The future of several Carleton student groups is uncertain with a referendum question asking students to cut the Ontario Public Interest and Research Group (OPIRG) Carleton’s $6.84 levy going to a vote this month.
OPIRG supports several other groups on campus that share its aims, like The Leveller and Cinema Politica. The referendum question has been brought forward by the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA), and targets the levy undergraduate students pay. OPIRG also receives a $3.34 levy from the graduate students.
CUSA arts and social sciences councillor Vanessa Chipi said she believes students should not be obligated to support OPIRG because she doesn’t think the group represents a diverse range of student opinions.
“They implement, endorse, or support very radical campaigns that are completely antithetical to a lot of students’ views,” she said.
Emma Slaney Gose, an OPIRG-Carleton board member said any group is welcome as long as the groups are committed to social and environmental justice. She admitted that OPIRG would not accept a group that supports the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
Brandon Wallingford, CUSA’s clubs and societies commissioner, took issue with the group’s lack of transparency.
“If you’re allowed to see [the budget] you have to go to the office to see it, they won’t send it to you . . . it’s very secretive,” Wallingford said.
Andy Crosby, OPIRG-Carleton’s finance and organizational development co-ordinator, rejected this notion.
“We have no qualms with sitting down with members to discuss financial or budgeting issue areas of concern to students. There is nothing secretive about any of OPIRG’s processes,” Crosby said via email.
Slaney Gose said she fears for the future of OPIRG’s groups.
“It’s clear [Clubs and Societies are] not going to fund groups like The Leveller. They’ve kicked Leveller reporters out of the office,” she said.
CUSA’s Clubs and Societies bylaws state no group receiving a student levy is eligible for funding. Last year, Wallingford said CUSA interpreted that to include groups that are supported by levy-funded organizations as well—like the groups that are supported by OPIRG-Carleton.
OPIRG allows students who disagree with its politics to opt out of the levy, but Chipi said that the process is long and difficult, with students having to acquire complex records. She said she believes most students aren’t willing to spend the time to get their money back.
However, Slaney Gose disagreed, saying OPIRG-Carleton staff were very accommodating to students and would often just ask them to pull up their schedules on a computer, to ensure that they were students.
Complicating the referendum issue is a 1991 contract between CUSA and OPIRG, in which both parties are obligated to consent to the question.
During a CUSA council meeting on March 2, Taylor Eby, a member of OPIRG-Carleton’s board of directors, said vice-president (finance) Michael De Luca had not met with OPIRG to discuss the referendum questions De Luca motivated.
“Since proper negotiations have not occurred, any referendum question established tonight will not be legally valid,” Eby said. “We have consulted extensively with a lawyer.”
De Luca said OPIRG-Carleton’s refusal of the referendum question would be indicative of a major conflict of interest, something he said he believes could negate the original contract.
“What it’s saying is that OPIRG has the right to forgo their $100,000 a year funding . . . to me, it’s in their interest to say no,” De Luca said.
CUSA chief electoral officer Sunny Cohen said OPIRG-Carleton had ample time to discuss the referendum questions at the Constitution and Policy committee meeting on Feb. 5 held for that purpose.
“I feel that the failure to raise this issue between Dec. 31 and now represents a failure on the part of OPIRG to act in good faith in regards to this election,” he said.
Slaney Gose responded by stating that none of the questions had been made available to OPIRG until the March 2 CUSA council meeting.
“Just submitting questions and asking us to approve them does not constitute discussion,” she said.
OPIRG-Carleton, which has been around since the 1980s, currently funds 12 interest groups at Carleton, including Students Against Israeli Apartheid, Books 2 Prisoners, and Carleton’s Cinema Politica.
In 1987 OPIRG petitioned Carleton’s administration to end their support of companies that enabled apartheid in South Africa, and in 1989 they were responsible for instituting paper recycling at Carleton, according to Slaney Gose.
