Rideau River Residence Association (RRRA) is helping Carleton clubs and societies with funding after many of them received less than they expected from the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA).
An increasing number of clubs and societies on campus each year means the same amount of CUSA funding is distributed to a growing number of groups. CUSA is holding a referendum in early December to increase the clubs and societies levy, but for now campus groups are working with less than half of the funding they requested from CUSA.
This is the first year RRRA has partnered with clubs and societies to help fund events.
“When I first came in as vice-president, my team and I wanted to make programming the big thing,” RRRA president Graham Pedregosa said.
“Clubs and societies are able to bring their campus membership and this residence membership together,” Pedregosa said.
Many clubs and societies events on campus take place in student association-owned locations such as RRRA’s Fenn Lounge, and CUSA’s Rooster’s Coffeehouse.
“We always try to make sure the programming is here on residence . . . so it is more accessible for residence students,” Pedregosa said. “Residence students will have discounts or they will be able to come [to events] for free.”
The Journalism Society is one of the clubs to receive funding from RRRA this semester.
Journalism Society (JSOC) president Rebecca Ricardo said a lot of societies were shocked to find out they would not be receiving the funds they requested.
“This year [JSOC] asked for the same amount as last year but we got a couple hundred dollars less than what we asked for,” Ricardo said.
According to Ricardo, the extra funding from RRRA has allowed JSOC to do more frequent and elaborate events.
CUSA president Fahd Alhattab said if the referendum question passes to increase the clubs and societies levy, there will be a huge increase in the amount and the quality of clubs and societies events overall.
Some of the other clubs and societies to receive funding from RRRA include the Sprott Business Society, Carleton Student Engineering Society, Womyn’s Centre, and the Aboriginal Student Service Centre.
