After a complex and extensive debate that often engulfed campus politics, students overwhelmingly voted Monday and Tuesday to remove FundQi as an ancillary fee of $9.99 per semester.
In results announced Wednesday morning, 91.8 per cent of voters voted yes on the referendum. Only 370 votes, or 8.2 per cent, were cast to keep FundQi as an ancillary fee. There were 212 abstentions.
FundQi, a service that connects students to scholarships and other funding, was originally added as an ancillary fee after a referendum narrowly passed in January 2020. In that referendum, 3,907 students voted to add FundQi as an ancillary fee while 3,232 voted against it.
“Good call, Ravens,” said Matt Gagné, president of the Carleton Academic Student Government and president-elect of the Carleton University Students’ Association, in an Instagram story set to “Candle in the Wind” by Elton John.
Gagné had urged students to vote yes on the referendum.
A debate held March 7 between representatives of the yes and no vote committee centred on the issue of whether FundQi was effective at connecting students to funding and transparent enough about its financial data.
FundQi, founded by former Carleton student Zuberi Attard, faced stiff opposition throughout the fall 2020 semester.
A petition for a second referendum received roughly 250 signatures. CUSA council pressed FundQi representatives for transparency on its financial data and whether it has been effective at connecting students to funding.
Eventually, in a five-hour December meeting, CUSA council voted to hold a second referendum in March.
“We’re putting forward this motion to ensure that students get a fair referendum,” said CUSA councillor Cameron Davis at the time. “We’re not specifically anti-FundQi. We just want students to decide and truly have their voices heard.”
Even then, discussion over the referendum continued. The original question would have made FundQi a $9.99 per-semester opt-in fee, instead of a $9.99 per-semester opt-out fee, meaning students could choose to pay for it instead of being automatically enrolled and choosing to receive a refund.
FundQi representatives expressed concern that it would not be able to sustain its business model with only some students paying for the service. An initial attempt by FundQi to change the referendum question to make the service a $105 per-semester opt-in fee failed, but the question was eventually amended to its current form.
Because of changes to the referendum question, CUSA’s elections office delayed the election by one week. Voting was originally scheduled to be held March 2-3. Instead, it was held March 8-9.
FundQi COO Scott Braddon did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.
