The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA)’s January council meeting, held Jan. 13, eased councillors into the first council meeting of the decade with discussion of divestment, the upcoming FundQi referendum question, hosting an additional sexual violence workshop, and presenting last year’s audited budget.
Fossil fuel divestment
Following in the footsteps of other Canadian universities, CUSA executives said the organization will be finalizing their divestment from fossil fuels this year.
“Awaiting confirmation for Fossil Fuel Divestment” was listed as a project for the month ahead in Jacob Howell, CUSA vice-president (finance)’s, midterm report for council.
At the meeting, Howell said CUSA’s general manager, Travis Lindgren, has been keeping him informed of the organization’s stance on divestment.
“He [Lindgren] said that for the most part, it does look like we are pulled out of those, so he’s just awaiting final confirmation from our stockbroker,” Howell said.
Howell did not share a specific date with CUSA council at the meeting about when the final confirmation may be received or how much money was invested in fossil fuel.
FundQi referendum question
Ahead of the upcoming vote in the CUSA 2020 election, the organization passed a motion to amend the FundQi referendum question, asking students to pay a levy fee of $9.99 per semester for the service, that students will be voting on Jan. 29 and Jan. 30.
For just over a half-hour of the meeting, four CUSA executives and four councillors offered multiple clarifying amendments to the referendum question in order to make it easier for students to understand before the motion was passed.
President Lily Akagbosu said the wording of the question was especially important because of the neutral stance CUSA must take during the referendum.
“I think we’re trying to be super specific here which is important, but at the same time, you don’t want to confuse students or mislead them,” Akagbosu said.
“As much as you want to provide details about the service, you don’t want to overly influence people’s vote,” she said. “If you start saying things like ‘You can actually opt out,’ it’s almost like we’re giving them reasons why they have to vote in favour of FundQi.”
“We have to provide a neutral stance that simply states what the service actually does, without trying to show them why it’s a good idea or why it’s a flexible service.”
[Infographic by Jillian Piper]
Additional sexual violence workshop
Executive members of each Carleton University club and society must attend a workshop on preventing sexual violence, hosted on-campus by CUSA, in order to be deemed a CUSA-certified organization.
Although workshops were typically held multiple times in previous years, Farook Al-Muflehi, CUSA vice-president (internal), decided to hold one workshop this year to make scheduling easier for clubs and societies’ executives to plan.
At the January council meeting, Al-Muflehi said the sexual violence workshop had been completed, but due to the poor weather, another workshop will be held Jan. 26.
Presented last year’s audited budget
Immediately following the monthly council meeting, a CUSA Inc. meeting was held to present the audit of the 2018-19 CUSA budget, which passed the auditors’ requirements for a not-for-profit organization.
Lasting 19 minutes, CUSA vice-president (finance), Howell, presented the budget to council and explained several major budget lines.
Some major takeaways from the budget were that the organization’s operating deficit increased to approximately $486,000 in 2019, up from the deficit of approximately $185,000 in 2018. Overall 2019 CUSA costs also increased by roughly $70,000 from 2018.
The budget was passed unanimously by council.
Featured image by Spencer Colby.
