RRRA councillor election begins

The Rideau River Residence Association (RRRA) councillor election begins today.

Students living in residence can vote via a Housing and Residence Services email for their residence building’s RRRA councillors today. Students may vote for as many candidates as there are seats available in their house. 

There are 76 seats available to the candidates, distributed proportionally across Carleton’s 11 houses. 

Over the Sept. 13 to Sept. 17 nomination period, 25 students were nominated as councillor candidates. They started campaigning on Sept. 20 and wrapped up on Sept. 23. All the candidates will get a seat on council.

Councillors are elected to vote on residence-related decisions, including the budget for Abstentions – the campus convenience store, found on the second floor of Residence Commons – and other residence services.

RRRA has historically had a tough time reaching quorum, the minimum number of councillors needed to consider proceedings valid. Council has lowered quorum twice in the last two years: from 25 to 20 in December 2019, down to 18 councillors in early 2020. 

Despite these changes, not reaching quorum has caused a delay in budget presentations for two years in a row, violating bylaws and causing council to rely on leftover funds and Abstentions’ revenue for their budget.

Mira Gillis, RRRA’s vice president (administration), said the return of residence to near-full capacity will allow the association to complete its responsibilities.

“Since we have such an amount of students in residence, we know that we’ll be able to fulfill [quorum],” Gillis said. “The budget will be passed on time this year.”

According to Gillis, council will be holding their first meeting next week, followed by a second meeting in October, during which they intend to present and pass this year’s budget. Both meetings will be held on Zoom, in accordance with COVID-19 guidelines.

Here are the candidates:

Featured graphic by Sara Mizannojehdehi.