2020. A new year, and a new decade. As the Charlatan enters its 75th year as Carleton’s independent student newspaper, we look back at the big stories which impacted Carleton students in the past 10 years.
Carleton’s campus looks drastically different in 2010 then it does today. Construction projects piled up at the beginning of the decade, with extended delays in the building of Lennox and Addington, Canal Building and River Building–now known as Richcraft Hall, and projects like the new parking garage went over budget.
The hard hats wouldn’t be packed away for the rest of the decade, as Carleton constructed a new health sciences building, Advanced Research and Innovation in Smart Environments (ARISE) project, and began construction on the Nicol Building, tearing up the University Centre parking lot and creating accessibility problems for students on campus. Travelling on and off campus got some minor facelifts, with ticketing gates installed at the O-Train stops, and the Carleton University Student’s Association spent over $200,000 on a heated bus shelter with no doors.
Closing out the decade, University Drive was turned into a one-way road, causing havoc and grinding traffic delays leaving campus. Students will likely face greater delays when the O-Train Trillium line is closed for renovations for 16 months in April 2020, less than eight months after the new LRT line opened.
More closures occured as CUPE 2424 went on strike, with labs cancelled, and hours of availability cut at the library and at mental health services on campus. The strike would last for nearly a month. Campus life experienced further disruptions when university computer servers were hacked and held to ransom, with the hackers asking for two bitcoin to be paid out by the university. Difficulties with technology continued for campus security services, when an emergency alert was mistakenly sent out, warning students of an active attacker on campus. In response, Carleton published an action plan to deal with the aftermath of the incident, but students worried they wouldn’t be able to trust the system in the future.
Students’ concerns about CUSA grew as the decade progressed. CUSA lost a lawsuit for wrongfully rejecting an executive candidate’s application, and were later forced to hold its first ever byelection, after students voted no confidence for three executive positions. Later that year, CUSA lost the referendum vote they held on whether or not to defederate from the Canadian Federation of Students. CUSA and other student organizations were forced to adapt again when Ontario Premier Doug Ford, implemented the Student Choice Initiative, which impacted the budgets of student organizations across campus. But the 2015 executive team will go down in infamy for their “I’m Gunna Vote” music video ahead of the federal election, which Vice described as “the most embarrassing music video in Canadian history.”
The partying continued elsewhere, with a fraternity member at the University of Tennessee denying butt chugging allegations. There was more controversy as frosh leaders were dinged for wearing “F*** safe spaces” shirts at a party in Brewer Park. Pedro the Panda joined the party late at Carleton, when the football team was reinstated in 2013, but enjoyed four straight seasons at Carleton from 2014 to 2017.
Carleton students who were excited about cannabis legalization were left disappointed when smoking was banned on campus, with universities across the country following a similar pattern. Vibe ruined.
Finally, Carleton celebrated its 75th anniversary, with a year long schedule of events celebrating the school’s history.
Throughout the decade, we said goodbye to Dave Smart (kind of), River Building and Blue the therapy dog. Meanwhile Carleton welcomed a new fleet of therapy dogs, a new president and an extra 5,000 students per year than at the beginning of the decade.
For what’s to come in 2020 and beyond, read more in the Charlatan.
Featured image from file.
