Fahd Alhattab said he is used to being a leader. As one among six brothers and sisters, he grew up working with others, often by necessity. This, he said, is part of what will make him a good future leader for the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA), as he runs for president with the Your Carleton slate.
Alhattab, a fourth-year political science and economics student, is running with new names across the slate. Sofia Dala, who is the current vice-president (internal), will be running for re-election with Your Carleton.
Some of Your Carleton’s key campaign points include more buses coming to campus, longer library hours, and a renegotiated health care plan.
Alhattab said CUSA needs to take a more active role in OC Transpo negotiations, and wants to discuss a clause to get all OC Transpo route changes affecting campus approved by CUSA. They also want to get more buses on campus during “student peak hours,” when classes are ending.
Your Carleton is running with the support of the current CUSA administration, which ran under A Better Carleton (ABC) last year. Alhattab said despite similarities between the two slates and support from current CUSA administration, he would be starting fresh.
“It is without a doubt that they support our slate . . . Folarin [Odunayo] has been a huge supporter, they are helping with the campaign, and they are helping volunteer,” he said. “But after we step into office it is our show to run.”
Several key issues have plagued the CUSA administration in the past several years, most notably lawsuits and a poor relationship with the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) that resulted in the loss of its levy. Alhattab said he thinks reparation is possible through identifying common goals and working toward finding new connections.
“The first step is reaching out, and I think that it’s something that unfortunately we’ve not been able to do sometimes because of political ideology and sometimes because of bad blood,” he said. “I feel I’m very fresh to a lot of this, and I’m able to make those relationships, make those connections.”
To increase transparency, Alhattab said his administration will practise releasing monthly expense reports, and will make these reports available on the CUSA website.
“Financial statements are extremely important to the organization and we’re going to make sure that everything is released on time,” he said. “It is not going to be a complicated process to make these public report that are accessible to the members of CUSA.”
Alhattab said the Your Carleton slate aims to build on what came before, and to keep providing results to students.
“We’re a collective of 24,000 undergraduate students . . . and each one of our Carletons is different,” Alhattab said. “My Carleton is a Carleton that puts students first.”
