The Rideau River Residence Association (RRRA) is facing significant challenges financially and logistically as it plans to hold its executive elections for the 2020-2021 term in June.
RRRA is under increased financial strain without budgeted income from Abstentions after the convenience store in Residence Commons closed on March 16. RRRA president Douglas Cochrane said the organization is currently unable to pay rent to the university for Abstentions and their office, also located in Residence Commons.
“The main concern for the executive currently . . . is the fact that the store has had to shut down,” Cochrane said, adding that another priority is holding the organization’s first ever online elections.
Cochrane said he planned to meet with Carleton’s director of student affairs and student life, Jeremy Brzozowski, and vice-president (students and enrolment) Suzanne Blanchard on Tuesday to work through a plan for paying rent and completing the elections.
“What that looks like, whether it’s carrying those payments into the next fiscal year in the idea that RRRA would repay that fee, just because obviously, right now, we cannot,” Cochrane said.
RRRA is also in the process of applying for financial assistance from the government to make outstanding payments for rent and Cochrane is unconcerned about the possibility of not receiving aid.
“We are confident about the steps being taken to move forward,” he wrote in an email. Concerns over paying Abstentions suppliers have been resolved, according to Cochrane.
Details of the election, including nomination, campaigning and voting periods, are still up in the air, but RRRA is working to finalize those plans with help from the university, according to Cochrane.
“This is unforeseen,” Cochrane said. “Nothing is confirmed at this point in time. It’s been kind of a week-by-week check-in and progress report with student affairs.”
Elections were previously scheduled for March 27. In a statement on March 23, the RRRA executive assumed all powers of council and declared the section of the organization’s electoral code requiring elections prior to March 31 invalid.
“June is a solidified deadline [to hold the election],” Cochrane said. He added that providing the next team of executives sufficient time to prepare for the 2020-21 school year is a priority.
He said that because RRRA is connected to the university, holding elections isn’t as easy as sending out a Google Form — Carleton’s confidentiality act prohibits hosting school emails on American-based web servers.
The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) hosted its online election on carleton.ca in January. The Carleton Academic Student Government (CASG) was also able to hold its elections online because it deals with a smaller population of students.
With some institutions beginning to shift online in September and Carleton’s “Scenario Planning Working Group” recommending the school “prepare for the likelihood that courses and programs for Fall 2020 will be delivered online,” the future of RRRA remains in flux.
“If there is no face-to-face instruction, and there are no students living in residence — that’s something we don’t have a solidified plan for yet,” Cochrane said. “At the end of the day, my goal is to have a structure in place for the new executive, regardless.”
Cochrane said the current executive team — including vice-president (administration) Lina Ceron and vice-president (programming) Jaden Slawter — is not receiving any of the executive benefits, including compensation for room and board, course credits or a bi-weekly salary, since their contract expired on April 30.
The executive team plans to drive voter interaction and engagement through social media. While the possibility of fewer slates running — there were five in last year’s elections — and lower voter turnout exists, Cochrane is optimistic student involvement won’t suffer.
“There might be even more student involvement because students are constantly checking their emails as of right now,” he said. “I’m confident that we’ll have a good number of people interested in running and people coming out to vote.”
RRRA plans to hold a forum for candidates, as stipulated in the association’s electoral code, though no date has been set by RRRA administration.
Featured image from file.
