Fahd Alhattab will lead a mixed slate going into the 2015-16 school year after his Your Carleton slate won every executive position except vice-president (student life) in the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) election Jan. 29.
The CUSA executive-elect is Alhattab as president, Craig Handy as vice-president (finance), Maddie Adams as vice-president (student issues), Frena Hailekiros as vice-president (student services), and Sofia Dala as vice-president (internal).
Sean Smith from the Change CUSA slate won the vice-president (student life) position over John Mesman with a 42-vote difference. Dala is the only incumbent executive.
Alhattab said he feels good about the election results.
“We killed it. We went out and worked hard,” he said. “Our motto was to not be outworked, to stay positive, to push forward.”
He said the election was “nerve-wracking” but exciting.
“We set a very strong vision and we really rallied behind our vision. We got students to rally behind our vision,” Alhattab said. “We have a goal and that’s how we’re going to move CUSA forward.”
The results for the vice-president (student life) position were “surprising” to the Your Carleton candidates, Alhattab said, with Mesman losing by such a slim margin.
“John Mesman was one of our strongest candidates . . . He’s a fantastic individual,” Alhattab said. “We know for a fact that no matter what would have happened through this election, he was going to be fine.”
“[Mesman] was happy for all of us. We were happy for him,” he added. “We know it was difficult. We came in as a team with a vision.”
While Smith was the only Change CUSA executive candidate to be elected, he said he and his slate are still thrilled.
“We feel that it is a victory,” Smith said. “This isn’t how we pictured it to come, but we know that we successfully changed CUSA.”
“It’s surreal,” he added. “It’s like I’m still dreaming and it hasn’t sunk in yet.”
Smith said he intends to work with the other executives on all their ideas, but not give up his slate’s platform.
“I’ll still stick by my own values and what I believed in from the beginning,” he said. “I just want what’s best for the student community.”
“I will not drink the purple Kool-Aid,” he added. “I plan to change CUSA, but with the co-operation of other CUSA execs.”
But Alhattab said the election was about building relationships and students rallied behind their vision.
“That’s our rallying cry,” he said. “I truly believe that all the executives that have been elected will be behind that rallying cry to really provide value for students.”
Votes were recounted manually by the CUSA elections team, according to Samantha Somerville, CUSA’s chief electoral officer. She said this was one of the closest races she has seen in her time at Carleton.
The new executive will represent students on CUSA from May 2015 until April 2016.
“We start May 1, but I say we already started this morning,” Alhattab said. “If I could get started working today, I would . . . We’ll be getting ready to make sure that this is one of the best years in CUSA history.”
