The Charlatan’s Candice So talked to Rideau River Residence Association (RRRA) vice-president (administration) Cameron McKenzie, who is the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) vice-president-elect (internal). He reflects on his involvement with student politics and his goals for next year as a CUSA executive.
This is an abridged version of the interview.
The Charlatan: You’ve been involved with RRRA, CUSA, the Board of Governors, and the Carleton Academic Student Government (CASG). What makes you want to be so heavily involved in student government?
Cameron McKenzie: I guess since my first year here at Carleton, one of the things that attracted me was, Feb. 7 at the time, the day of action regarding tuition fees — Drop Fees. I just find it’s really important to get students involved. I guess my time here at RRRA. First-year students can be involved with the residence association, getting them involved with different things.
I just think it’s really important to get involved with certain issues. Like it could be about sustainability or tuition fees. There are a lot of things that affect students. A main one, of course, is tuition fees. How we’ve seen over the years that the quality of education has continued to be eroded by lack of government funding. So I just believe in these things having a strong student voice out there, making sure student voices are heard.
TC: You mentioned that you had a strong passion for social work. Can you talk about that?
CM: The reason I came to Carleton is that they had this philosophy called “structural social work.” So it’s kind of looking at policies and structures within society, how they cause oppression. Let’s say someone is on Ontario Works or OSAP — how these kinds of barriers cause further problems for people who might be minorities or have financial issues where they can’t really get out of the system. So we could look at tuition fees with OSAP, where people usually graduate with $30,000 debts. Let’s say you want to start a family or buy a house or what not. They usually can’t because they have a debt. So all these kinds of issues that cause problems in our day-to-day society. I’m really interested in policies and how these cause oppression for many different groups, around Carleton or within Canada itself.
TC: What do you hope to accomplish next year as vice-president (internal) for CUSA?
CM: I guess some of the issues on the platform. Again, I think sustainability is really important for students advocating on different issues. Simple issues which fall into the portfolio are clubs and societies, things we need to fix and streamline some of the issues . . . but continuing to advocate for the universal bus pass.
Unfortunately what happened with the city, [is] it didn’t pass. So I think there’s other ways that we can work with other student associations, which can be exciting. Working with Ottawa U and also Algonquin, trying to work on a variety of different issues. One issue we can work together on is the universal bus pass, continuing to lobby city council. There’s totally strength in numbers, working with other student associations, getting students involved. To give you an example, our Nov. 5[Drop Fees] campaign, with Ottawa U, La Cité, Saint Paul’s and Algonquin for a bit, too. So I think it’s just mobilizing students on different issues.
I think Carleton itself, we need to do more in terms of sustainability. These are issues that we can work on with administration, get students to lobby and push for more issues that affect them. So, yeah, I’m really looking forward to next year, May 1.
TC: So I understand that you worked a lot with Meera Chander for RRRA. How will she be working with you next year for CUSA?
CM: She’s the vice-president of finance. We’ll have a pretty close relationship. Vice-President (internal) and vice-president of finance generally work closely together regarding the budget. For example, clubs and societies in terms of allocating different [amounts of] money for different clubs. . . . Meera and I work really well together so I’m really looking forward to working with her.
TC: You also mentioned that you have a lot of passion for diversity, and you were a facilitator for GLBTQ. What can you tell me about that?
CM: I was a program co-ordinator there for a year, which was great. Being someone who’s gay myself, I just got to see some of the barriers that the community faces. And what was great with working there was that you got to see other service centres on different collective issues. It could be the Food Centre or Foot Patrol . . . this whole idea of all the different service centres. . . . GLBTQ is bringing awareness, but also where you can also have fun. So bringing out different campaigns.
Some of the stuff we worked on was the blood donor issue, where for example, gay men can’t give their organs or blood to the Canadian Blood Services. So, advocating and lobbying against Canadian Blood Services. Or, broader issues too within the Carleton community.
We look at Carleton or any university as a diverse campus where you have lots of different diversity. It’s about colour of skin, sexual orientation, religion, it’s all working together on these different issues, making sure that different groups are represented such as minorities on campus.
Some things I think we need to continue to work on if we’re talking about religion is a dedicated prayer space, especially for the [Muslim Students’ Association] or different students. The space we have now is not adequate for different students’ needs. GLBTQ has a space which is wonderful. These are things we face, but different people over the years lobbied for space, like Aboriginal student space. . . . It’s about making sure we have space. That we have places where people feel comfortable to be in . . . having these campaigns and reflecting diversity here at Carleton.
[As vice-president (internal) next year] I look forward to working on different issues that don’t just fit the platform.
TC: What do you hope to do after graduation?
I hope to go on to a master’s in social work later on. I’m not sure in terms of what profession I want to do in the end, if it is social work or something else. But I’d really like to stay with something in the helping profession. Sometimes I’ve thought about law, but I’m not sure at this point.
TC: Between classes and all of these student groups, what activities do you enjoy in the spare time that remains to you?
CM: I guess I really enjoy being active. I love the outdoors, mountain-biking, kayaking. This summer I’m really looking forward to doing those activities. Also I’m a big car person, I love going to car shows and what not. But usually keeping active is something I like to do in my spare time. Ottawa’s a good city for that.
TC: Is there anything else you would like students to know?
CM: Students are generally here for four years. I think it’s really important to get involved on many different levels, maybe with a service centre or volunteering for different campaigns. I just think the whole idea of getting involved is: we’re here for a short time, these will be great memories after university and people should just make it the best they can. They should get out there and be involved. . . . It doesn’t have to be about elections, it could be about helping out, starting a club, volunteering — there’s tons of great clubs on campus, political clubs that do a lot of great things in the atrium. I just think that you’re here for four years, try to make the most of it.