RE: CUSA, time to get involved in more activism, July 28 – Aug 24, 2016
Canada’s best frosh week. Steve Aoki live. A hundred new clubs and societies. The Think, Engage, Change campaign. The Health and Wellness Centre. Life in Colour. What do these all have in common? Their success at Carleton University can be attributed to the value of an active, inclusive, and non-partisan students’ association.
However, this was not always the case.
When I arrived on campus in 2011, Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) was divisive and hyper-partisan. Executives presented students with literature instructing them how to vote in that October’s Ontario general election, and referendum questions were used to target clubs who presented opposing views on controversial issues such as the Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement.
As well, council meetings were routinely a hostile environment that made me embarrassed to attend Carleton.
This toxic culture of ensuring one voice spoke for all 26,000 undergraduates finally came to an end in 2012.
In April 2015, I along with the majority of my council colleagues passed a new policy to support freedom of expression through council, which reaffirmed our commitment to ensuring every students’ right to express themselves freely, within the limits of Canadian law, was respected on campus.
Councillor Charissa Feres, who wrote the opinion piece, rightfully points out that we have many service centres that are active with social justice causes on campus.
These centres are funded by CUSA and have a mandate to ensure the needs of often underrepresented groups are not only met, but given the opportunity to be visible and important members of the Carleton community.
However, it is the role of the executive and the association as a whole to represent all undergraduate students, which is best done by promoting areas that unite students, rather than taking positions on issues that not only divide our university, but our country and our world.
All Carleton full-time undergrads pay a levy of $42.86 per year to CUSA. Executives and councillors are to ensure that after four (or more) years at Carleton, every student can look back fondly at their university experience outside the classroom and use the skills they developed through extracurricular activities for the rest of their lives. CUSA organizes events and supports various groups because it understands that much of the learning at Carleton takes place outside of the classroom.
For those passionate about social justice, there are many clubs and levy groups who work alongside CUSA offering opportunities for advocacy. As well, they run several campaigns and awareness weeks to advocate for certain issues. By taking sides on political or social justice issues, they are inherently alienating the students on one side of the debate or another. Instead of being divisive, CUSA ensures all voices of Carleton students are heard.
By providing opportunities to all 26,000 Carleton students through cultural associations, competitive sports, sororities and fraternities, political engagement, social justice advocacy, networking opportunities, common interest groups, and many other extracurricular opportunities, CUSA is representing students from all backgrounds and experiences. That is a Carleton we can all be proud to attend.
