The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) is cancelling the 2018 Ravens Gala, a year-end formal event, to cover the cost of the upcoming byelection. The gala was a campaign promise in the 2017 CUSA election by current vice-president (student life) Abdullah Jaber.
According to CUSA president Zameer Masjedee, no money was allocated in CUSA’s 2017-18 budget for a byelection, because the organization did not foresee the cost. The 2018 election was the first year a byelection resulted because ‘no confidence’ received a majority vote in three executive positions.
Jaber said he’s disappointed that the gala—the last of his campaign promises to be completed—will be cancelled.
“I feel incomplete,” he said. “It kind of sucks that I have to be the one to make the sacrifice of one of [my] campaign promises.”
However, he said cancelling the gala is in the best interest to save students’ money.
“The costs associated with the [byelection] are very expensive, therefore the organization will take a hit, and it wouldn’t be feasible for the student body for us to actually run another large-scale event that actually costs a lot of money,” Jaber said. “I was really excited to throw it, but unfortunately, we can’t overspend whatsoever.”
Masjedee said CUSA is budgeting $4,500 for the byelection, but the cost could vary depending on how many people run in the election.
He said every candidate is eligible to receive compensation for the cost of half their campaign materials, up to $225. He also said he expects to see an increase in candidates for the byelection considering students’ concerns over the lack of candidates in the previous election.
“[The $4,500] is an estimate based on how many people will need to be reimbursed,” Masjedee said.
Other elections costs include poll clerks, the chief electoral officer and the deputy electoral officers’ salaries, and the expense of running the electoral system.
According to Masjedee, there was little choice as to where in the budget the money could be taken from.
“Usually when there is unaccounted expenses like this that come up, like the first place where money is taken from is from programming,” he continued. “The only other big event that we have is the Ravens [Gala].”
He said CUSA did consider hosting the gala with the money left in the budget.
However, with the cost of vendors, transportation, and food, Jaber said the costs of the gala would have been “in the thousands.”
“It costs a lot of money. At the end of the day, if [cancelling the gala] means that students are saving money, then absolutely, we’ll take that route,” he said.
According to a previous article in the Charlatan, last year’s Ravens Gala was cancelled due to poor ticket sales.
With the cancellation of this year’s gala, Jaber said he’s looking to add more programming at Oliver’s Pub & Patio. He also said he’s hoping to hear students’ suggestions about what kind of events they’d like to see before the end of the year within “the low hundreds range.”
“Whatever [students] do want, if it’s affordable, we can definitely do it,” Jaber said.
