A new group of students will come in and fill Carleton’s student unions with fresh faces, fresh ideas, and new personalities. However, that’s not exactly what has happened. All three of Carleton’s student government bodies, the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA), the Rideau River Residence Association (RRRA), and the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA), have at least one of this previous year’s executives coming back for round two.
CUSA is led by Zameer Masjedee, last year’s vice-president (student life), RRRA’s president is Hyder Naqvi, just like last year, the GSA’s president, Eric Hitsman, is the former vice-president (operations), and there are other vice-presidents who decided to stay on for a second term. There’s a precedent for this, too. Past CUSA presidents have served more than one term, including Fahd Alhattab and Alexander Golovko, who both served two consecutive terms.
While experience is a good thing—with lots to be said for institutional memory—normal students progress each year and so should their student union executives. The jobs are paid, and it shouldn’t be possible to have a career in student politics. University is about growth and moving forward. This isn’t possible if student governments are stagnant with the same people doing the same jobs year after year. For this reason, Carleton’s student governments shouldn’t let people run for the same executive position if they’re the incumbent.
A one-year term limit on executive positions would allow new people with new ideas to come in every year and shake things up. In the last CUSA election, there were an unprecedented number of students who voted “abstain” or “none of the above.” In the presidential election, the “no confidence” option received 1,019 votes. That was enough to beat two presidential candidates. This can only happen when candidates have a record students feel they can’t be confident in. Students want something different, which they aren’t getting from incumbents who run for re-election on recycled ideas.
For example, this year’s winning RRRA slate ran on the idea of replacing Mac Daddy’s in Oasis. While more food options are a good thing, Naqvi’s slate ran on the exact same idea in 2016. CUSA slates also suffer from recycled ideas. One Carleton, Masjedee’s winning CUSA slate, ran on trying to defederate from the Canadian Federation of Students. This idea has come up before as well, when Golovko tried to defederate from the CFS, which students voted against in a referendum.
In the long run, student unions would be doing themselves a favour by implementing a one-year term limit for their executives. People, especially students, get apathetic if they see the same people not changing anything and no way to change it year after year. Incumbent candidates also limit the ability of new students to get involved in the political process. It’s rare for an incumbent to lose an election, which was shown when the incumbent candidate won in every election this past school year. Student government exists to serve the students and represent them, not as a place for the elected executive to settle into a guaranteed job.
I believe everyone goes into student politics with good intentions, but it’s a tough job and egos exist. Term limits take ego out of the equation and will compel the people to try their absolute hardest to accomplish their promises in a set term.
Implementing executive term limits will be a challenge. It will require constitutional change from CUSA, RRRA, and the GSA, which is tough, but doable. Term limits will change the political culture at Carleton and keep things fresh with student leaders. It’s something worth trying for.
Photo credits: Trevor Swann
