When Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) elections were held from March 24-25, Austin Miller won the position of vice-president (external) with 87 per cent of the vote – making him the winner of two elected seats on two different campus student associations. Austin Miller also won a seat on the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) council as a faculty representative for public affairs.
Confusion arose from this situation as a student can’t be both an undergraduate and graduate student, leading Lyle Skinner, competitor for the GSA executive, to contest Miller’s victory.
On March 26, Skinner sent a letter to the GSA council. Skinner contended that because Miller is currently an undergraduate student “by his own admission,” will not be a graduate student at the start of his term on May 1 and has not paid his membership dues to the GSA, he is ineligible to hold the position of vice president (external).
Skinner’s appeal was unanimously rejected by the GSA electoral board on the basis that Miller has already been accepted into the GSA and that undergraduate students who will be graduate students in the following term of office have held GSA positions in the past.
CUSA president Brittany Smyth also said that in past situations like this some have “decided not to return as a[n undergraduate] student,” in which case Miller would not pay his membership fees to CUSA and the position would no longer be his.
Miller said that when he ran for CUSA he “had no idea if [he] would be going to grad school or not.” Later, he received acceptance and decided to run for GSA as well.
Because he won that position, he has decided to resign his position on CUSA council.
He emphasized that he is dedicated to “greening our campus” and in his term is looking to install a green roof and gardens on top of some buildings at Carleton.
On April 3, the election results became official and ratified at a GSA council meeting.