residence Association (RRRA) have also been working on projects to support bringing refugees to Carleton.
CUSA president Fahd Alhattab said CUSA will be committing money through its charity fund to the Refugee Sponsorship Support Program, a pro bono legal services program that helps people who want to sponsor refugees through the intense paperwork process.
“One of the biggest barriers they realized is that there are a lot of families here who would like to sponsor a Syrian refugee family over, but they don’t know how to do legal work and legal work costs money,” Alhattab said. “There’s already been half a million dollars of legal pro bono work provided in current sponsorship through these lawyers, and I think we’re tapping into the right process there.”
RRRA president Graham Pedregosa said the association will be hosting United for a Cause, a gala on Nov. 24, with all proceeds going towards helping Syrian refugees, in collaboration with UNICEF, OXFAM, and WUSC.
“There’s a diversity of ways these funds will help the cause,” Pedregosa said. He added the proceeds from the gala will fund various initiatives to help Syrian refugees.
Although Runte said helping Syrian refugees is a very serious issue, she added there are many issues worldwide that beg for attention.
“It’s really hard because there are Canadian students that don’t have enough money to finish their studies. There are First Nations and Aboriginal students that can’t get to university,” Runte said. “It would be nice if we can do more, but there’s a limit to what we can do.”
But Bueckert said he thinks helping the refugees is both timely and important.
“I think now more than ever, it’s important to have a public show of support, saying that we do support people who are fleeing conflict,” Bueckert said.
