Imagine if you will, two people having dinner together. They both order, and when the bill comes, one person sees $120, and the other sees $45. You might think this is a bit bizarre, but not in the world of CUSA-nomics.
On Jan. 26, in the continuation of the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) emergency meeting, vice-president (finance) Karim Khamisa presented a budget that had been finalized only an hour and a half prior, and projected a deficit of roughly $120,000.
Now, how a students’ union can run a deficit is beyond me. It has no control over its own monetary supply or policy, no currency, and is not exposed to structural market fluctuations (except on the depreciation of its assets and the cost of its goods and services); in more simple terms, it’s not a country.
Nonetheless, the projection remained until president Obed Okyere took a look, was tossed a calculator, and through some trick of mathematics, brought the deficit down to a mere $45,000, despite increasing funding for service centres. Okyere and Khamisa had the same menu, the same bill, and managed to see a $75,000 difference: CUSA-nomics in action.
It’s one thing to estimate numbers, and to project numbers, but another thing entirely to deal with the practical implications of those numbers.
So, while CUSA collectively celebrates their $75,000 deficit reduction, and Okyere is lauded for his fiscal prudence, I would hope that someone might be a bit more forthcoming with a detailed plan, rather than mathematical trickery.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, CUSA’s budget for legal expenses ($268,000 according to Khamisa; $248,000 according to Okyere) is unreasonably high this year as a result of the infamous lawsuit involving one half of council seeking injunctive relief against the other.
But why are there only estimations still? Have the bills simply not come? And while this lawsuit might well have been undertaken for the “preservation of democracy,” why did the councillors removed from their seats not approach students and gain democratic legitimacy to undertake the lawsuit? Why were students never approached on the cost?
The legal settlement indicates that CUSA is responsible for paying for both parties’ legal fees. Vice-president (internal) Ariel Norman estimated this number to be about $200,000, which amounts to about $8 per student.
You spent $8 on this, and so did I. If CUSA wants to pay these fees, rather than deficit spending, wouldn’t it be more legitimate and accountable to approach students with the question of an $8 levy, especially when the argument in favour of the lawsuit predicates itself on accountability?
The world of CUSA-nomics is one where money that is not used to deliver services and not used to support students can be used without any question of accountability or legitimacy for what amounts to political games. Call it Parliament in the Unicentre.
Except that we would have said no. We would have wanted CUSA to get to work, to do the job we have given it, and for which our fees pay.
